Epress.am News from Armenia
In Russia, there is “no familiarity with nationalism”; there are the hurt feelings of the Russian people, said leader of the Communist Party of Russia Gennady Zyuganov on air on Echo Moscow, commenting on the riots and attacks on “non-Russians” in Moscow and other Russian cities.
“For a thousand years, Russians have created a united state and suddenly found themselves 25 million short. The world’s largest divided nation today is Russia… Russians have lost the main types of production and work and no action has been taken against this. Russians, strictly speaking, cannot properly use the airwaves. I do not hear today the Russian writer [Valentin] Rasputin, a magnificent poet, bard [poet Mikhail] Nozhkin, I do not hear their voices…
“Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians make up 85% of our country’s residents, more than the French in France, the English in England. They why do they not pay heed to the interests and requirements of Russian culture, identity, ethics and so on?” asked the politician.
In response to the radio host’s comment that the Russian Constitution begins with the words “We are a multiethnic country,” Zyuganov said: “In Orlovshchina during World War II, 11,000 people perished daily. At that time, the soldiers were led by Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan, a talented Armenian commander. He commanded the Soviet troops. I came, he came, together we opened a monument to soldiers.
“He said, ‘Gennady, do you know the first question I asked the soldiers? My first question was how many Russians? If there were less than 50%, then the army wasn’t ready for combat.’ And they had no common language, common shoulder [to lean on], no common will or victory. He, being Armenian, understood that. Stalin drank the first toast ‘for the Russian people, who managed to gather everyone together and win’.”
Asked why the Communist Party did not support the rally which took place in Moscow against fascism, Zyuganov said they “held a thousand of such meetings.”