May 21, 2014
Vladimir Putin
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Critics will complain of “quality of life” costs”for example, youth gangs who make certain areas into “no-go” zones, or the dramatic increase in stray animals wandering the streets that inevitably happens when rural nomadic folk are citified. There may also be complaints about these new arrivals working cheaply and thereby taking jobs away from native Ukrainians. But such problems will inevitably resolve themselves, as incoming community leaders discover the political process and use their newfound clout to facilitate social harmony. For instance, these leaders will insist on banning negative stereotypes in school textbooks, having schools celebrate their national holidays, outlawing pork stores in their neighborhoods, or sending the police to mandatory sensitivity training. They may also claim that their children are being unfairly disciplined in school, denied access to advanced classes, and forced to learn an “alien” culture. How can longtime residents possibly object to making newcomers welcome?
Examples of these transformations can be multiplied, but here’s my prediction regarding the future: The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry, and within a year or two, the native Ukrainians will demand that the new arrivals be returned home, or at least that their costly settlements be given to somebody else. Of course, kindhearted EU bureaucrats will denounce this “send them back” rhetoric as xenophobic right-wing Nazism, but locals will not be fooled.
Now for the bottom line. Putin, in an act of state-funded friendship, will agree to assume all responsibility for these crime infested, graffiti covered cities now verging on bankruptcy. And when the Ukrainian people calculate all the pluses and minuses, they”ll realize that Putin is right, so good riddance. Let him deal with the burgeoning filth and crime.
Putin will effortlessly solve the disorders he himself manufactured. All the Chechens, Turkmens, Uzbeks, and Roma will quietly (but forcefully) be rounded up and shipped elsewhere, and the process will begin anew. City by city, the old Soviet Union will reconstitute itself”but not under the aegis of Socialist claptrap like “workers of the world unite.” Conquest now occurs under the banner of free movement of all people, state benefits for all people, and, most powerfully, “diversity is our strength.” How could Obama possibly disagree? Who needs a thinly disguised Red Army battalion when a caravan of Roma will suffice?
