Тег: Georgia

Georgia is closing

Two and a half years ago, I seriously considered Georgia as a suitable country to settle in and build a pleasant local ancap community around myself. All the sadder I am now to realize that Anton Epikhin was right when he conducted an analysis of where it would be easiest to start building a libertarian community, and ruled out Georgia.

Long ago, under the president before the last one, Georgia responded to Russian sanctions by opening its doors even wider for Russians, offering them the freedom to arrive, settle, purchase property, and start businesses. Now it is beginning to restrict political immigration, and even simple temporary entry into the country for those who publicly declare principles slightly more liberal than those of the current Georgian government.

Going to a country where a former president, who nominally stood on the side of freedom, is in prison is a stranger decision than going to a country where the president is in opposition to the prime minister, and both are desperately barking at each other, but there is no talk of imprisonments. Going to a country that does not allow political emigrants from Russia is a stranger decision than going to a country that does not extradite them to Russia. In essence, all that Georgia and Montenegro have in common today are the mountains, the sea, and the lack of direct flights from the RF.

I hope that those Russian libertarians who have already moved to Georgia manage to get out of the country before they suddenly decide to deport them to the RF. There are too few of us to waste people.

For my part, I can only promise that I will continue to build a convenient platform for receiving those who will come to us in Montelibero.

And yet, it was nice there…

And if you had a choice: to fight the state in the RF or in another country, what would you choose?

Andrey

I think I am cosmopolitan enough not to fixate on the RF: any state is unpleasant in any of its active manifestations. As I have already written, it seems to me that building an ancap society in a country where there is already quite little state and already exists a tradition of respect for private property and entrepreneurial initiative is significantly easier than where none of this exists. Building an ancap society as an immigrant is a more natural pursuit: for immigrants, it is natural to view the state as something incomprehensible and hostile, something to be avoided as much as possible. So, of course, I would like to move to some relatively free country and act there.

As a counterexample to such an approach, people usually cite modern Western feminists who fight for trivialities—in the opinion of many—while being completely unperturbed by the violation of women’s rights in, say, Arab countries. Yes, I would also prefer to dismantle Russia rather than Turkmenistan, and Georgia rather than Russia. An ancap society might grow from the ruins of a conditional Venezuela, but it would have to grow out of such shit that going there at that time would require one to be either a martyr or a god-given entrepreneur. Quite different is a carefully dismantled state in an already decent society. No aesthetics of the “wild nineties” for you; everything is free and with dignity.

In Russia now, among the protesters, the reverence for the law takes on a completely religious character. Yes, we know the laws are shit, but for the sake of saving our souls, we will follow them to the last letter; and if the authorities themselves violate their own laws, we will sue them in their own court, lose in three instances, and win in the ECHR. I admire the optimism and consistency of these guys. I myself am too impatient to mow the lawn of democracy for two hundred years only to end up with a social-democratic society, and then wonder what to do with such a deeply rooted state. Reverence for the law can be both good and bad. Better to have reverence for property rights and intolerance towards violations of such rights, even if it means violating current laws.

For me, the indicator of the success of civil society is not the size of rallies, not the number of opposition deputies in parliaments, and not the regular change of heads of state—but a reduction of the state budget by at least ten percent a year while people’s wealth grows at even more significant rates. In this regard, Georgia seems quite promising to me: the sprouts of freedom have taken root well here, the state is quite weak, and there is not much interference in earning money under the table.

Tomorrow I am gradually heading toward Russia, but I will definitely return here, and quite possibly for a long time.

Ode to Bitcoin

This morning I discovered something terrible: in a drunken haze last night, I had lost my wallet, which contained all my cash reserves and my bank card.

Alone. In a foreign country. One with which Russia doesn’t even have diplomatic relations.

Naturally, I had plenty of options.

  • Get married urgently and stay in Georgia
  • Walk home on foot, racing against a Yakut shaman
  • Organize a meet-and-greet with readers in Batumi and ask for a loan
  • Learn the phrase “madam, monsieur, I haven’t eaten for six days” in Georgian

But instead, I started investigating whether there were any crypto ATMs in Batumi. I found only one, but that was all I needed. From there, it was just a matter of technique.

Approach the crypto ATM
Tap the screen, the menu appears, select Withdraw Cash
Select the desired currency, which in my case definitely means Bitcoin
Check the rate, select the amount
The crypto ATM generates a QR code, the code is scanned by a bitcoin wallet on a smartphone, an outgoing transaction is created; you need to choose a higher fee so that the bits arrive quickly, otherwise you’ll be stuck waiting in front of the crypto ATM for a long time.

Then the crypto ATM prints a receipt with a certain redemption code and a notification that cash can be claimed after the first transaction confirmation. When the confirmation arrives, you can go back to the crypto ATM again.

Enter that same redemption code
And that’s it, the crypto ATM dispenses the coveted cash

That’s how I played the part of a blacklisted extremist, and consequently, someone without access to banking services. As is easy to see, Bitcoin is a great help in such extreme situations.

Value the freedom of maneuver that cryptocurrencies grant us! This is exactly what they were designed for.

An outside look at Russia and the protests

I won’t venture to judge the details of another round of protests in Russia that took place yesterday, but I am glad that it has increased in size, and it seems to me that either people have learned how to avoid detention, or the Moscow authorities are no longer daring to be so fierce. Either way, there are fewer detainees than a week ago, and no particularly mass cruelty is visible in the photos.

In Georgia, everyone I talk to, upon learning that I am from Russia, immediately asks what is happening in Moscow, from which it can be concluded that in the information space, the protest has long since overcome local boundaries. Moreover, this cannot be attributed to biased coverage of the situation by Georgian media: I was asked questions by tourists from Turkey, Romania, and the Netherlands. I should also note that I am not at some political conference here—all around are carefree vacationers; one would think they wouldn’t care.

Naturally, the sympathy of the global public is on the side of the protesters. However, it is equally on the side of the protesters in Hong Kong, the yellow vests, the Venezuelan opposition, and so on. When volunteers are on one side and salaried employees are on the other, people sympathize with the volunteers. Even regarding the events in Kyrgyzstan, where it seems to be a matter of “the toad and the viper,” the mere fact that people are ready to voluntarily stand up for the former president and fight for him against the authorities already tells people that the government probably shouldn’t have started this whole assault.

I am also constantly assured that I have nothing to fear, that the attitude toward Russians here is still just as friendly. To be honest, this sometimes looks like a mantra for self-convincing. Evidence to the contrary also turns up. I won’t say much, I’ll just provide a few photos.

Suggesting not to feel at home
Ruining good drawings because of the author’s Russian language
But there are also statements that any Russian patriot would sign

11th Anniversary of the Georgian War

I am currently in Georgia.

Yesterday I checked into a hotel, and in the evening we sat with the owner and chatted. He told me:

  • that the cursed Saakashvili started a war with Russia, caused a rift between two good countries, and they still haven’t been able to reconcile.
  • that under the cursed Saakashvili, the police killed and raped, and now, finally, they have stopped.
  • that in 2012, Saakashvili prepared to usurp power after losing the elections, but half of the special forces refused to fight the people, and the dictator had to leave.
  • that during the war with Russia, many officers abandoned their weapons because they did not want to fight for the regime, but wanted Georgia to become Russian; later they were imprisoned for 10 years, but were released under the new government.
  • that under the cursed Saakashvili, LGBT people became completely unrestrained and felt at home in an Orthodox country.
  • that this clown has no and never had popular support.

And then I watched a recent interview of Saakashvili with Alexey Romanov, and there Saakashvili says that Ivanishvili’s regime is illegitimate, he no longer has popular support, and decisive clashes between the regime and the people are about to begin.

What conclusion would I like to draw from all this? Value sociological data! As long as you are surrounded by your comrades, you are in an echo chamber. You have no idea how popular your views are in society, and when you decide to hold a rally or participate in elections, unpleasant surprises may await you. On the other hand, if conducting sociological research is for some reason impossible for you, then mass actions themselves become sociology for you. If you managed to bring tens of thousands of supporters to a rally — perhaps hundreds of thousands will vote for you. If you didn’t — then do not be deceived, work on recognition and fight the anti-rating (for example, by changing your leader).

As for the interview, watch it; it is actually mostly not about Georgia, but about Russia.

Donations and plans

I have updated the donations section on my website, adding several instructions on using cryptocurrencies, so as not to refer to scattered blog posts.

Also, something unexpected happened to me. When Siberia was covered in smog, I complained in the chat about headaches, throat problems, and sleep disturbances. The smog has eased now, but one of my readers suddenly decided to gift me a trip to the sea, so I will soon head to Armenia and Georgia for a couple of weeks. Such generous gestures are, of course, very overwhelming. But I will try to view the trip more as a business trip than a vacation, and from time to time, I’ll write something interesting in the channel.

Thank you for filling my life with such pleasant surprises!