or to the Grutas park of Soviet sculptures. Will it be legal to play the Russian anthem before an official football match?
The Lithuanian political club clearly likes to display anti-Russian gestures; it looks impolite there to go against that flow. It is comparable to special pro-gun or anti-abortion rituals in the US. On the other hand, the political elite has to complain from time to time of populist successes - much of the public does not visibly embrace or long for Soviet times in any way, but here is much vacuum to express discontent with political and economic trends. Already a 'populist' president (Paksas) was elected and... impeached.
The sudden hastiness with the law shows economic interest from the business class, to my view. Corporate control of politics is pretty rampant in Lithuania, just as nihilism towards any "common interest". (Witness exceptional youth emigration, or lawsuits against the state for an elk hitting your car on late evening, or so) The "social-democratic" party (largely, descendant of the communist one) proved to be the most dedicated server of corporate interests. Social consequences are softer than in the "wild" Russia, but economic inequality (masked by latest credit innovations for a while) does not lag the US or any other "market". Inflation fever is already charging; workers' wages keep up well apparently, but that only gives an "explanation" to Friedmanian expert commentators.
The Soviet symbol law helps the corporate elites, as it obfuscates alternative social models. Just in time to counteract any new "leftish" creativity. There is even talk to ban references to Marx, Engels and Che Guevara...
By the way, will you write a diary on Lithuanian politics some day? What you wrote above raised my interest, and I don't think it could be a job more depressing that what I have to deal with when covering my wider region, from the Czech Republic to Romania. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
The equal treatment of extremists is still in the conditioning phase in Lithuania, to my opinion. More so than, say, in Estonia (which symmetrically banned swastika and hammer/sickle some time ago). The question is, how many parliamentarians fully knew (or cared) what equivocationist model they are following.
If I have time this month, I'll try to prepare a diary. But my view is not very standard; I'll have to check recognizably accepted hierarchies of facts.
