War Speeches. Fairy Tales about "Nazism" and "Russophobia", "whataboutism" as an old good tactics of russian propaganda
Last week (July 11–17), the russian elite continued to "be on fire" from banning the transit of a certain group of goods to the Kaliningrad region through Lithuania, even despite some relaxation of bans by the European Union. In addition, russian diplomats brought back the narrative about Nazism in Ukraine, backing it up with absurd "evidence". Also, the officials of the russian federation, without inventing anything new, resumed the proven Soviet propaganda tactics, and accused the United States and the "collective West" of all the world's misery.
At the same time, Ukraine announced the creation of a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute the top russian political and military leaders for crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine. This tribunal should complement the work of the International Criminal Court rather than create alternative practices and procedures.
"Total Russophobia" and "Nazism in Ukraine". The absurdity of russian top officials.
On February, 24, the president of the russian federation, vladimir putin, declared a "special military operation" in Ukraine. He described one of its tasks as a the fight against "Nazism" in Ukraine invented by russian propaganda. In order to justify the invasion of a neighboring country, the head of the rf is trying to "sell" to his voters an idea that Nazi ideology is flourishing and prevailing in Ukraine. However, russian propaganda goes beyond common sense. Thus, in early May, the foreign ministry \ of the aggressor country was caught in a high-profile scandal because of their anti-Semitic statements, when sergei lavrov said that the most fierce anti-Semites were usually Jews.
lavrov’s remarks caused negative response in Israel, Ukraine, Germany, and Italy. Thus, Israeli Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, called lavrov's words the meanest level of racism against Jews. Instead, Volodymyr Zelensky noted: the russian minister with his comments "blames the Jews for the crimes of the Nazis."
As the war has already shown, the shifting of responsibility for their crimes is a key "killer feature" of the russians. For example, they shell Ukrainian cities killing civilians but blame it on the Ukrainian army. The same rule can also be applied to russian narratives about "Nazism" in Ukraine.
In fact, the problem of Nazism is not relevant in Ukraine but in russia itself. The relevant statement was substantiated by a well-known historian, the Yale University professor, Timothy Snyder. In his column, he proved that russia is a fascist country under most criteria. In addition, Snyder explained that for the russian president, a "fascist" or a "Nazi" is someone who opposes him or his plan to destroy Ukraine. Ukrainians are "Nazis" because they do not recognize themselves as russians, and resist.
Now, getting back to russian narratives. After lavrov’s embarrassment, russian diplomacy resumed the topic of "Nazism" in Ukraine. This time, they accused of Nazism the UPA and the OUN. These are the organizations that during the Second World War fought against German and Soviet troops for the independence of Ukraine. Again, anyone who resists Soviet or Russian power becomes a "fascist" or a "Nazi."
Thus, on July, 11, the Deputy Permanent Representative of the russian federation to the UN, dmitry Polanski, devoted a whole report to the topic of "Nazism" in Ukraine. According to him, the phenomenon is not new:"The resurge of Nazism in Ukraine did not happen at one stroke. It should be recalled that fascism in the form of Hitler's extreme nationalism is not a new phenomenon for our country. As early as in 1941, German troops that invaded Ukraine were accompanied by Ukrainian nationalists from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgents’ Army," he said.
One of the most absurd messages of his report was the phrase that descendants of Ukrainian nationalists, OUN and UPA members, returned to Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union and continued to promote and implement Nazism in Ukraine.
"After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Ukrainian nationalists were eradicated in Soviet Ukraine, but some of them managed to escape to Europe... When the descendants of those nationalists and Nazi collaborators returned to Ukraine, they set out on their slow but steady vindictive crusade, which received a huge impulse after the illegal coup on the Maidan in 2014," said the russian diplomat.
However, when uttering such nonsense, the russian diplomat forgot that the letter "Z", which became a symbol of the russian invasion, was used as an emblem by the troops of the Wehrmacht and the SS during the Second World War. In particular, this letter was the emblem of the 4th SS Division.
In addition to "Nazism", russians like to blame those who took the liberty to act against russian interests, in line with "russophobia". Traditionally, Lithuania fell into disfavour of russians, as they decided not to let goods into the Kaliningrad region. Thus, "Zhirinovsky 2.0," dmitry medvedev, in his Telegram channel, commented on the EU decision to relax the ban on the transit of certain groups of goods to the Kaliningrad region of russia through the territory of Lithuania. However, the russian politician, rejecting common sense and causality, continues to associate the EU-imposed sanctions with imaginary "russophobia", rather than with rf aggression against Ukraine.
"The EU has reluctantly admitted that the transit requirements for OUR Kaliningrad region are fair. It is a rare case when cretinism and cave-dwelling russophobia in Brussels were defeated by glimpses of reason. Or... they got a diarrhea for fear of losing profitable transit through the territory of russia," — said medvedev.
Soviet propaganda guidebooks and ‘whataboutism’ in the narrative of the russian elite
russian officials continue their narrative about the desire of the United States to create a unipolar world, as well as about the illegitimacy and injustice of the sanctions of the "collective West" against russia. In addition, the russian elite do not invent anything new and use the same propaganda techniques as the Soviet Union. In particular, we are talking about a tactic called "whataboutism" aimed at discrediting the opponent by saying that he does not act in accordance with his position. At the same time, the original arguments of the opponent are not refuted, and their falsity is not proved. This tactic is used to disrupt the discussion of one issue, forcing to discuss another matter instead.
Thus, for example, during the briefing, the spokeswoman of the russian ministry of foreign affairs, maria zakharova, expressed dissatisfaction with the statements of Western countries about the need to recover frozen assets from russia for the recovery of Ukraine. However, she did not refer to the actions of the western countries and did not try to prove that there was no reason to take away russian funds. Instead, zakharova tried to draw attention to the fact that the alleged illegal actions are not made by russia but rather by the United States. That is why she published a "study" by the ministry of foreign affairs of the Russian federation on the consequences of the "military schemes" of the US and their European allies over the past few decades.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry prepared a visualized information on the consequences of the military schemes of the United States and its European allies over the past few decades. It is available on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. It refers to reputable sources on the material losses of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, caused by Washington and its satellites. It would be good if they read about themselves, and all the other countries would read about them. We do not even claim the completeness of the estimated losses, but still, their approximate calculation indicates that we are talking about trillions of US dollars,"— said zaharova.
She also said that russia is concerned about the destabilizing behavior of the United States in the world.
"Whether the adequate steps by the current American administration have already put the world on the verge of an energy and food crisis, a security crisis, etc. We do not see consistency, even at the conceptual, doctrinal level. There are not many reserves for the production build-up now, so prices will be regulated by the market. If the G7 tries to implement its adventurous plans to set a top end on oil prices, that would be the reason for their growth," said the russian diplomat.
dmitry medvedev also supported the accusations against the US of military incursions and attempts to establish the Anglo-Saxon world order.
"On the territories of other countries and continents, Americans have been striving for centuries to appropriate the exceptional ‘rule of force.’ The only offer lip service to showing respect for international or sacred law. The Americans truly believed that whatever they did, even the wildest, most violent, and most indecent things, would end up with receiving pardon. And they are granting it to themselves," the russian ex-president believes.
medvedev went on to demonstrate all his intelligence capacity and accuse the US of imperialism. However, unconsciously enough, but the russian politician very aptly described the situation that is happening in present-day russia.
"The farther along, the harder it is for the fat ‘cattle boars’ to dictate their rules to another planet. Excessively bloated, unjustified imperial ambitions are the right sign that the empire, fed up and arrogant with its impunity, does not have very long to live. That’s what usually happens," said the politician.
Crime and Punishment
Last week, Dmytro Kuleba announced the creation of an ad hoc tribunal in The Hague on the crimes of the russian federation in Ukraine. Thus, the Foreign Minister urged the international community and institutions to move from talk words to deeds, and sign the relevant international treaty. According to him, the need for such a step has already been confirmed by the PACE, the European Parliament, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
"What is the purpose of a special tribunal? In fact, this is the only opportunity to bring the top political and military leadership of the russian federation to justice for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. War crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide committed on the territory of Ukraine by russians fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,"— said the diplomat.
The Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said that the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Court was already investigating the situation in Ukraine. However, the ICC has no competence to investigate and prosecute individuals for committing the crime of aggression against Ukraine entailed by the legal restrictions enshrined in the Rome Statute.
"It is an objective reality that there is no international court or tribunal that can fulfil this function. The creation of an ad hoc tribunal will close the gap, "Kuleba said.
According to Dmytro Kuleba, the tribunal will be based on provisions and approaches applied by the International Criminal Court and prescribed in the Rome Statute. Thus, the tribunal will complement the work of the court, rather than create alternative practices and processes.
"We will surely bring russia to justice for all the crimes committed. The land will literally burn under the feet of russians, not only at the front, but also under those russians in the courts who are guilty of crimes against Ukrainians,"— assured the Minister.
At the same time, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, informed about the launch of the project on "The Book of Executioners of the Ukrainian people" — an online platform that will collect evidence of war crimes and data about those who committed them.
After the aggressor's missile attack on Vinnytsia, which killed over 20 civilians, Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly urged for the effort to have Russia recognized as a terrorist state.
"This day proved once again that russia should be officially recognized as a terrorist state. No other state in the world poses such a terrorist threat as russia. No other state in the world can take the liberty to destroy peaceful cities and ordinary human lives on a daily basis with cruise missiles and rocket artillery," the President said.
The 7Th Sanctions Package and the Withdrawal of International Companies from Russia. Ukraine's Gains on the Diplomatic Front
In a briefing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba highlighted Ukraine's successes on the diplomatic front. He said that together with the expert group of Yermak-Makfol, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively working on the seventh sanctions package against russia. Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukrainian diplomats are actively persuading international companies to withdraw from the russian federation and not to lose their reputation.
"We systematically communicate information about the economic and reputational risks of working in the russian market. We monitor compliance with sanctions by companies in the host countries. The large outflow from the russian market has already become the largest ever withdrawal of foreign companies from a toxic country. This has never happened before. According to our partners at the Kyiv School of Economics, as of the beginning of this week, 1,157 companies have already left the russian market. 469 countries have announced the cessation of investments and we will further stimulate them to completely withdraw from russia," Kuleba said.
The Foreign Ministry compared the exit of russian companies with similar processes in the days of apartheid in the South Africa. According to him, at that time, in more than 20 years, only about 200 companies had withdrawn from the RSA market. To compare, in 140 days of barbaric war against Ukraine, the number of businesses that left the russian market is six times higher. Kuleba also said that the countries that remain on the russian market have a trust barometer of minus 38 points. Instead, the companies that left rf are plus 31. Kuleba also appealed to the companies that still remain on the russian market:
"You'll have to do it in any case. Otherwise, you will become accomplices in the crimes committed by the russian federation," said Kuleba.
