Notes in the ninth year of Putin's invasion of Ukraine
The Putin Problem `67`
Ukraine's Putin Problem (& Georgia's, & Moldova's &c.)
`67` 2022e31
- I heartily recommend /2b, Lawrence Freedman's 'How long will the war last?'
/1a 'Decolonize Russia: To avoid more senseless bloodshed, the Kremlin must lose what empire it still retains.' by Casey Michel (Atlantic 2022e27)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/russia-putin-colonization-ukraine-chechnya/639428/
/1b 'Goodbye Russian gas, hello rapid decarbonisation: We must cut Russian fossil fuel imports and change our energy use, to combat both the cost of living crisis and the global climate crisis' by Simon Pirani of OpenDemocracy (2022e20)
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-sanctions-oil-gas-decarbonisation/?utm_source=Newsletter%3A%20oDR%20weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Russia%27s%20secret%20mobilisation&_kx=O7a2KzEY5DHvOYo_yML7Z2IHT9j51hu7qja1kgn9-bUltCkKqCY0pZm1jLnP4TV2.YjCYwm
/1c Michael Colbourne - 'Male State: The Russian Online Hate Group Backing Putin’s War' (Bellingcat 2022c11
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-world/2022/03/11/male-state-the-russian-online-hate-group-backing-putins-war/
/1d 'Defederating Russia' Alexandre Etkind (Desk Russie 2022d18)
https://en.desk-russie.eu/2022/04/18/defederating-russia.html
/1e Oleksiy Panytch - 'Is Russian Culture Responsible for “Putin’s war” in Ukraine?' (Desk Russie 2022e28)
https://en.desk-russie.eu/2022/05/28/is-russian-culture-responsible.html
/2a New Lines Institute for Strategy & Policy with Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights: 'An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation’s Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the Duty to Prevent' (2022e). An extract from the report:
III. Russia’s State-orchestrated Incitement to Genocide.
a) Denial of the Existence of a Ukrainian Identity. High level Russian officials and State media commentators repeatedly and publicly deny the existence of a distinct Ukrainian identity, implying that those who self-identify as Ukrainian threaten the unity of Russia or are Nazis, and are therefore deserving of punishment. Denial of the existence of protected groups is a specific indicator of genocide under the United Nations guide to assessing the risk of mass atrocities.
b) Accusation in a Mirror. “Accusation in a mirror” is a powerful, historically recurring form of incitement to genocide. A perpetrator accuses the targeted group of planning, or having committed, atrocities like those the speaker envisions against them, framing the putative victims as an existential threat and making violence against them seem defensive and necessary. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials did exactly this, making the utterly false claim that Ukraine had committed genocide or exterminated the civilian population in Russian-backed separatist-controlled areas, as their pretext for invading Ukraine.
c) “Denazification” and Dehumanization. Russian officials and State media repeatedly invoke “denazification” as one of the main goals of the invasion and have broadly described Ukrainians as subhuman (“zombified,” “bestial,” or “subordinate”), diseased or contaminated (“scum,” “filth,” “disorder”) or existential threats and the epitome of evil (“Nazism,” “Hitler youth,” “Third Reich”). This rhetoric is used to portray a substantial segment or an entire generation of Ukrainians as Nazis and mortal enemies, rendering them legitimate or necessary targets for destruction.
d) Construction of Ukrainians as an Existential Threat. In the Russian context, the State-orchestrated incitement campaign overtly links the current invasion to the Soviet Union’s existential battles with Nazi Germany in World War II, amplifying the propaganda’s impact on the Russian public to commit or condone mass atrocities. On April 5, 2022, Dmitry Medvedev, current Deputy Chair of the Russian Security Council, posted: “having transformed itself into the Third Reich ... Ukraine will suffer the same fate ... what it deserves! These tasks cannot be completed instantaneously. And they will not only be decided on battlefields.” The day before the widely celebrated Victory Day, marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, President Putin sent a Telegram to Russian-backed separatists claiming Russians are fighting “for the liberation of their native land from Nazi filth,” vowing that “victory will be ours, like in 1945.” The Russian Orthodox Church has publicly reinforced this historical parallel and praised Russia’s fight against Nazis.
e) Conditioning the Russian Audience to Commit or Condone Atrocities. The Russian Federation authorities have denied atrocities committed by its forces and rewarded ...
https://newlinesinstitute.org/an-independent-legal-analysis-of-the-russian-federations-breaches-of-the-genocide-convention-in-ukraine-and-the-duty-to-prevent/
/2b Lawrence Freedman - 'How long will the war last?' (Comment is Freed 2022e27)
/3 By the way ...
Claire Giangravé - Religion News Service - 'Cardinal Pell praises Pope Francis’ Curia reforms after financial scandals: ‘Disaster has been avoided’' (America Media 2022d28)
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/04/28/cardinal-pell-vatican-finance-reform-242906?cx_testId=7&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=2&cx_experienceId=EXX1Z6PTUNON#cxrecs_s
Pi Jaw
He Asks for Love
Evelyn Underhill
To look at the Crucifix and then to look at our own hearts; to test by the cross the quality of our love – if we do that honestly and unflinchingly we don’t need any other self-examination. The lash, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the stripping, the nails – life has equivalents of all these for us and God asks a love for himself and his children which can accept and survive all that in the particular way in which it is offered to us. It is no use to talk in a large vague way about the love of God; here is its point of insertion in the world.
As a preface to the Putin Problem please read the
Manifesto by Russian Feminists
published soon after the all-out invasion of 24. February 2022.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J7GIMstEhqxsnfD8y3rtWvZ0c0IEY_rOTznAQOP-AFE/edit?usp=sharing (thanks Jacobin 2022b27)
☛
Ukraine's Putin Problem (& Georgia's, & Moldova's &c.) is at:
https://martincurt.substack.com/publish/post/55123036
Please invite other interested people to receive the newsletter Martin Curt.
Peace! Martin ψ Мартин
