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Kamil Galeev

@kamilkazani

Aug 6, 2022 • 11 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

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Kremlin has a problem. Since it didn't declare war, it can't jail the military who just refuse to go to fight to Ukraine. But senior officers can add bad remarks to their personal files. Like this:

"Inclined towards alcohol and drug abuse, towards theft and anal orgies"

Last remark about "anal orgies" is very illustrative. It's not so much about homophobia as a Westerner could presume as about the prison culture. Prison culture permeates society, especially the army, police and state security *far* deeper than foreigners would believe

Prison has very complex sexual code. First and most importantly, *active* homosexualism is okay. It's not even perceived as homosexualism, but as a way to reinforce the social hierarchy. Passive role though is shameful and is reserved for the non-touchable, the "cocks" (петухи)

To become a cock you need to be "moved down" (gang raped, usually). Now you become a non touchable. Nobody can touch you except for sex, otherwise they also become the ritually unclean (законтачиться). If they want to beat you, they should do it with legs, not by hands

Social hierarchy has a spatial dimension. The cocks get their own place in the prison canteen so that normal ones can avoid contact with them. They must sleep near the toilet, ideally on the floor. They get a special spoon with a hole, marking their outcast status

Why do I discuss a fringe topic so meticulously, you may ask? Because it is not fringe. Prison culture shapes the Russian public discourse. Consider Lavrov who "mocked" the French pointing out to their national symbol. A very witty observation, apparently

ria.ru/20220303/frant…

When Lavrov looks at the Gallic rooster, first thing he thinks about is a prison cock. Why? Because he is deeply influenced by the prison culture, as nearly 100% of the Russian ruling class. Prison culture defines their thinking and behaviour, they just can't think in other terms

Prison culture largely defines the modern Russia. You can't understand its discourse, its sociopolitical hierarchy, its economy, if you don't take into account the deep effect of prison values on how the Russian society works. Russian ruling elites think in prison terms, too

I strongly recommend this drama of 1989, "Беспредел". It's only in Russian but I hope someone will add the English subtitles. I will argue that you can't get how either Russian politics or economy work without understanding such basics as pictured here

Regarding the initial photo, I took its from a Telegram channel "Military ombudsman". Basically he is a lawyer who helps the Russian military to sue the higher ups or to defend from their lawsuits. Since February he seems to be buried under work. The end

t.me/military_ombud…

PS A political prisoner Ivan Astashin produced a very succinct but good description of the prison sexual code here. It's in Russian but you can google translate it. It gives good understanding about a system of values, set of taboos, etc

vk.com/@delo_abto-tur…

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More from @kamilkazani

Kamil Galeev

@kamilkazani

Jun 14

On Trump's birthday

Let's have a look at these four guys. Everything about them seems to be different. Religion. Ideology. Political regime. And yet, there is a common denominator uniting all:

Xi - 71 years old
Putin - 72 years old
Trump - 79 years old
Khamenei - 86 years old

Irrespectively of their political, ideological, religious and whatever differences, Russia, China, the United States, Iran are all governed by the old. Whatever regime, whatever government they have, it is the septuagenarians and octogenarians who have the final saying in it.

This fact is more consequential than it seems. To explain why, let me introduce the following idea:

Every society is a multiracial society, for every generation is a new race

Although we tend to imagine them as cohesive, all these countries are multigenerational -> multiracial

Read 7 tweets

Kamil Galeev

@kamilkazani

Jun 7

In 1927, when Trotsky was being expelled from the Boslhevik Party, the atmosphere was very and very heated. One cavalry commander met Stalin at the stairs and threatened to cut off his ears. He even pretended he is unsheathing he sabre to proceed

Stalin shut up and said nothing

Like obviously, everyone around could see Stalin is super angry. But he still said nothing and did nothing

Which brings us to an important point:

Nobody becomes powerful accidentally

If Joseph Stalin seized the absolute control over the Communist Party, and the Soviet Union, the most plausible explanation is that Joseph Stalin is exercising some extremely rare virtues, that almost nobody on the planet Earth is capable of

Highly virtuous man, almost to the impossible level

Read 7 tweets

Kamil Galeev

@kamilkazani

Jun 1

Growing up in Russia in the 1990s, I used to put America on a pedestal. It was not so much a conscious decision, as the admission of an objective fact of reality. It was the country of future, the country thinking about the future, and marching into the future.

And nothing reflected this better than the seething hatred it got from Russia, a country stuck in the past, whose imagination was fully preoccupied with the injuries of yesterday, and the phantasies of terrible revenge, usually in the form of nuclear strike.

Which, of course, projected weakness rather than strength

We will make a huuuuuuge bomb, and drop it onto your heads, and turn you into the radioactive dust, and you will die in agony, and we will be laughing and clapping our hands

An old man yelling at clouds

Read 9 tweets

Kamil Galeev

@kamilkazani

May 2

Fake jobs are completely normal & totally natural. The reason is: nobody understands what is happening and most certainly does not understand why. Like people, including the upper management have some idea of what is happening in an organisation, and this idea is usually wrong.

As they do not know and cannot know causal relations between the input and output, they just try to increase some sort of input, in a hope for a better output, but they do not really know which input to increase.

Insiders with deep & specific knowledge, on the other hand, may have a more clear & definite idea of what is happening, and even certain, non zero degree of understanding of causal links between the input and output

(what kind of input produces this kind of output)

Read 6 tweets

Kamil Galeev

@kamilkazani

Apr 12

There is a common argument that due process belongs only to citizens

Citizens deserve it, non citizens don’t

And, therefore, can be dealt with extrajudicially

That is a perfectly logical, internally consistent position

Now let’s think through its implications

IF citizens have the due process, and non-citizens don’t

THEN we have two parallel systems of justice

One slow, cumbersome, subject to open discussion and to appeal (due process)

Another swift, expedient, and subject neither to a discussion nor to an appeal (extrajudicial)

And the second one already encompasses tens of millions of non citizens living in the United States, legal and illegal, residents or not.

Now the question would be:

Which system is more convenient for those in power?

Well, the answer is obvious

Read 10 tweets

Kamil Galeev

@kamilkazani

Apr 5

I have recently read someone comparing Trump’s tariffs with collectivisation in the USSR. I think it is an interesting comparison. I don’t think it is exactly the same thing of course. But I indeed think that Stalin’s collectivisation offers an interesting metaphor, a perspective to think about

But let’s make a crash intro first

1. The thing you need to understand about the 1920s USSR is that it was an oligarchic regime. It was not strictly speaking, an autocracy. It was a power of few grandees, of the roughly equal rank.

2. Although Joseph Stalin established himself as the single most influential grandee by 1925, that did not make him a dictator. He was simply the most important guy out there. Otherwise, he was just one of a few. He was not yet the God Emperor he would become later.

Read 30 tweets

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