29 February 2004 13:46
Comment: Cristina Odones Diary: Dolls of hate:
THEY SAY THAT the sign of a civilised society is its treatment of minorities. By this reckoning, Russia under
Vladimir Putin remains a primitive outpost. This is the land where gays are systematically attacked, blacks face
constant police harassment (even African diplomats never venture out after dark), Jews must swallow a daily diet of
anti-Semitic slurs, and the mentally handicapped are shut away in horrific institutions. Still, nothing quite prepared
the New Statesman political correspondent John Kampfner for the Russian doll he found at the airport in Moscow. Made of
cheap wood and painted in garish colours, the 10ins doll portrays a grinning Saddam Hussein. Twist Saddam open, and
inside you find a second doll, this one with the likeness of Osama bin Laden painted on it. Twist that open, and you
reveal Colonel Gadaffi, who in turn encloses Yasser Arafat. Twist Arafat open, and the smallest doll of all emerges - on
which is painted a miniature Koran. Islamophobia in one small, perfectly formed package. Can the fatwa on Putin's
head be long in coming?
[The Observer] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
