Ukraine (Mod Note & Threadbanned Users in OP)

A must read for anyone interested into Russian regime's mind. A long read, but excellent.

Essay by Sofi Oksanen. The author is a Finnish-Estonian writer. She deals with the history of the Baltics and has the status of an undesirable person in Russia.

Putin, the Kremlin Messiah

Russia has never tried to cope with its own madness, as the Germans did. The old demons live on in the East. And the war against Ukraine shows how easy it is to wake them up again at any time.

Vladimir Putin did not go crazy. He probably doesn't even have brain cancer, although people have been making these assumptions lately, and we've seen psychiatrists and salon psychologists in the news commenting on the mental state of the Russian dictator. However, similar speculation diverts attention from the fundamental fact that, from a domestic point of view, the tyrant's actions are a logical continuation of development.

People who read and listen Russian media perceive the current events as completely justified. According to Russian reports, their soldiers are liberating Ukraine from the yoke of the Nazi regime and saving the people of Donbas from the genocide perpetrated by the Ukrainians. According to Levada's independent analysis center, 68 percent of Russians view the "special operation" positively.

Why not, if they believe their boys are fighting for such a great thing. After all, most of them obtain information from state-controlled media. In the West, the rationale for the war sounds irrational, because no such genocide has occurred in Ukraine, and President Zelensky, who was elected in free elections, is himself a Jew. Under international law, there was no legitimate reason for the attack.

My mother and my grandparents lived in the Soviet Union, surrounded by similar lies, and that's why it all sounds familiar to me. These lies were quite problematic for my family because we were and are Estonians. When the Soviet occupation brought people from Russia to my grandparents' country, the newcomers called all the locals fascists as if it were a synonym for Estonians. In the Soviet world, Estonians were considered bandits and nationalists, just as Ukrainians are considered to be in the Russian media today.

When public authorities, educational institutions, the media and judges repeat the same lies for generations, they become a universally accepted truth. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia never made the same settlement with its past as the Germans, so the old ideas lived on. And it was easy to wake them up again so that Putin would create the enemy he needed to support his wars. The manipulation of Holocaust memories served the same purpose.

Test balloons over the Baltics

I experienced this strategy myself when Estonia became the target of a hybrid attack in 2007. We who wrote about the history of the occupation of the country had to get used to our images where were called Nazis and fascists circulating on the Internet, and the Putin’s people wore posters with our faces painted with swastikas and SS symbols at their meetings.

In Finland, the Putinists declared the end of the Estonian independence, denied mass deportations from the Soviet era, and organized anti-Estonian riots. In addition to actively using social media, they published books, organized discussions, and used a series of illustrations with references to the Holocaust, supplemented by barbed wire fences and prison barracks. As a result of this campaign, lies about the alleged Estonian apartheid policy spread internationally. Internet trolls have repeated the message in all forums that Estonia is building concentration camps for Russian-speaking people.

While Estonian and Finnish journalists stopped taking the claims of these demagogues seriously, the Russian media did not hesitate to interview them. At first, however, these lies found support in our own media, because the West did not yet understand what Russian disinformation campaigns looked like, and the Soviet narrative updated for the twenty-first century was not yet known to the Finns.

Putinists' actions have not yet been condemned, although denial of genocide and deportations in Estonia is comparable to Holocaust denial and Nazism is not part of Estonia's heritage. In interwar Estonia, the position of the Jews was good, although Estonia was also affected by the occupation of National Socialist Germany. The citizens of Norway, Denmark and France are probably the only ones who have historical experience with the occupation of their country by Hitler, but Putin's Russia does not call them fascist Nazis.

The test balloons that Russia sent to the Baltic states were used to test the reactions of Western countries. The abuse of genocide for political purposes in the West has only been a problem for those whose roots go back to Eastern Europe. Is it any wonder, then, that Putin assumed that similar lies would work in the case of Ukraine in 2022?

The West's indifference has led him to believe that the rhetoric used by its Russia is acceptable. At the end of February, Ukraine lodged a complaint with the International Court of Justice to hold Russia accountable for manipulating the memory of the Holocaust and for using it to justify its military attack.

Liberation Liturgy

While many in the West today may laugh at the Russian leadership's nonsensical claims, my relatives could not laugh at them because correcting state lies was a crime in the Soviet Union, just as it is now in Putin's Russia. In the Soviet Union, Estonian patriotism was counter-revolutionary and therefore criminal. Anyone arrested for these crimes could also be involuntarily placed to a psychiatric treatment with a diagnosis of "latent schizophrenia."

Promoting the independence of liquidated nations or using their symbols, such as flags, questioning the legitimacy of the Soviet occupation, or disseminating information about the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact could be a sufficient reason to commit a crime. The only form of patriotism considered normal was love of the Soviet Union. In Putin's propaganda, the patriotism of Ukrainians towards their own state, language and independence is something that the Messiah Putin must cure in order for them to become healthy members of the Slavic family again.

The designation of Ukrainians as nationalists is important to Putin's Russia, because this word has as negative a sound for the Russians as the word neo-Nazis in our country in the Nordic countries. Through derogatory naming, whole groups of people are deprived of their humanity, which facilitates their murder, the destruction of their homes or the occupation of their land; it is not a moral problem, because in fact it deserves such treatment. The root of persecution always lies in the fact that a certain group of people is deprived of humanity and is labelled as subhuman.

The sounding backstage for ethnic discrimination against Ukrainians can also be found in Russia's imperial past. Born in a Ukrainian-speaking family, Nikolai Gogol had to fight for the respect of his Russian colleagues. Two hundred years later, my Ukrainian-speaking friend's journalist's questions were answered as if they were asked by a fool at Russian-speaking press conferences, even though the same questions from people from the West were praised.

Russia's goal was certainly not to eradicate racism, and Russia has no tradition of attempting to do so. As such, the Soviet Union was officially anti-racist – racism was something that happened in the United States. However, the arrogant attitude of the noble race towards the Ukrainians may have benefited Ukraine in the war; it was not believed that they could put up any resistance at all. But the reality was different.

The messianic mission of Byzantine Russia was inherited by the Soviet Union, which justified the occupation of the Baltic states by claiming that it was liberating the Baltic from the fascist clutches, although the region's fate had already been sealed by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Liberation mythology was also used to strengthen the determination of soldiers on the Finnish border in 1939. In the Winter War, Finland was to be liberated from the power of white fascist usurpers.

And now Putin's Russia, which follows Stalin's war doctrines, uses the same liturgy of liberation. According to Stalin, a legitimate war does not seek conquest, but liberation. In the Soviet Union, due to the school curricula, generations were raised in the belief that if Russia is the aggressor or occupier, it is a fight for a just cause.

The Tsar's truth

In the 1990s, the curriculum for some time allowed for a more varied view of history, but Putin's era marked a return to a patriotic approach and the history curriculum tightened again. Questioning the official version of the Great Patriotic War became criminal, and in early March this year, the Russian Duma decided how it is allowed to write about the fighting in Ukraine. Using the words "war" or "attack" one faces fifteen years in prison. The media must also use only officially recognized sources.

Throughout the Soviet Union, the curriculum and oversight of the interpretation of history were meticulously unified. New propaganda images were constantly being created, and children had been gratefully handing flowers to members of the Soviet army for decades. When Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, many of the same genre of photographs appeared. No wonder Putin expected a similar reception in Ukraine, which led him to fall into the trap set by his own machinery: his own lies became true for him. This is exactly what happens when you listen to fake news for too long without referring to other sources.

Although the flow of information before the war was relatively free, it did not affect the perception of Ukraine by the Russians. The younger generation used the Internet as their primary source of news, but according to Levadov's Analytical Center, they all answered questions in the same way, regardless of age. So why does it seem that even the younger generation, which had access to free information before the war, does not question state propaganda?

If searching for information is dangerous and questioning prevailing views leads to problems, then only the bravest parents encourage their children to ask about inappropriate topics; and since school teaching is governed by the state line, this interviewing takes place exclusively at home.

The Western conception of truth is not a matter of course in a country where there has been a compulsory loss of memory, the state has adopted Soviet dogmas about reality and is trying to control people's thinking through laws on the interpretation of history. The teachings of Marxism-Leninism did not recognize objective or absolute truth. Everyone knew that the Soviet elections were not free. Nevertheless, everyone treated the election results as if they were objective facts.

So for most citizens, it is enough that the rationale for the war fits the familiar patterns and matches what the public wants to hear: Putin will restore Russia's lost glory while rescuing a few unfortunates from Western villains. Russia has been repeating this grand narrative in various forms since Putin began to control the media in the early days of his reign. The freer press and school curriculum in the 1990s were an anomaly in Russian history because the country had been under authoritarian rule for centuries. The Tsar is always right, and the opposition is either in prison or in exile.

Joseph Vissarionovich Superstar

Behind the stories that shape Russia's identity are layers from many historical eras, and their deconstruction requires more than Putin losing his power, because the state's authority and power structures are not dependent on a single leader.

Without changing these power structures, Russia will continue its expansionary actions. This could have been prevented if Russia's militant common memory had been able to confront the crimes of its own colonialism, but only a shrinking minority in Russia saw Stalin's crimes against humanity as a problem. Stalin became a superstar again.

When we think about for how long and to what extent the Western world has been dealing with its colonial past, it is easier to understand the extent to which such a thing would have to have in the case of Russia. It is much more likely that the Russian Federation will disintegrate itself before such a settlement with the past is possible.

I really dont know how to respond to this - they have the temerity to call the UNSC to order - so they can accuse Ukraine of the war crimes they have committed -

VILE

I'm giving my opinion here...Putin wasn't merely a member of the KGB, he was a Colonel i.e. high-ranking. It would be like if Dzerzhinsky or Zinoviev claimed to have become a Christian, it should be treated with extreme scepticism. Yes there have been warlike Christians, but they didn't usually spend the first three-quarters of their lives rising to become senior figures in Communist-atheist regimes.

I don't know what circles you move in but my experience is that some trad Catholics and Orthodox are in two minds or doubtful about what to believe re Putin, Orban etc so its worth pointing out. I do think the 'alternative' media is a factor in this and it doesn't just affect a certain kind of Yank Evangelical, not sure why you're so insistent about that.

I'm sure you think you know best but I'm going to give my own perspective here.

Just my gut instinct but I always felt any supposed religiosity on that man's part was either pure phoney or brain rot.

(Have no religious feelings myself if that has anything to do with my perception)

Otoh there may well be real evidence to show one way or the other as to the extent or genuineness of his religious beliefs,but I fo not know this.

Well, there are videos which were made after russians left but before ukrainian army arrived. No corpses on those. Also it took nearly 4 days for atrocities being "found" by ukrainians.

That is what other side is saying so it is quite possible that truth lies somewhere in the middle. There are a lot of dead people in the war and both sides will blame each other.

This war brought out pure evil on both sides and the longer it drags on the more evil we will see.

Ah yes.

It was the Ukrainians fault all along right?

There is numerous real time footage of Russian soldiers murdering civilians in this war. One incident a few weeks was shot by a drone where a car U turns upon seeing a tank hiding in a ditch only to be blocked by an SUV full of Russians and a man gets out with arms raised and is gunned down. His charred remains were found on the spot and filmed by the BBC this weekend along with the remains of his wife and child in the car right at the location where the drone footage from a few weeks ago was shot . What more evidence does one need. There was 20 or more other charred bodies found at the same stretch of highway. The tank was hiding in the ditch targeting cars fleeing Kyiv. The Russians are brutally targeting civilians. Ukrainians are not targeting Russian civilians because the war is in Ukraine and there are no Russian civilians there. So quit this both sides bullshit.

There were two sides in 2014 and after, BOTH created by the gremlin in the kremlin. There is only one evil not two sides. That evil is Putin and by extension the Russians.

In regards to comments made about both sides, atrocities staged by Ukraine, denazification, liberation or other such Kremlin talking points, in my opinion it is a perfectly cogent counter argument to trigger a rapid cranial acceleration event with secondary effects on the subject's cerebellum by direct mechanical stimulus of the opposing subject's rhino facial protrusion.

That happened before alright. 😅

A Green spokesperson was on the German radio station Deutschlandfunk and declared that coal stations will have to remain in service for longer but nuclear is not an option.

FWIW I kinda agree with him. The few nuclear stations that are still running don't make much of a dent and the ones that are offline can't just be turned on again by flicking a switch. You can tell he hated the idea, but knew there was no short-term alternative.

I am disappointed by Germany's reaction in many ways and pragmatism in a crisis doesn't always win you friends, but I can partially understand the decisions, even if I don't agree with them.

My personal preference in this crisis would be, shut down Russia completely, freeze everything, arrest Russian apparatschiks, deliver anything offensive and non-offensive that can be grabbed and put on a truck, train or plane and deploy "peacekeeping" troops NOW DAMMIT!

But I can also find some understanding where the government says that they can’t just take a sledgehammer to the economy. And I agree that there's a lot of different interests at play, not all of it entirely innocent.

Most of the times a compromise is nothing but a sh*t sandwich. There are new sanctions in the pipeline, let's hope they're serious.