Mikhail Elizarov, writer, laureate of the Russian Booker award
– Internally, emotionally, I am on the side of those who turned out on Manezh Square. What we saw was an understandable result of the direction in which the current Russian state is taking us. As long as we are striving to build capitalism, we are bound to see such events. In order to avoid interethnic conflict we need to reject the current monstrous economic model. After all, our socialistic past shows us that life without interethnic conflict is possible. The current situation cannot be resolved through repressive measures alone, and in the future the resentment among the Russian population will only grow. But this precedent will be used by authorities to for their own political objectives, for example, for strengthening the repressive machine, turning the militia into the police.
As far as the issue of the Caucasus is concerned, the North Caucasus region de facto exists outside the legal system of the Russian Federation. As people have started to say, certain national particularities, national characteristics, can function as a sort of secondary law that exists in parallel with the law of the Russian Federation. For some reason we have begun to talk about Sharia law, which is discussed in the news. What kind of Sharia law can we be talking about? This criminal and doomed practice of promoting national peculiarities of course leads to a situation in which we have an uncontrolled portion of the passionary population that does not want to live by the laws of the Russian Federation, laws that are the same for all. And this will cause major problems.
People are trying to frame the current conflict as nationalist or even fascist. Of course, this event does not have anything to do with nationalism. This is simply a spontaneous, emotional wave of protest which erupted among a certain portion of young Russian society. This was a reflexive reaction to pain, and the Caucasus was just an irritating factor.
I think that this incident was a reaction to connivance when the criminals were let go.
Nikolai Baluev, boxer, actor
– The beatings that took place on Manezh Square are personally offensive to me. And this was not just offensive to me but also to the entire sports society in Russia, to all the fans in our country.
The death of Egor Sviridov was a horrible tragedy. I would like to express my sincere and profound condolences to the family and friends of Egor.
Unfortunately, your grief was used to justify the lowest and most despicable actions.
Sport is a strength that unites countries and nations. Sportsmanship is the highest expression of equality. The most important principle of sport is respect for your opponent.
What happened on Manezh Square has nothing to do with sports. Using someone else’s grief and hiding behind the flags of a sports club, the organizers planned and held a rotten nationalistic meeting, which nearly took several lives.
The events on Manezh Square evoked a storm in the sports world. I would repeat that the use of sports to mask their actions was an insult and challenge to the entire sports movement of Russia. I call upon all who share the principles of sportsmanship and are not indifferent to the sports movement not to be roused by these inciters and not allow yourselves to be provoked.
Right now we are obliged to keep our calm. We are also obliged to provide whatever help we can to investigate the events on Manezh Square. The monsters who organized the disorder and mass beatings that took place under sports banners must be punished, and this punishment must be by the law.
Elena Garevskaya,
newspaper Kultura, specially for Russkiymir.ru
