Australian Cossacks Show Why Russia Is Successful Multi-Ethnic Society

By Moses Birch:Russia Insider

Watch and learn, Europeans, watch and learn.

As Europe grapples with the problem of “multiculturalism” and how to integrate and coexist with people from often dramatically different cultural backgrounds, perhaps Russia offers lessons on the matter.

Russia has never been an ethnically homogenous state but rather one of many ethnicities - close to 200 at the last count. Russia has always had a significant Muslim population, and peaceful coexistence between Muslim and non-Muslim has been the case for centuries. The trouble we see in the Caucasus of late is the result of outside agitation.

Indeed Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, the precursor to Moscow as Third Rome, was the longest-lasting empire in history, and for all this time was heavily multi-ethnic, even reflected in its emperors. So there must be a formula for successful coexistence.

The behavior of Australian cossacks in Sydney seems to provide a clue as to how to achieve this, previously touched upon by us here. And that appears to be a certain firmness, a certain willingness to nip troublesome behavior in the bud, and to do so in no uncertain terms. Simply, as this news story in The Sydney Morning Herald demonstrates, it appears to be a willingness to take no crap:

It is one way to get noticed – fronting up to a Sydney courthouse dressed in military uniforms saying you've brought a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

So on Thursday four members of Sydney's Cossack community, dressed in military garb went to Burwood Local Court to confront a man accused of destroying 50 Orthodox Christian graves at Sydney's Rookwood cemetery.

It was a move, the Russian nationalists said, to show their community is strong and they won't tolerate such cowardly acts.

"We want to make our presence here clear, our community doesn't tolerate this," one of the men, dressed in green fatigues with Russian military patches. "We want people to understand that the Russian community is a strong community and we won't have our heads in the sand."

So the lesson such examples may provide to Europe seems to be the following. You can achieve successful coexistence - if you’re willing to be firm and take no crap.

Source: