I read a lot of posts and articles from people who try to dissect the reasoning behind Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Some conclude that it is simply a geopolitical squabble between two post-Soviet states. Others suppose that NATO and/or the EU must have “provoked” Russia into invading a completely separate nation that is not formally a member of either international organisation, despite both organisations allowing nations to join or leave as they please; see Brexit for the EU and the most recent threats of US departure from NATO.
However, I propose a much simpler, albeit darker, reason for Russia’s invasion. And that reason is ruscism, a term that encapsulates the ideology of Russian imperialism rooted in a history of expansionism, chauvinism, and a belief in Russian superiority, which fuels aggressive actions like the invasion of Ukraine.
Ruscism, or ‘Russian fascism’, was first identified during the First Chechen War when Dzhokhar Dudayev described it as: ‘a variety of hatred ideology which is based on Great Russian Chauvinism, spiritlessness and immorality.’
That phrase, “extreme cruelty”, comes up a lot whenever Russia is involved.
In the First Chechen War alone, there was the indiscriminate bombing of Shali, a Chechen town, with the use of cluster bombs focused on targeting markets, gas stations, hospitals, a Muslim cemetery, schools and collective farms. There was also the Samashki Massacre, during which “Zachistka” took place. “Zachistka” is a Russian euphemism for “mopping up” in relation to killing civilians inside occupied enemy territories.
The UNCHR reported that over 100 people, mainly civilians, were murdered by Russian troops in Samashki, noting that soldiers “deliberately and arbitrarily attacked civilians and civilian dwellings”, by way of shooting, using flame throwers and throwing grenades into basements where mostly women, elderly people and children were hiding.
In the Second Chechen War, while both sides committed war crimes, Human Rights Watch noted that the majority of deaths of civilians were caused by Russian forces, ranging from the refusal to create safe evacuation corridors to ignoring the Geneva Convention, to looting from civilians’ homes before murdering said civilians. Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who the Kremlin murdered for shining a light on Russian war crimes in Chechnya, documented in her book “A Dirty War” the atrocities she both came across and was told about by survivors, including finding a school essay by a Chechen child which reads:
I do not know if Putin has a heart. But if he did, he would not have started such a war. Putin thinks human life is worth fifty kopecks. He is deeply mistaken. I’d like Putin to know that we [Chechens] are also human beings.
Fast forward to today, to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. And what do we see? The use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Russian army has occurred approximately 465 times. Nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories. More than one million people have been deported from Ukraine to Russia by Russian forces. The UN has reported numerous cases of civilians being “arbitrarily detained and subjected to enforced disappearances“. Amnesty International has stated that Russian troops had “shown a blatant disregard for civilian lives by using ballistic missiles and other explosive weapons with wide-area effect in densely-populated areas”. These don’t even begin to cover the scope of atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, ranging from mass graves to sexual violence and the forced conscription of Ukrainians in Russian-occupied areas.
As liberals, it is our moral and ethical duty to call out such barbarism. We cannot wave the flag of freedom at home if we are willing to turn a blind eye abroad, to Russia, or any other regime carrying out such vile acts of inhumanity. It would make us cowards, no better than the likes of Reform, who wish to sweep whatever is happening in Ukraine under the rug. Russia is not doing all of this because it feels threatened, or because it believes NATO is a legitimate threat to its national security. It’s doing it for the same reason it launched barrage after barrage of human rights-violating assaults on Chechnya – because nobody has stopped them.
The atrocities carried out by Putin in the name of ruscism are the same as those carried out by the likes of Netanyahu, Hamas, Assad, Ali Khamenei, and so many more who believe they have a right to attack innocent civilians and completely ignore the cries of those who wish for the violence to end.
We failed to stop Putin in Chechnya, and the Chechens paid with their lives and their future. Let us stand up now, before it is too late, so the same fate does not befall Ukraine.
* Jack Meredith is a member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and an active campaigner and canvasser with Swansea and Gower Liberal Democrats. His writing focuses on democratic reform, social justice, trade unionism, economic democracy, and the institutional foundations of effective government. He has written for the Fabians, Lib Dem Voice, Liberator, Nation Cymru, Bylines Cymru, and Centre Think Tank.
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13 Comments
Thank you Jack. With the addition of the publication of the Dawn Sturgess Enquiry explicitly blaming Putin, it is more than time to declare the Russian State as a Terrorist Organisation and use every associated mechanism to curtail these acts. At the very least the voting power in the UN Security Council which Russia appropriated must be recinded. There is no international security whilst the Russian government continues to act in these ways.
Very good article on the strange character of the Russian people, Jack. They don’t seem to give much value to human life – even of their own peoples. I’ve read that estimated Russian casualties in Ukraine are about one million, yet the populace seem to be totally unconcerned. Going back to Tsarist times soldiers were officially declared dead upon conscription into the army.
Ukrainian NATO membership would be a bitter pill to swallow for any Russian president let alone Putin. It’s ironic that whenever Russian naval ships are on manoeuvres in international waters – or their long range bombers fly in airspace across the North Atlantic – Western countries deem it a threat – but have no trouble in wanting Ukraine as a NATO member with it’s historic & geographical location.. Imagine if that was reversed.
@Greg Hyde
The irony, of course, is that Ukrainian NATO membership would literally be triggered by Russian aggression; case in point, the invasion of Ukraine, the Chechen Wars, occupying land in Moldova and Georgia, etc.
Just imagine if the latter two were in NATO – no occupation. But people in the West often overlook that, as we have been immensely privileged, seeing as we’re situated far away from Russia and aren’t, at present, at risk of having any of our land occupied.
@ Jack Meredith
I don’t disagree with most of what you say. However, the Chechen Wars were different from Russia invading Georgia and Ukraine in as much as Chechnya was part of Russia. It is therefore a stretch to describe it as a war of aggression. That does not in any way justify how they conducted the wars, but the wars were fought to prevent Chechnya breaking away from Russia rather than Russia seeking to take territory from other countries.
@Jenny Smith
Minor points aside, the facts remain the same: war crimes were committed and human rights were violated. If we’re going to start using nuance to explain them away (not what I’m saying you’re doing, but it can be viewed that way by some), then all bets are off when it comes to holding any aggressive force to account.
@Jenny Smith
I would argue that the type of war is irrelevant, as the actions of Russia constituted human rights violations regardless.
@Jack Meredith
My apologies, for some reason I thought that this article contained a sentence in which Russia’s wars against Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine were described as ‘wars of aggression’, and I tried to point out that that was not really accurate as far as Chechnya was concerned as it was a part of Russia. However, on re-reading the article, I can’t find the part I thought I had read.
Please accept my apologies. You are absolutely correct that Russia’s actions in Chechnya were abhorrent.
@Jenny Smith
No worries! I’ve been guilty of reading too quickly over articles and getting mistaken before now, too, happens to the best of us 🙂
@Greg. I was talking to a Ukrainian man this morning: he, his wife and three children are safely living here now. But his parents are still in Kiev and subjected to repeated bombing by Russia. He looked away when he told me, to hide his clear distress.
I imagine they could live with Putin being angry at Ukraine having the protection of Nato membership.
That poor man, I feel for him and his family 😞 they’re experiencing horrors beyond our comprehension, and yet, they preserve. One little point, though, better to say Kyiv over Kiev. The former is the Ukrainian spelling, the latter is what Russia calls it as a way to undermine Ukraine’s culture and language ☺️
@Stephen Nash
I agree entirely! The world is a more precarious place with a rogue state such as Russia.
I have always thought that the invasion of Ukraine by Putin was encouraged by the lack of international condemnation and action over the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the infiltration of the Donbas region by Russia. Conceding Crimea to Russia might be the one compromise that Zelensky might accept in order to end the current war, but not the loss of any other parts currently occupied by the Russian offensive. Unless Europe supports Ukraine in a more positive way (by using frozen Russian assets to supply ammunition, weapons and support in greater measure?) the stalemate under Trump’s “Plan” is likely to continue. Pandering to Putin will never succeed in bringing long-term peace to Ukraine. It will leave a threat to it and to other European nations.