Sonja Zekri on Russia's new dissidents

German journalist Sonja Zekri compares the old dissident scene in Russia with the "new dissidents." She determines that "today's subversion is not the culture of the heart, but rather of critical journalism." Zekri concludes: "The intelligentsia, which is the natural reservoir of dissidence, no longer exists. It was pulverized by everyday turbo-capitalism, in which intellectual pursuits are rewarded comparably to the work of Indian carpet knitters, estranged from a population that associates the word 'underground' only with the metro, and that knows Russian cuisine only as a designer interior... It is among the paradoxes of post-communism that the intelligentsia, which had fought so passionately against the regime, did not survive its demise."

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