Mick Hartley

The latest from historian Timothy Snyder: the text of his briefing of The United Nations Security Council yesterday, for a session called by the Russian Federation to discuss "russophobia." Worth reading in full.

His argument centres on two points: the first is that "harm to Russians, and harm to Russian culture, is primarily a result of the policies of the Russian Federation", and the second is that "the term "russophobia," which we are discussing today, has been exploited during this war as a form of imperial propaganda in which the aggressor claims to be the victim.  It has served this last year as a justification for Russian war crimes in Ukraine."

On the first point he lists ten actions "which have caused the greatest harm to Russians and to Russian culture.". Here's number ten:

The sustained training or education of Russians to believe that genocide is normal.  We see this in the president of Russia's repeated claims that Ukraine does not exist.  We see this in genocidal fantasies on Russian state media.  We see this in a year of state television reaching millions or tens of millions Russian citizens every day.  We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as pigs.  We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as parasites.  We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as worms.  We see this when Russian state television presents Ukrainians as Satanists or as ghouls.  We see this when Russian state television proclaims that Ukrainian children should be drowned.  We see this when Russian state television proclaims that Ukrainian houses should be burned with the people inside.  We see this when people appear on Russian state television and  say: "They should not exist at all. We should execute them by firing squad."  We see this when someone appears on Russian state television and says "we will kill 1 million, we will kill 5 million, we can exterminate all of you," meaning all of the Ukrainians.

Now, if we were sincerely concerned about harms to Russians, we would be concerned about what Russian policy is doing to Russians.  The claim that Ukrainians are "russophobes" is one more element of Russian hate speech in Russian state television.  In Russian media, those other claims about Ukrainians are intermixed with the claim that Ukrainians are russophobes.  So, for example, in the statement on Russian state television where the speaker proposed that all Ukrainians be exterminated, his reasoning was that they should all be exterminated because they exhibit "russophobia."

The claim that Ukrainians have to be killed because they have a mental illness known as "russophobia" is bad for Russians, because it educates them in genocide.  But of course, such a claim is much worse for Ukrainians.

This brings me to my second point.  The term "russophobia" is a rhetorical strategy that we know from the history of imperialism.

When an empire attacks, the empire claims that it is the victim.  The rhetoric that Ukrainians are somehow "russophobes" is being used by the Russian state to justify a war of aggression.  The language is very important.  But it is the setting in which it is used that matters most.  This is the setting: the Russian invasion of Ukraine itself, the destruction of whole Ukrainian cities, the execution of Ukrainian local leaders, the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, the displacement of almost half the Ukrainian population, the destruction of hundreds of hospitals and thousands of schools, the deliberate targeting of water and heat supplies during the winter.  That is the setting.  That is what is actually happening.

The term "russophobia" is being used in this setting to advance the claim that the imperial power is the victim, even as the imperial power, Russia, is carrying out a war of atrocity.  This is historically typical behavior.  The imperial power dehumanizes the actual victim, and claims to be the victim.  When the victim (in this case Ukraine) opposes being attacked, being murdered, being colonized, the empire says that wanting to be left in peace is unreasonable, an illness.  This is a "phobia."  

This claim that the victims are irrational, that they are "phobic," that they have a "phobia," is meant to distract from the actual experience of the victims in the real world, which is an experience, of course, of aggression and war and atrocity. The term "russophobia" is imperial strategy designed to change the subject from an actual war of aggression to the feelings of the aggressors, thereby suppressing the existence and the experience of the people who are most harmed.  The imperialist says: "We are the only people here. We are the real victims. And our hurt feelings count more than other people's lives." …

The application of the word "russophobia" in this setting, the claim that Ukrainians are mentally ill rather than that they are experiencing an atrocity, is colonial rhetoric.  It serves as part of a larger practice of hate speech.  That is why this session is important: it helps us to see Russia's genocidal hate speech.  The idea that Ukrainians have a disease called "russophobia" is used as an argument to destroy them, along with the arguments that they are vermin, parasites, Satanists and so on.

Claiming to be the victim when you are in fact the aggressor is not a defense.  It is actually part of the crime.  Hate speech directed against Ukrainians is not part of the defense of the Russian Federation or its citizens.  It is an element of the crimes that Russian citizens are committing on Ukrainian territory.  In this sense, in calling this session, the Russian state has found a new way to confess to war crimes.  Thank you for your attention.