Czech Position, Information for FREE people
written by Tom Jones
Monday December 19, 2011
Neither Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, nor the country’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, nor Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has commented on the death of the first Czech President Václav Havel. In sharp contrast, Medvedev was quick to send his condolences to North Korea following news of the death of Kim Jong-il.
The independent Russian Radio Station Ekho Moskvy has reported that within an hour of the announcement that the Czech embassy in Moscow had opened a book of condolence for Václav Havel, over 30 people had arrived at the embassy and at 4:00 p.m., when the embassy was to officially close, many were still arriving. Czech ambassador to Russia Petr Kolař told Ekho Moskvy that many more are expected to pay their respects in writing at the embassy in the coming days as news spreads of the book of condolences at the embassy.
Russians pay tribute
“Most of those who came were of the older generation: they remember the Czech dissident, writer and politician from the events following the Prague Spring in 1968. Since that time, for many of our fellow citizens he was seen as a person who fought for the freedom of his country until the end, as 60-year-old Muscovite Anatoly, one of the first to arrive at the embassy, described Havel,” Ekho Moskvy reported.
The radio station said there were a number of well-known artists, filmmakers and writers who came to pay their respects.
In the Russian state-controlled media there was scant mention of Havel’s passing. Just 28 seconds of the evening news on Russia’s First Chanel (Pervyi kanal, 1tv.ru) were dedicated to the news of his death, while Rossiskaya Gazeta, the official daily of the Russian government, carried a few formal lines without any comment from public figures, Russian or foreign.
Démarche
Former head of protocol for the Russian president Vladimir Shevchenko told Ekho Moskvy that it is up to the Ministry of Foreign affairs whether or not the Russian president should express condolences on the passing of a current or former head of state.
Official Russia’s silence over Havel “appears to be a demarche,” Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor-in-chief of the magazine Russian in Global Politics told Ekho Moskvy.
In a comment published by Pravda.ru, historian and Bohemicist Vadim Trukhachev points out that Havel was a diehard critic of post-Soviet Russia, particularly following the coming to power of Putin in 2001, and that following his death Russo-Czech relations should improve.
“Vaclav Havel will go down in history as a complex and contradictory figure. He became a symbol of democracy and the struggle for freedom, but he was not able to get over [his] rusophobia and categorical rejection of communism,” Trukhachev wrote.
While Havel may not have been able to contemplate any potential attempt at implementing communism as workable and though he was remained a harsh critic of post-Soviet Russia, particularly under Putin regime — he reportedly refused to meet Putin when he visited the Czech Republic in March 2006 — it is highly spurious to label him a rusophobe.
Last commentary - for Russian opposition
Havel’s very last commentary was published in Novaya Gazeta on December 9 and concerned the situation in Russia following the disputed elections to the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament. In Monday’s edition of the independent Russian tri-weekly, the paper’s deputy editor Vitaly Yaroshevsky praises Havel for his unflagging interest and involvement in developments in Russian society.
“Literally in a few sentences he formulated a program of action for the Russian opposition. This person was detached from Russia and followed developments in our country from afar – [but] he very accurately sensed the situation and mood that has arisen in Russian society. In his last commentary he said the greatest threat to Russia today would be the apathy and indifference of citizens.
“He also called upon the people who led the huge masses of people onto the squares [of Russia’s cities] to do everything to ensure that people would be safe from the unaccountability of the Russian police and the authorities. … The passing of Václav Havel is not just a loss for Czechs: It’s a loss for us all because now it will be much harder for us to struggle with the complex circumstances within our country,” Yaroshevsky commented.
Revealing silence
As Czech Position commentator Jan Schineider has pointed out, there are some who surely welcomed Havel’s death; it appears those holding the reins of power in the Kremlin are among them.
By ignoring Havel’s death, Medvedev hasn’t done anything to improve Czech-Russian relations. Quite to the contrary – by many ordinary Czechs it will be seen as highly disrespectful. Once again the current Russian leadership has demonstrated that it’s concept of “managed democracy” – a term coined by the Kremlin’s chief propagandist, Vladislav Surkov — has nothing in common with the democratic ideals that brought people onto the streets of Prague 1989 – and in Moscow in 1991, 1993 and 2011.
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