On Resistance and Cowardice

This week, Syinat Sultanalieva looks at why the people of Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan revolt against corrupt leaders - while the Russians so far are the cowardliest of all peoples.

BY SYINAT SULTANALIEVA

The Kyrgyz KGB (okay, okay, they’re called ГКНБ these days - State Committee on National Security - but really they’re successors to the Soviet-era KGB) recently uncovered a whole coup plot in Kyrgyzstan complete with arms, burner phones, a network of provocateurs, and a trashy spy novel-level action that was supposed to be the signal for the uprising. But thank god our brave 'chekisty' cut short the evil plan and the nation can sleep easily, undisturbed by any mass riots and such.

Except there’s a well-known and respected human rights defender, Rita Karasartova, behind bars now as a result of all this Santa Barbara-esque chicanery. Her ‘crime’? Publishing a letter from a civic activist on the run, Tilekmat Kurenov, addressed to his family, which he’d asked Karasartova to make public in case he disappeared. The man had been MIA since April 10, his family worried sick. What made this letter dangerous, one might ask? Well, apparently its publishing was supposed to be the signal for the uprising, according to our intrepid comrades over at GKNB. And the role of Kurenov - the man himself stuck in Dubai for several months unable to leave because his passport was stolen, and whom the GKNB finally confirmed to have extradited late evening on April 19? Well, he was at the heart of that network of coup-plotters. Or so the GKNB says.

The regime at the head of the Kyrgyz government might have good reasons to be paranoid and to see plots everywhere, even in an innocuous act such as the publishing of a letter - they have not really had the best interests of the Kyrgyz state and people in mind since their coming to power, to say the least.

And in a country with a history of uprisings and revolts (in 2005, 2010 and 2020) against authoritarians who often lose all sense of limits, it would be dumb not to predict another one brewing. The regime may be greedy and shameless, but they are not dumb.

The story is unfolding as I write, with possibly more co-conspirators to be “uncovered” in the coming days.

And while this is all distressing for the civil society of Kyrgyzstan, one thing in it all cannot be overlooked — the daring to try and overthrow a clearly malignant regime, even in the face of the ever-tightening grip of security forces on all the remaining liberties and freedoms in the country. Even if it’s all based on nothing and there wasn’t any coup in preparation, and this was yet another political masquerade to justify further ‘cleansing’ of the public arena - the heart of the matter is that an uprising is still very much a possibility in Kyrgyzstan.

The same goes for Ukraine, for Georgia. Hey, coincidentally, these are the countries that have had their share of revolutions since their independence. I’m sure there are tons of (okay, maybe just scores of) research into what unites these three countries in their feistiness and ability to stand up to wanna-be dictators. Whatever it is, these are the countries that still carry the torch of freedom, ready to recklessly spit in the face of an enemy ten times bigger and stronger.

None of this is a possibility in Russia (or till recently - in the USA, but I guess they have a bit more time to get fed up and decide to do something about it).

The Russians have failed to effect any change throughout all these years, although there have been some noteworthy attempts. But is it that they lacked the actual courage to go dakantsa (a Kyrgyz bastardization of the Russian “до конца” or “till the end”)? Or, as they say, was it more about the security apparatus in Russia being just ever so pervasive that it’s impossible to plot and carry out anything? Possibly. But it’s also true that for a country that’s had one monster of a leader for twenty-five years now, who’s carried out a number of crimes against his own people (Nord-Ost, Beslan, Nemtsov, remember those?) before we even go into his forever unforgivable deeds in Ukraine - this record is truly shameful.

But instead of doing something about him and his absolutely immoral regime, Russian people in their majority have either buried their heads in the sand, pretending nothing of import is happening - and minorities at either end of the spectrum becoming either Z-ombified patriots or running away from mobilization (and attempting to culturally re-colonize the former ‘Soviet brotherhood’ countries as the ever-so-progressive ‘relokanty’ bringing the light of Europe to the dark chthonic steppes and mountain. Like, I get it, you think you’re bringing the wonder of craft beer to us, but we had a local all female lesbian-owned craft beer bar seven years before you came around, tovarish.

Am I morally wrong though to despise Russians for their cowardice? I know many bright and great Russian activists, lawyers, journalists, bloggers, comedians, writers, directors, school students and retired people alike are serving time in prison for trying to do something about it. But it’s just not enough. Not. Enough. Do better. Organize, mobilize, and go till the end — even if it costs you your lives. Because the gods know your inability to go till the end has already cost hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, Georgian, and other lives.

Do something about it or go down in the history of humankind as the cowardliest of all peoples.

Syinat Sultanalieva is a human rights activist and researcher from Kyrgyzstan, who writes science fiction on the side when she’s not busy dissecting power structures and dynamics in the region and the world.

With Syinat, we are adding a voice from the other end of what used to be the Russian and later Soviet empire. A voice less old and less grumpy, we trust that you will enjoy her perspective.