Why do we feed spongers?

Massacres do not often occur in Moscow; however, the Sunday pogrom was not the first one of its kind. Therefore, people should have been used to such things, at least, the police. Perhaps, they are so used to them that they did not pay attention.

Our police can do many things, especially if we judge the police according to detective films or weekly TV programs the police prepare and sponsor. It was clear beforehand, that the fans would seek out the Japanese. The Tunisians were lucky, while Belgians must now wait for there turn. Therefore, the Sunday pogrom was a kind of a warning for them.

However, why did the police and OMON (special police units) allow the rioters to smash up not some market in the Tsaritsino District of Moscow, but the very center of the capital, even the very center of Russian authority, the State Duma?

I remember very well that, last year, during the Theater Festival, one needed only to hold out his hand to touch a policeman. The order was perfect. There were a lot of policemen, but why was the situation different this time? Why were they not prepared for the Sunday match, but monitors were set-up on the Manezhnya Square by the Moscow administration, which has always so well prepared for all the mass actions in Moscow?

I remember even better how the police dispersed a meeting of leftist youth on Pushkin Square; however, there was no necessity in it, but, at that time, a special order was given, so the OMON did its best. Why did these valiant fighters, however helpless against Chechens, do nothing against the soccer fans? Why do we keep these spongers by paying taxes, who specialize only in markets? There are at least as many as two regiments of these fighters in Moscow. And, you know, they do not look all that tired. Gennady Seleznev stated that the monitors had been a serious blunder of the Moscow authorities. However, it is not known to everyone that the State Duma building is guarded by Federal Guard Service (FSO) units round the clock. These units are under the authority of the leader of the Duma staff and personally to Gennady Seleznev.

However, if the FSO task is guarding the State Duma, what were these Sunday events if not an attack? Windows were broken even in the Duma chairman’s office, and cars were burned in the guarded parking place. For what else did these trained spongers wait? Why did they not go out to put down the crowds? In front of the Duma, one person was killed and one was injured.

Afterwards, the crowd moved to Lubyanka Street and repeated what it did at a distance of 300 meters. This next action was carried out just before the building that is a real symbol of State Security. And where were the ones called by their first chief Dzerzhinsky people with a hot heart and a cold brain? Were they at their dachas? Actually, they already showed their heroism in 1991, when before their very eyes, a crowd tore apart the Felix Dzerzhinsky monument. So what heroism could have been expected from them this Sunday? Further, a kind of miracle on the Ugra River took place (when in 1480, the Tatars went away without any obvious reason and Russia was once more rescued). This time, the crowd simply disappeared after having almost reached Staraya Square, the president's administration building, where nobody could protect this source of state power.

The pogrom-makers seemed to have executed an obligatory plan and dispersed. The last victim of the disorders was a beer kiosk on Novaya Square.

I wonder, will the taxes on the stolen beer be collected in full? At least, the Internal Ministry, Federal Guard Service, and Federal Security Service should be paid for their "services."

Anatoly Baranov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva

http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/09/42440.html