There are too many delusions that brainwashed Russians and people of Donetsk and Luhansk regions now have thanks to the Kremlin propaganda machine. Igor Strelkov states that Ukrainians are an integral part of the Russian nation; Russians and Ukrainians are “one single nation divided by the West in order to destroy Russia.”
Igor Strelkov, ex-terrorist military leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, fighter for the Russian World gave an interview to Aleksander Krutov, Editor-in-Chief of the periodical Russian House.
Strelkov believes that the whole Western civilization is leading a war against Russia with the intention to divide and plunder the country. On the question why the US and EU want Russia, the reply was as follows: “Russia is capable of becoming a country that will raise a moral counterweight to a world they [US and EU] are building: an utterly apostatic, soulless world, where everything is based on materialistic values, where people have simply forgotten God.” Igor Strelkov also believes that Russia remains the only large Christian country in the world that is able to resuscitate Christianity. “For a significant part of the [Russian] population, Christian values continue to play a significant role.” The West hates Russia because “the fact that a powerful country exists which is not absolutely subservient to the new world order is… anathema to those constructing the new world order. The fact that Russia, even in its current, weakened form, but with every possibility of revival as a sovereign state, is crossing their [New World Order conspirators] red line.”
As Strelkov further alleged, the West would like to destroy Russia as a counter-civilization, an alternative route of European civilization. In order to prolong its existence, the West needs to plunder a large country like Russia. People like Mikhail Gorbachev who destroyed the USSR deserve death and the most brutal capital punishment. Russia as a self-sufficient major power has a chance to preserve itself through the death of this global [West] project, which, in the opinion of Strelkov, is simply satanic. “I would like to see Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine again merged into one Great Russia.”
One cannot avoid the conclusion that the target of this “Great Russia” will be all of Europe, to make an alternative European civilization from Vladivostok to Lisbon based on Russian Orthodox Christian values.
Along with every Russian imperialist, Igor Strelkov does not recognize that Russians and Ukrainians are different nations. He is sure that a merger of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine into “Great Russia” is logical, as both Ukrainians and Belarusians are simply Russians, a single nation artificially divided into different nations as a result of Austro-Hungarian and German conspiracies aiming to destroy the Russian empire.
Russian propaganda intensely exploits the citation reportedly made by Adolf Hitler: “We can conquer Russia only when Ukrainians and Belarusians believe that they are not Russians.” They refer to Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-1944 by Hugh Trevor-Roper. We have not found such a citation in this book. It is fake and very useful for Russian propaganda. It suggests that the West will conquer Russia by bringing Ukraine into the EU.
More citations show that Russia denies the existence of Ukraine not only as a state but as a nation. From their point of view, nations such as Ukraine do not exist.
Russians suppose that the enemies of Russia are suggesting to south and west Russians that they are Ukrainians. The following citations are self-explanatory:
“Ethnic Ukrainian is no different from Russian. In order to become Russian, it is enough for Ukrainians to decide to be Russian and vice-versa.”
“The most dramatic thing for Russians is that without Ukraine all existence of the Russian World collapses.”
“Ukrainians sold and betrayed their true history, the history of Old Kyiv Russia and repudiated their kinship with Russians in return for Polish fairy tales that Russians are Mongols and Tatars.”
“Interesting but true: every talented Ukrainian who starts to create high culture automatically becomes Russian.”
“Ukrainians are Russians who lost their minds.”
“There is no Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian language is a dialect of Russian. Illusions of the existence of a Ukrainian language occurred in Soviet times when on the basis of Poltava Russian dialect the so-called literary Ukrainian language was artificially created.”
According to research at the All-Russian Center of Public Opinion published in Zerkalo Nedeli on September 10th 2013, more than half of Russians are ready to name Ukrainians and Belarusians who live in Russia as Russians and 29% of Russians consider Ukraine as part of Russia.
That is why Russian extremists and Putin as one of them hate Ukrainians. They consider them as Russians who betrayed them. It seems that Putin and Russians perceive that if Ukraine is in the EU, they lose part of their Russian soul, which in turn they perceive as a disintegration within them. So be sure – Putin is not going to stop. He is planning to control all Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine is far from over. It is only the beginning as it touches existential and mystical strings in Putin’s and Russians’ minds. Then after Ukraine the next target will be Eastern Europe to save them from the “soulless” Western civilization.
An excellent example of the implementation of these Russian values in Luhansk is Aleksei Mozgovoi, one of the numerous field commanders of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic who chaired a court proceeding against two men accused of rape.
As reported by the London newspaper The Daily Telegraph, “Russian-backed terrorists in Ukraine have released a video which appears to show a ‘people’s court’ in Alchevsk, Luhansk Oblast, sentencing a man to death by a show of hands. The man, accused of rape, is brought before a panel of three rebels in military fatigues, one of them wearing a mask, on a stage in front of an auditorium where several hundred people are sitting. After a brief review of evidence, the panel asks the audience to vote on whether the man should be executed.
Some of the people in the room giggle as the majority raise their hands. The senior rebel on the panel announces that he will be shot dead. A second man escaped the punishment but was sentenced “to be sent to fight on the front against Ukrainian forces and die with honor.”
The men were sentenced by the crowd present at the court to death. Aleksei Mozgovoi delivered a “great” speech. “I say, this 15-year old girl also shares responsibility! What in the world was she doing in that coffee house at night? Look, from now on, EVERY girl or woman who is seen in bars, cafes, nightclubs etc. will be ARRESTED! It’s time to recall that we are Russians. It’s time to recall our true spirituality. A woman is the guardian of the family life. She should sit at home and do embroidery, and be a good wife and mother.”
Another example of the Christian values the Russian world has brought to Luhansk and Donetsk was reported by Euromaidan Press in the article Russian Tourists “On Safari” in Eastern Ukraine:
Russians who wish to visit the ATO zone, fire military weapons, talk with separatists, and make videos or take photos can directly contact one of the terrorist leaders nicknamed Givi.
“He makes his offer and if (the tourists) agree, then no problem, a group is organised, supplied with ammunition and combat weapons, with helmets marked with the word ‘Press.’ In case someone is hurt or killed, there is ‘evidence’ that the Ukrainian military, despite a truce, are shooting Russian journalists. The group is accompanied along the entire movement route and in deployment places where they are provided food and accommodation.
After the ‘safari-tour,’ the group is brought back to where it came from, to the Ukrainian-Russian border not controlled by the Ukrainian army,” says the SBU colonel. During the ‘safari-tour,’ a ‘tourist’ is allowed to shoot with [combat] weapons. “Tourists” can take videos and photos during the exercise…
Not all the “tourists” in the ATO zone are from Russia. Advertisements offering such “tours” can easily be found in separatist-controlled Donetsk. The name of the tour is “Following tracks of the Ukrainian Army.” Everybody who wishes to can go to “liberated” towns and areas where active military operations are taking place. The price of such a “safari-tour” ranges from 1,000-8,000 UAH ($77-$615). Organizers of “safari-tours” provide “tourists” with a full set of ballistic protection equipment, meaning bulletproof jackets and kevlar helmets.
It is not a big miracle that territories of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts controlled by terrorists consist of gangs which are often fighting against each other. This is the end result which the Russian World has brought to these regions.
How happy Russians are to meet Ukrainians, as supposed by Ihor Strelkov, was reported by The Moscow Times in the article Russian Vandal Spray-Paints Swastikas on Walls of Ukrainian Refugee Camp. A vandal was caught on camera painting swastikas on a hostel for refugees from eastern Ukraine, as Russia prepared to celebrate its Russian National Unity Day holiday on November 4, 2014 with a Russian march. The vandalism came as the Kremlin’s human rights council urged additional social programs to “prevent conflicts” between Ukrainian refugees and local Russian residents, according to a statement released on the National Unity Day holiday on Tuesday, November 2, 2014.
Stubborn non-acceptance of Ukraine as a separate nation is the gravest mistake Russia has ever made in its policy toward Ukraine. This mistake is even more dramatic than the higher and higher costs and consequences associated with Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
Non-acceptance of the existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians has served Putin badly as a result. All his political technologists developed campaigns without taking into consideration Ukraine as a separate state and the Ukrainians as a separate nation without considering the difference in psychological profiles between Russians and Ukrainians. Some experts in Russia and Ukraine believed that Putin could have seized Ukraine peacefully in February this year if he had recognized the existence of Ukraine as a separate state and the Ukrainians as a nation separate from Russians. Euromaidan Press decided not to publish such scenarios in February – March 2014 to avoid hints for Kremlin political technologists.
Some false hopes in Russia in pursuing the Novorossiya idea were raised by the results of recent polls in the Ukrainian Parliament in Eastern regions of Ukraine. Inspired by results on party votes in the East according to preliminary data from the Central Electoral Commission on October 27, 2014, Russia recognized the Ukrainian Parliamentary election. Unexpectedly, many people voted against Kyiv ruling parties for the “Opposition Bloc,” the successor to ex-President Yanukovych’s Party of Regions:
Kharkiv region: Opposition Bloc won 14 out of 14 electoral districts
Dnipropetrovsk region: Opposition Bloc won in 11 out of 17 electoral districts
Donetsk region: Opposition Bloc won in 8 out of 12 electoral districts
Luhansk region: Opposition Bloc won in 5 out of 5 electoral districts
Odesa region: Opposition Bloc won in 5 out of 11 electoral districts (in 6 remaining Poroshenko block)
For example in Kharkiv, as reported by international observers, there were few young voters; the majority of people who voted were middle or old age. The major irregularities reported by civil network organization ‘Opora’ were giving voting forms to people without ID, especially to old people (12.9%); the presence of people in voting premises (most often hosts of premises where voting took place) (6.8%); attempts of illegal voting (6.3%); attempts to take away electoral forms outside premises (4.1%); violation of voting confidentiality (3.9%); “inthrow” of filled electoral forms (1.8%); and distribution of money and gifts (1.5%).
The people of Zaporizhzhia, a large industrial region in Eastern Ukraine, do not favor “radical” Oleh Lyashko, but are loyal to the ex-regionals. 2.14% voted for the Opposition Bloc, and 17.1% for the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko. In third place were the “People’s Front” (Arseniy Yatsenyuk) with 11.14%. Also, voters supported the Communist Party, which gained 9.47% in the region.
Mykolayiv and Kherson Oblasts (Southern Ukraine near Crimea) showed overwhelming support for pro-European parties both in party votes and in majority votes.
Russians hoped to create a belt of instability in oblasts bordering Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts and Crimea, but failed again.
Ukraine’s New Political Landscape, according to data provided by Ukraine Crisis Media Center, looks promising:
100% of the voting ballots have been processed and Ukraine has elected its new parliament. With the 52% voting turnout, Ukrainians voted in favor of the People’s Front (22%), Bloc of Petro Poroshenko (21%) and Samopomich (11%) – these three parties will form the governmental coalition in the parliament. The pro-Russian Opposition Bloc received 9% of the votes, the most “radical” parties (Svoboda and the Right Sector) did not pass the 5% electoral threshold. Interestingly, every sixth MP in the new parliament previously voted for the dictatorial laws of January 16.
The Russians miscalculated again. The Russian civil organization “Russian Bloc,” Orthodox Christian “civil society” organizations, and activists announced a Russian March in Russia and Ukraine to support “trinity of tree-unity” of the Russian nation on November 4, 2014.
The Russian March in Moscow was headed by Russian nationalists (more correct to refer to them as national-socialists) Aleksandr Belov and Dmitriy Diemushkin, leaders of the movement “Russians,” and Russian opposition leader Aleskey Navalniy, known as a fighter against corruption in Russia, and leaders of other Russian nationalists organizations. The March was attended by 7,000 people.
Among Ukrainian cities where the Russian March was announced were Kyiv, Odesa, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Poltava, and Mykolayiv. Such “pro-Russian cities” whose poll results had raised such high hopes amongst Russians, including Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia, saw nobody joining the planned march at all.
In Kyiv, participating in the march were 200 people, mostly pensioners. The March took place under the slogan “Strengthening Russian Unity.” These people marched on central streets of Kyiv with Russian Orthodox Christian icons and Russian imperial banners. The Russian march in Kyiv was organized by the public organization Orthodox Choice, Russian Bloc, and other Russian monarchic organizations. In Odesa, the Russian March, to the great surprise of the organizers, turned into a pro-Ukrainian action.
As we can see, the attempts by Russia to sow separatism outside the areas occupied by their proxies and armed forces have in no way produced the results the Kremlin had hoped for.
Written by Dr. Vitalii Usenko, MD, MBA, expert of the Center of Military-Political Studies in the sphere of psychology of communications, and by Dmytro Usenko, student at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
