Chris Doss wrote:
>Actually this is a victory for the "state-service"
>"asphaly Cossack" wing of the Cossack leadership, as
>opposed to those who think Cossacks should hang out on
>their territory and have as much independence from the
>state as possible (this tension in kazachestvo goes
>back centuries, by the way -- between those that view
>themselves as servants of the state and those that
>view the state as an enemy -- probably due to their
>historic status as a group that received great
>freedoms BECAUSE they agreed to perform state service
>in exchange.
>
In other words, another smart move on Putin's part who gets to have his
cake (cossacks in state service) and to eat it too (the splitting of any
unified Cossack "nationalist-independent" movement.
Joanna