Unexpected events occurred in Russia last week, according to a report. Twelve members of Russia’s National Guard were among the victims. RosgvardiyaVladimir Putin gave orders for the paramilitary arms to visit Ukraine. They were refused. Learn more Rosgvardiya, what it does, and some of the drama going on within it in this post: Top General in Putin’s Personal Army Is Arrested by FSB.
In early February, officers in the force’s Krasnodar region were sent to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to take part in what their commanders told them was a military exercise. They were later given orders to travel to Ukraine which they considered illegal.
“None of them had a foreign passport with them, nor any intention to leave Russia as their direct official duties are limited to Russian territory,” Pavel Chikov, chair of Agora International Human Rights Group, said in a statement published on his Telegram channel Thursday.
Russian law would make it illegal to cross the Russian-Ukrainian frontier without having a valid document. Chikov stated that doing so as part a armed group is against Ukrainian law.
“None of the plaintiffs were informed about a business trip to Ukraine to participate in a special military operation or its tasks and conditions,” he added. “As a result, they did not give consent to it.”
It was the usual explanation that this led to a decline in morale among Russian security and military services. Yes, it does. It’s not all that simple. Kamil Galeev is a Wilson Center Fellow and a Galina Starovoitova Fellow. This tweetstorm was what struck me most about the story.
You can read it in full at this link.
Captain Farid Chitav and 11 his subordinates from Russian National Guard (Росгвардия) refused to go to Ukraine. They objected when their Krasnodar regiment was sent to Ukraine. They said that they don’t have a foreign passport and thus can’t cross Russian border legally
They said that crossing Russian border without a foreign passport (you need for travelling abroad) is illegal and constitutes a felony 322 УК РФ. Thus they can’t go. Was that what happened? All of them were fired. They are now suing for violating their order to fire them.
That’s very important case for understanding Russian state and well, almost any state in this world. When we are analysing its practices we often use imbecile, meaningless categories like “legal/illegal”. Let me introduce much better term – “procedural”
Practices of state, including the Putin’s state may not be legal. They can certainly break Russian law at every level. But that does *not* mean they’re random or chaotic. Nope. They’re very procedural, much more than regular people can imagine
We often describe Kafka’s works as absurdist. But they’re not absurdist at all. Kafka, a brilliant and highly skilled bureaucrat, was greatly respected by his superiors. His narratives were logical. Except it’s not human logic, it’s procedural logic, logic of a machine
Consider Stalin’s purges. They’re often described as illegal. Yes, Stalin’s state security broke Soviet laws on every level, constantly. But that doesn’t mean their actions were chaotic or fully capricious. Nope. Nope. They just followed the procedural logics of bureaucracy
What was the procedure of Stalin’s purges? To convict someone, you need to get a confession, “The Queen of all evidences” as Vyshynsky told. Once you have it you are free to do anything with the convict. But you still must get it, there’s no way around that. He has to confess.
This created a large grey area. State security usually couldn’t convict anyone without confession. This is why they will interpret it extremely broadly. If you say something (however innocent), they can qualify as a confession, you’re done. Don’t say anything, just keep quiet
A real case. A 1935 anonymous letter from NKVD stated that a number of Kazan University students were meeting for talks. They mock Stalin and Communism while others have a good time. Ofc all of them were arrested and interrogated – what did happen exactly?
This was not the guy who made fun of Stalin. The same was true for his friends. Nope, he’s a true Communist and would never mock Stalin, no way. Only two guys responded – yeah, he indeed mocked Stalin, we heard it. Guess what? They were both sent to prison, while others were freed.From a human perspective this doesn’t make sense. These were obviously two people who would be more open to NKVD cooperation and even betraying their friends. They were not punished. It makes perfect sense from a procedural standpoint. You need to get *anything* that passes for confessions
“I didn’t mock Stalin” – doesn’t pass for confession
“I never heard him mocking Stalin, he’s praising him every day” doesn’t pass
“Yes, he mocked Stalin all the time, he’s a traitor” – it is a confession. Just confessed that you heard the treasonous talk. To GULAG you go
Again from a standpoint of human logic that’s crazy. These two were jailed for listening to treasonous speech, but the other was released. Yeah, but he didn’t confess. They did not meet the procedural requirements. They were. All procedural requirements have been met. See GULAG
NOTE: You should NOT use human logic for bureaucratic procedures. “That doesn’t make sense, that’s crazy”, no, it’s you who are crazy. It’s insane to believe you are dealing with humans. Nope. It’s not.
Here’s another. The Great Purge began in 1937. Mass arrests were made. St Petersburg had one person who belonged hereditary. He knew he’d be arrested. And they’ll be extorting confession. While he may deny all, they have the power to torture him until his death. That’s suboptimal
He was smarter. He went to the store and broke a window that night. The man went in, took his valuables and waited to be arrested by police. They arrived and arrested him. He got 5 years of jail for robbing a store *as a regular criminal*. That’s how he survived the Great Purge
If he lived his regular life, he’d be arrested as a political criminal. That’s the end. They’d investigate him for more political crimes, adding more charges. He chose to go on a completely different path. Regular criminal track was so much better than a track of a spy/counterrevolutionary
Again that doesn’t make sense from a human perspective. If he did a robbery, why can’t he also be a spy? However, procedurally it is a good idea. Police are able to investigate ordinary criminals. Politicals – by state security. These two different tracks don’t mix
Or you can wait for state security to come and arrest you. You are then done. The other option is to go and do a regular criminal offense, then you will be taken into custody by regular police. This will allow you to be placed on regular criminal tracks and keep you safe in jail. NKVD won’t come for you, you’re saved
You must fully understand that you’re not dealing with humans but with a machine. It’s working procedurally, according to a certain algorithm which is ofc full of bugs. This can be exploited. That’s what constitutes much of difference between the poor and the rich in any country
The poor stupidly believe they’re dealing with humans. Thus they “follow the rules” and get f***ed. They may feel ashamed of following the rules, and may be proud that they did so. They will be punished.
The rich know they’re not dealing with humans but with a procedural mechanism. This can be and should be hackable. All you have to do is find the bug. They will look actively for it. A rich *will* demand a special treatment and make a case why he deserves it. It is often what they get.
Think about the Z-invasion. It was who sent them there. Children of imbecile, brainless bumpkins are sent there. If the law states that everyone must defend and serve the country in the Army, then who can I object to? They feed their children to Moloch.
Rich kids don’t get to the trenches no matter what is written in the law. Why? Well because smart people don’t give a f*** about the law. A smarter and more accomplished person will see the law not as a moral imperative but rather as an algorithm to hack. And they’ll figure out how to hack it
Let’s sum up. Analyzing human institutions is difficult when legality/illegality are used. Too much morality, too little substance. Procedurality is a better idea. Although policies may not be legally binding, they are nevertheless procedural. This makes them very easy to hack.
This is what smart, wealthy people know about the procedural nature human institutions. Thus when dealing with them they have only one question – how to hack them? They are actively looking for bugs, find them and get what they want, in the forms of “privileges” or special treatment
The poor, on the otherhand, don’t get it. They’re so stupid that they see not only human qualities but even a sort of moral authority in a soulless machine. Of course they get f***ed. That’s how it should be.
It is funny to see the Russian petty-aristocrat get himself detained for burglary to avoid the Gulag. But you have to wonder about how different the Russian society and government works, other than cosmetics. But, on the other hand, if you’ve been to a motor vehicles department recently, you may not wonder.
For instance, in 2019, the nation was jolted by the “scandal” involving college admissions. Celebrities, as well as other high-ranking individuals, were accused of bribing coaches and college admissions officers in order to get room for their kids. It wasn’t a case of giving a deserving kid a nudge forward. In one situation, a kid was given a full athletic scholarship for a sport in which they’d never participated. Galeev stated that only the parents were able to recognize the potential for rules hacking. I’d submit that if you examined the history of these people in detail, you’d find that this was not an anomaly; they got where they are—socially, professionally–by hacking the rules.
Political partisans are always outraged by the draft records of those politicians born during the Vietnam War. Which tours was Mitt Romney in Vietnam? Donald Trump is the same. Romney’s family knew enough to take advantage of a religious exemption. Trump’s had a tame doctor. George Bush and Dick Blumenthal were able to find places in the Guard or Reserve. Bill Clinton joined Army ROTC, and then fled for school in England. (To be clear, I don’t fault anyone who decided they did not want to be drafted and used the escape hatches available to them any more than I fault a person for using legitimate tax deductions to keep more of their money.) They didn’t have to go to Canada to make a political statement. They didn’t have to be at war. The truth is, the only ones who were drafted following World War II was those who did not allow it to happen. By the time Vietnam rolled around, the draft was so full of “hacks” that to get drafted meant you didn’t object to being drafted enough to take action to avoid it.
We are closer to the present, and we see the January 6 protesters who are held without bail in terrible conditions for minor offenses related to a protest against the obvious fraud committed in November 2020’s election. The lack-witted idiots from Portland and Seattle’s upper-middle and upper-class families aren’t punished for throwing Molotov cocktail at government buildings. It is strictly the result of the government (the machine) making mincemeat out of those who didn’t respect it while also giving permission to another group to whom they had agreed. This is almost identical to what happened with the Russian, who was charged more as an enemy than a burglar.
These facts should not come as a shock to anyone. Have you ever taken a course with an athlete from college, especially one of their top players? Do you think that the academic standards for college athletes are the same as those of you and other lesser mortals. Do you remember when high school’s star quarterback, homecoming queen, and cheerleading captain were allowed to skate on things that could have caused anyone else to be suspended? Most flag officers serving in the military are descendants of other flag officers. Back in the bad old days, the closer you got to the commanding general’s (or the CEO’s) suite, the more attractive the female employees. Do you believe Kamala Harris’s career was built on hard work, political talent and hard work? Haven’t you ever been told, “don’t fight city hall?” Have you ever witnessed “hot girl privilege” demolishing a bureaucracy?
I don’t know anything about the twelve interior security police who refused to go to Ukraine or their motives. You must understand their actions. They didn’t refuse to go out of protest, which would have landed them long prison sentences in places with very, very unpleasant climates and living conditions. They did not refuse to go out of loyalty and duty to the system. They didn’t have passports, and so it was illegal and improper for someone in their position to comply with the order to deploy to Ukraine…and get their asses shot off. Now they’re martyrs and suing to get their jobs back.
Our society may not be as corrupted as Russians, but this is due to our cultural resistance to paying bribes. It is not difficult to understand how we can be so different from them.
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