What Russia Should Do with Ukraine
"What Russia Should Do with Ukraine" (
It was published on 3 April 2022 in the context of the ongoing
The article caused international criticism and outrage[3][7][8] and has been condemned as evidence of genocidal intent.[9][10][11]
Content
The article advocates for "brutal censorship" of the
The author insists that Ukraine's
The author claims that "most likely the majority" of Ukrainian civilians are "
He claims that Ukrainians must "assimilate the experience" of the war "as a historical lesson and atonement for [their] guilt". After the war, forced labor, imprisonment and the death penalty would be used as punishment. After that, the population would be "integrated" into "Russian civilization".[12] The author describes the planned actions as a "decolonization" of Ukraine.[13][14]
According to Anton Shekhovtsov, writing in Haaretz, the article is an expanded version of a 2016 article[16][17][18] by Russian columnist Alexander Zhuchkovsky,[19] who is linked to Russian Imperial Movement. In that article, Zhuchkovsky called for the dehumanization of Ukrainians, saying "It is natural and right, as we are fighting not against people but against enemies, [...] not against people but against Ukrainians."[20]
Author
The author of the text,
He was born in 1963.[22] He studied at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1980, where he was a student of Georgy Shchedrovitsky.[23][24]
In 1999, he worked for the presidential campaign of then incumbent Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. In September 2004, he was a consultant to Viktor Yanukovych. In 2010, he worked with Arseniy Yatsenyuk.[21] During Russia’s 2012 presidential elections, he worked as a consultant for Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and his party Right Cause.[25] In 2012, Sergeitsev co-produced the Russian feature film Match which was criticized for Ukrainophobia.[26] In 2014, it was banned on the territory of Ukraine as propaganda.[27][28]
According to
Reactions
Domestic reaction
On 26 April 2022, Putin's national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev said that "the Americans by using their proteges in Kyiv decided to create an antipode of our country, cynically choosing Ukraine for this, trying to divide an essentially single nation" and that "the result of the policy of the West and the Kyiv regime under its control can only be the disintegration of Ukraine into several states".[33]
International reactions
President of Ukraine
According to a representative of Ukraine at Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations
Cynically, the author speaks about Ukrainian Nazism. When we see exactly the opposite: Russia is mass murdering Ukrainians because of their national identity. What should I call it? I will answer straight away: it is genocide of the Ukrainian people by Russia.
The head of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs called the article "ordinary fascism".[35] Former Canadian ambassador to Ukraine Roman Waschuk said that "It's essentially a rhetorical 'licence to kill' Ukrainians."[3]
Legal
In Germany in April 2022, Bundestag deputy Thomas Heilmann filed a lawsuit with the Berlin prosecutor against the author of the article. According to Heilmann, the article may be a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.[36]
In Ukraine in May, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office opened a pre-trial investigation in the case.[37]
The death penalty is forbidden under Ukrainian law, and is subject to a moratorium in Russia, as of 2024[update].
Criticism
According to Mika Aaltola, director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, the article showed Russian war propaganda "developing in a worrying direction".[40]
According to Latvia-based Russian media Meduza, the article is "essentially a blueprint for the genocide" of Ukrainians.[13]
According to Oxford expert on Russian affairs Samuel Ramani, the article "represents mainstream Kremlin thinking".[30]
The American historian Timothy Snyder wrote that the text "advocates the elimination of the Ukrainian people as such".[41] He later noted that it uses a special definition of the word "Nazi": "a Nazi is a Ukrainian who refuses to admit being a Russian". In his opinion, the article reveals the genocidal intent of Russia.[5]
Slavoj Žižek wrote: "So, Russia plans to do with Ukraine what Bertolt Brecht describes in his 1953 poem "The Solution": dissolve the people and elect another. By reading Sergeytsev's mad ravings alongside Putin's claim that Lenin invented Ukraine, we can discern the current Russian position. Ukraine has two fathers: Lenin, who invented it, and Hitler, who inspired today's “ukronazis” to actualize Lenin's invention... Now, we are told that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Ukraine will be “decolonized” by way of... Russian colonization. Territories will be liberated against the will of their people (who will have to be re-educated or otherwise dissolved). If a new world war is to be avoided, it will be through a “hot peace,” with massive military investments sustaining a fragile new balance of power. The fragility of the situation stems not just from conflicting economic interests but also from conflicting interpretations of reality, which is not just about settling facts. But simply trying to prove that Russian claims are false misses the point made by Aleksandr Dugin, Putin's court philosopher: “Post-modernity shows that every so-called truth is a matter of believing. So we have our special Russian truth that you need to accept.” Faith, it seems, overrides knowledge. According to the “special Russian truth,” Russia's soldiers left behind no corpses of brutalized civilians in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities and towns; Western propagandists supposedly staged those atrocities. Given these circumstances, Westerners must stop proposing that Zelensky meet with Putin to negotiate a peace settlement... Any eventual negotiations will have to be conducted by lower-level bureaucrats. Putin and his inner circle are criminals who must be ignored as much as possible".[42]
Criticism by Françoise Thom
For the French emeritus lecturer in contemporary history and specialist in the Soviet Union, Françoise Thom, indicates that the exposed plan, far from being a simple war, aims in reality to carry out the liquidation of the Ukrainian nation by Russification of its population.[43]
She demonstrates that the territory of the ex-Ukraine state will be divided into popular republics on the models of Donetsk and Luhansk. The use of forced labour as indicated in the program means the re-establishment of the organisation of gulags on Ukrainian territory.[43]
She also analyzes in the first months of the invasion of Ukraine the different measures created as the episodes of mass terror, the systematic rape and detention of local political elites of the towns, deportation of women and children to Russia, the creation of filtration camps to filter Ukrainian people compatible with Russian ideology. She demonstrates that it is not a question of atrocities or exactions due to the Russian military, but on the contrary the deliberate implementation of a policy of re-education by terror of the Ukrainian people.[43]
Thom also writes that the creation of a Russian agency of denazification inside the global structure of the
She also underlines that the thesis supported by Timofeï Sergeïtsev according to which the "brother people" of Ukraine would be victims of oppression of a Nazi power installed in Kiev and supported by the West only asked to rise up as soon as Russia allegedly extending a helping hand is in truth belied by the facts and demonstrated by the reality of intense Ukrainian resistance.[43]
Finally, she analyzes that Timofei Sergeyitsev associates "Nazism" and "Europeanism". The parallel "de-Europeanization" of Ukraine and Russia is only a prologue, as Russian political scientist Vladimir Mojegov suggests, which is really aimed at all of Europe: "Our goal in Ukraine is not to displace the anti-Russian focus 1,000 km to the west, but to create on our western borders a bridge and a springboard towards a new Europe, not towards the current Europe of chaos and decadence, but towards the Europe of Tradition.[43]
See also
- "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", 2021 essay by Vladimir Putin
- "On conducting a special military operation", 2022 speech by Putin
- "Where have you been for eight years?" a phrase used during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- "Address concerning the events in Ukraine", 2022 speech by Putin
- All-Russian nation
- Russian imperialism
- Russian nationalism
- Ruscism
- Bucha massacre
- Allegations of genocide of Ukrainians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Krasovsky case
- RAM Plan
- Policy paper: Options for a policy regarding Gaza's civilian population
Notes
- ^ Alternatively, rendered in question format, "What Should Russia Do with Ukraine?"
References
- ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ a b "Ukraine 'to be renamed' after war". The Australian. 5 April 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Brown, Chris (5 April 2022). "A Kremlin paper justifies erasing the Ukrainian identity, as Russia is accused of war crimes". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ a b c d Reuter, Benjamin; Stolz, Christopher (4 April 2022). "Russische Nachrichtenagentur ruft zur Vernichtung der Ukraine auf" [Russian news agency calls for annihilation of Ukraine]. Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German) – via Tagesspiegel.
- ^ a b c Snyder, Timothy (8 April 2022). "Russia's genocide handbook - The evidence of atrocity and of intent mounts". Thinking about... - Opening the future by understanding the past. Substack. Archived from the original on 11 April 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ^ Снайдер, Тімоті (10 April 2022). "Російський посібник з геноциду" [Russian manual on genocide] (in Ukrainian). NV.ua. Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ a b c Котубей, Олеся (4 April 2022). На державному російському сайті вийшла стаття "Що Росія має зробити з Україною" [The article "What Russia should do with Ukraine" was published on the Russian state website]. Suspilne (in Ukrainian).
- ^ a b "Article 'What Russia should do with Ukraine' is evidence for future tribunal – Zelensky". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ Ukrayinska Pravda(in Ukrainian).
- ^ a b c d e "Russian state media: 'Ukronazism' greater threat to world than Hitler". The Jerusalem Post.
- ^ a b c "Russia's war against Ukraine Daily updates as Moscow's full-scale invasion enters its second month". Meduza.
- ^ a b NACHRICHTEN, n-tv. "Russische Nachrichtenagentur ruft zum Völkermord auf" [Russian news agency calls for genocide]. n-tv.de (in German).
- ^ "Killings in Ukraine amount to genocide, Holocaust expert says". The Independent. 4 April 2022.
- ^ Александр Жучковский. 2016. Кремль официально: "украинцы подлежат полному уничтожению", "убить украинца - легко и почетно!". 12 Nov.
- ^ ЖУЧКОВСКИЙ Александр. 2016. Еще раз к вопросу об украинцах и украинстве. hRusNext. 13 Nov.
- ^ Александр Жучковский. 2016. Еще раз к вопросу об украинцах и украинстве.
- ^ Александр Жучковский. 2024. Evocation: Data Base of Russian War Criminals and Propagandists.
- ^ "The Shocking Inspiration for Putin's Atrocities in Ukraine". Haaretz. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
- ^ a b "Державне інформагентство РФ опублікувало текст з обґрунтуванням геноциду в Україні". LB.ua. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ "Биография Тимофей Сергейцева. Политолог Тимофей Сергейцев. Тимофей Сергейцев биография - Свободная Пресса". svpressa.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 25 April 2022.
- ^ "Тимофей Сергейцев. Биография" [Timofey Sergeytsev. Biography]. Peoples.ru (in Russian).
- ^ "Тимофей Сергейцев". ЛитРес (in Russian). Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ a b c Sorokina, Yanina (7 April 2022). "Who Is the Author of Russia's 'Blueprint for Genocide' Essay?". The Moscow Times.
- ^ "KinoKultura".
- ^ Body, Some (4 April 2022). "Колумнист РИА "Новости" призвал к "деукраинизации" и репрессиям против украинцев. В соцсетях статью посчитали нацистской — Интернет на TJ". TJ. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ "Заборонити слово Україна та репресувати ціле покоління – розкрито плани кремлівських нацистів, які здивували б Гітлера" [Banning the word Ukraine and repressing an entire generation - plans of Kremlin Nazis to surprise Hitler]. www.segodnya.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ Rukomeda, Roman (6 April 2022). "'The whole world can observe the clash of civilization and anticivilization'". www.euractiv.com.
- ^ a b "'Genocide masterplan': Experts alarmed after Kremlin intellectual calls for 'cleansed' Ukraine". Yahoo! News.
- ^ a b Manser, Corsin. "Wie soll der Krieg in der Ukraine enden? Dieser russische Text lässt Böses erahnen" [How should the war in Ukraine end? This Russian text foreshadows evil]. watson (in German).
- ^ Domańska, Maria (5 April 2022). "Medvedev escalates anti-Ukrainian rhetoric". Centre for Eastern Studies.
- ^ Egorov, Ivan (26 April 2022). Патрушев: Запад создал империю лжи, предполагающую уничтожение России [Patrushev: The West has created an empire of lies, suggesting the destruction of Russia]. Rossiyskaya Gazeta (in Russian).
- Ukrayinska Pravda.
- ^ Звичайний фашизм, - глава МЗС Латвії щодо статті "Що Росія має зробити з Україною" [Ordinary fascism – Latvian Foreign Minister on the article "What Russia should do with Ukraine"]. censor.net Цензор.НЕТ (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ Lebedeva, Olga (8 April 2022). Немецкий депутат подал иск на автора статьи о денацификации Украины в РИА "Новости" [German MP files a lawsuit against the author of an article about the denazification of Ukraine in RIA Novosti]. Deutsche Welle (in Russian).
- ^ "Ukraine presses charges against author of Russia's manifesto calling for genocide of Ukrainians". Ukrinform. 7 May 2022.
- ^ "IBA and IBAHRI strongly condemn the illegal 'trial' and sentencing to death of Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saaudun". International Bar Association. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
- ^ "Ukraine: Russia-backed separatists lift death penalty moratorium". Al Jazeera.
- ^ "Venäjän propaganda viestii kansanmurhaa - "huolestuttavaa, kammottavaa"" [Russian propaganda signals genocide - "worrying, creepy"]. Verkkouutiset (in Finnish). 4 April 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ Snyder, Timothy [@TimothyDSnyder] (5 April 2022). "An article in the official state Russian news agency RIA Novosti..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
An article in the official state Russian news agency RIA Novosti advocates the elimination of the Ukrainian people as such. The text is so despicable that I'm not going to link to it. Will write about it later.
- ^ Žižek, Slavoj (18 April 2022). "War in a World that Stands for Nothing". Project Syndicate.
- ^ a b c d e f THOM, Francoise (8 April 2022). "Russian Ideologues Aim to Liquidate the Ukrainian Nation". Desk Russie (https://en.desk-russie.eu). Retrieved 4 March 2023.
External links
- 'A chance for revenge': The rise and fall of ‘methodology,’ the school of thought that produced the idea of the 'Russian world' - article by Meduza with short biography of Sergeytsev
- Sergeytsev, Timofey [at Wikidata] (3 April 2022). "Что Россия должна сделать с Украиной" [What Russia should do with Ukraine]. RIA Novosti (in Russian). Rossiya Segodnya. Archived from the original on 3 April 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2022.