2.7.2. Civic Nationalism Discourse

On the side of government, which serves as a representation of the Russian civic nationalism, the analysis will concentrate on statements made by Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Stegnii.

Dmitry Medvedev is, in some sort, a counterpart to Alexander Belov as he also assumes a high-ranking leadership in his respective camp - Medvedev was the President of Russia from 2008-2012 and has been working as the Prime Minister since 2012; needless to say, Medvedev is obviously one of the most important and well-known figures in modern Russian politics. Medvedev, apart from being the Prime Minister, also has a position of a chairman of the “United Russia” party which enjoys the status of a dominating political force in the country by having an absolute majority in the Russian Duma (238 out of 450 seats).

Its ideology is described as a “social conservatism” which distincts itself both from liberal democracy and socialism. h000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000Andrei Isaev, a member of the “United Russia” and a high-ranking official (Chairman of the Labor and Social Policy Committee) explains that “party’s ideology is based on an understanding of the role of Russia as a “family of free peoples” that would be a counterweight to the existing one-polar model; restoration of strong Russia is necessary because of increasing tensions between the West and Islam, what threatens to escalate into a global war; therefore, there is a need for the third force that would stabilize the situation and the special role here belongs to Russia as a country, where Christian and Islamic traditions can coexist peacefully” (n.d.).

Such ideology once again constructs a view of Russia being, a “unique, distinct and powerful” civilization that would play a role of mediator in the world affairs, however, apart from right-wing nationalists, the discourse is dominated by the emphasis on diversity as Russia is referred to be a “family of free peoples” as well on “peaceful coexistence”.

On the other hand, the reality shows that this theoretical concept of diversity is limited towards those groups who live on the territory of former USSR and hence, experienced direct Russian rule as well as influence of the Russian culture (the above mentioned citizenship law serves as a good proving example); consequently, Chinese immigrants, even despite the fact that Russian civic nationalism in the form of “United Russia” theoretically acknowledges the necessity of having a “family of free peoples”, do not fit into this “family” model. it all allows Russia being a mighty and significant country in the world.ious co0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Considering the above mentioned facts, it is possible to say that Medvedev, being the Prime Minister of the country as well as party’s leader, is likely to be affed facts, it is possible to say that Medvedev, being the Prime Minister of the country as well as pected by the values his party proposes. In 2012, while working on the matters of the Russian Pacific Fleet, Medvedev received a report from the Ministry of Defense that two nuclear submarines would be sent to Vladivostok (fleet’s base). In his response to the message, Medvedev pointed out that it was important to protect the vast Far East from “excessive expansion by bordering states”; he also added that there must be no “negative manifestations, including the formation of enclaves made up of foreign citizens” (Grove, 2012).

Eventually, such rhetoric constructs the factor of fear which civic nationalism has towards Chinese immigrants due to their “alien” culture that may potentially refuse to comply with Russian cultural and legal norms. Even though, Medvedev mentions multiple “bordering states”, in the context of Far East he really talks only about China as, apart from it, vast territory where and with Mongolia which has a vast territory where and a population of less than 3 million inhabita the Far East has land borders only with Kazakhstan which is Russia’s ally and one of the key members of Russian-dominated Customs Union; with Mongolia which has a vast territory and a population of less than 3 million inhabitants; and with North Korea which is a closed society where even internal migration is under restriction (Tanaka, 2008).

Incompatibility between the host population and Chinese is also emphasized by the word “enclave”, which constructs the state of separation and division of people, therefore meaning that the possibility of integration is not considered by Medvedev. This may cultural and legal norms,-ethnic relations and istability an civic nationalism and is regarded as unacceptable.0000000000immediately lead to complication of cross-ethnic relations and instability in the region, what would consequently weaken Russia’s positions and set up additional constraints on its quest of retaining the status of superpower. Obviously, such scenario totally contradicts the ideology of Russian civic nationalism.

Finally, these statements were made in the context of expansion of Russian military presence in the region what already speaks for itself in terms of how members of the government can potentially perceive Chinese immigration.d expansion of Russian military forces in the region what already speaks for

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f perceptions - more 0000000 ines, referring to the threat of "s with the pamphlet as such terms as 0000000000000000000000000ganization throughout its history and took over the leadership during 2008-2010. 00000amphlet, became true what eventually serves as an additional reason for Russian nationalists to base thion, to construct negative views of Chinese as of Rion when Russian feudal lords were fo virtually no choice foe, in order to have a complete understanding ionalism were explained above, one must understand that these lso exprVladimir Stegnii who is the former Vice-Governor of Primorskii Krai – administrative unit of the Far East that borders China and has the city of Vladivostok which, apart from being home to the Pacific Fleet, is also the most significant Russian port in the entire region. Being a local official, he possesses a great deal of information on the issue and presents rather interesting points.

In their paper, Alexeev & Hofstetter provided several statements made by Stegnii. The first one discussed China as the potential military threat to Russia: even though, Stegnii stated that “at present, we can destroy China 33 times”, he also warned: “in the future, the military balance will worsen for us. China has a lot of money that it can spend on the military. We cannot invest at the same rate” (Alexeev & Hofstetter, 2006; p.10). Even more interestingly, Stegnii also brought in the factor of Chinese nationalism: he argues that China, remaining under rule of the Communist Party accepts “Mao's view that 1.5 million hectares of territory stretching from Lake Baikal to the Pacific are China's 'Great Northern Virgin Lands' waiting to be developed some day by and for the Chinese people” (Alexeev & Hofstetter, 2006; p.13). His final point worth mentioning was that “as long as Chinese migrants would learn to abide Russian laws, rules and customs, they would not be a threat, no matter how many of them come” (Alexeev & Hofstetter, 2006; pp.31-32).

In the context of discourse, one can see that Stegnii, in many ways, reacts to immigration the same way Medvedev does, however, he raises his concerns in a much more explicit manner by saying that the “military balance will worsen in the future”, bringing in the notion of “shady future” as well as expressing fears about Russia’s inability to remain strong militarily, what raises concerns about the superpower status. Being a local official, Stegnii has a much more well-formed concept about Chinese nationalism as well, directly pointing to its potential hostility towards Russia as Chinese nationalism perceives a large chunk of current Russian territory as “Great Northern Virgin Lands” – if Russia loses political authority in the Far East, it will not only lose the opportunity of becoming a superpower but will completely deteriorate in its significance; virtually, this degradation of Russia is the greatest concern the government can have.

Contrary to Medvedev, however, Stegnii thinks that Chinese can be integrated into the “family of free people” and even mentions the necessary prerequisites such as learning Russian “rules, laws and customs”; he provides the civic interpretation of the term “Russian” as he primarily takes into account cultural affiliation rather than ethnicity what is definitely a very interesting finding which shows that there is an alternative way of seeing Chinese migration, transforming it from a “problem” into “opportunity”.