A march of Pegida in August 2015. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty
Many Potential Donbass-Like Field Commanders Across Former Soviet Space, Study Warns
Staunton, VA, August 13, 2016 – A new sociological study of the field commanders in the Donbass says that most are middle-aged males with diplomas from second-tier higher educational institutions, mid-range incomes who have been working in jobs for which they were not prepared and did not aspire.
What makes that finding important, the authors of the study say, is that there are a large number of people who fit that profile across the post-Soviet region, a pattern that makes the emergence of more such regional violence more rather than less likely almost regardless of what the governments of states there do.
Indeed, the characteristics of these people and their number recall the individuals and groups who formed the Freikorps among defeated German forces following the end of World War I, people who posed a serious threat to the political and social stability of many of the countries that emerged at that time.
The detailed, 17-page survey of the field commanders by sociologists A.N. Shcherbak, M.O. Komin and M.A. Sokolov is published in the current issue of the journal Politeia and is summarized by the Tolkovatel portal.
The three sociologists examined the biographies of 57 field commanders, about half of whom were on the Russian side and about half on the Ukrainian one. Their study highlights their age, education, employment history, and political activity prior to assuming their command positions.
The average age of the commanders was 40.6 years, with the youngest being 23 and the oldest 58. There is a statistically insignificant difference between Russian and Ukrainian commanders. Thirty of the 57 had higher educations, but only six received them from prestigious institutions. Most came from second- or third-tier institutions.
About one of four of the commanders had careers in military or law enforcement, with about one in five having been entrepreneurs and one in five having been political figures or public activists. Nearly half had experience in politics, but “none of them were in human rights, civic or democratic organizations.”
In reporting this, the Tolkovatel portal suggests that all this raises a logical question with enormous consequences for the future of the entire post-Soviet space: “what are the prospects for democratization if the main moving force of the [post-communist] transformation is not the middle class but the underprivileged who suffer from poverty, corruption, inequality and the lack of life chances?”
And as the portal adds, “as a rule,” such people have remained “outside the field of view of investigators of the change of regimes” in this region.
Kremlin Said Organizing Secret Military Units in Germany, Other Western Countries
Staunton, VA, April 13, 2016 – Germany’s Bild has published excerpts from a new book by Boris Reitschuster titled Putin’s Secret War that suggests that Moscow is organizing special military units inside Germany and other Western countries that the Kremlin could use to destabilize these states in the event of a crisis.
Although Reitschuster’s claims are disputed, one indication that they likely deserve to be taken seriously is that when his materials appeared in Bild on Monday, hackers immediately took down his email account.
According to Reitschuster, the units which have a membership of 300 in Germany alone are organized as sports clubs but are led by Russian GRU and military officers according to an order given by Vladimir Putin to create such diversionary groups in Germany and other countries of Europe.
Reitschuster says that this organization, known as “the System,” is a potentially important resource for Putin “in his secret war against the West.” Members of these units have exercises in the Swiss Alps and the Czech Republic and often go to Russia for advanced training.
According to the German publication, members of “the System” are “active in the ranks of right extremist sects, the right-wing radical movement European Patriots Against the Islamization of the West (Pegida), and in disinformation campaigns among Germans from Russia.”