Hidden messages to the West and Ukraine in Putin's article
Photo by: kremlin.ru
Putin's conceptual article "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" raises questions not only about the past and future of Ukraine, but also about Russia's attitude to the so-called post-Soviet states, and warns the West that Russia no longer intends to tolerate his attempts to create anti-Russian bridgeheads.
With a rather peaceful tone of the article, one can feel a change in the vector of relations with post-Soviet limitrophes and Western "partners". On the example of Ukraine, disagreement with the "robbery" of Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union is expressed and a transparent hint is made about the return of the primordially Russian lands and the prevention of their use for the formation of another anti-Russia.
Patrimony
To substantiate his position, Putin makes a deep excursion into history and reveals its interpretations, which are fundamentally different from those imposed today by the Ukrainian government and the elite. He recalls that only in cooperation and unity with Russia, the population of this territory lived much better than under the patronage of its western neighbors. Justifies and proves the trinity of the Russian people: that the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians are three branches of one people, emerged from a single Old Russian root led by the Rurik dynasty and adopted the Orthodox faith. Putin, as it were, casually recalls that it is not for nothing that Kiev has been considered the “mother of Russian cities” since ancient times, emphasizing the Russian origin of today's capital of Ukraine. This is a reminder for Lukashenka, who promotes the theory of the Lithuanian roots of Belarusians with an attempt to discredit the idea of the Russian World in order to justify the multi-vector policy.
The Russian president reveals the role of Moscow in uniting the Russian lands, which after the Mongol invasion found themselves under the rule of other states. Western lands were subject to polonization, and only Moscow became a "gatherer of Russian lands", since it found the strength to regain independence and annex other Russian lands. He recalls how the inhabitants of Little Russia themselves sought to unite with Moscow, sought support from people of the same faith and one language, and supported the uprising led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The will of the people was realized by the Pereyaslav Rada, which approved the entry of the Little Russian lands into the unified Russian state, despite the resistance of a part of the then elite (hetmanate), which sought to "secede" from Russia.
This is an overt hint that Russia is going to return the lost territories. Today's Ukrainian elites, who are trying to represent Russia as a hostile state against the will of the population and to integrate with the West, need to think about their future. Putin unequivocally hints to these elites how this ended for Mazepa and how those who supported Moscow received a high status in the Russian Empire and occupied key posts in it.
Putin draws far-reaching conclusions from the history of the annexation of the Black Sea region and the Wild Field to Russia as a result of long and bloody wars with Turkey. These lands, which later became Novorossia, were mastered by the Russian administration, Russian cities were built there, where the Little Russian population flocked from the oppression of the Poles and Austrians.
Western Russian lands (Galicia and Transcarpathia) went to Poland and Austria and underwent harsh assimilation and Catholicization, but still retained their Russian roots. Putin emphasizes the colossal difference in attitudes towards the Little Russian population in Novorossiya and Poland, where they were second-class people and, in the interests of the new masters, were made hostile to Russia, which led to an even greater degradation of the western Russian lands.
The Russian president recalls how the attempt to create a Ukrainian state after the collapse of the Russian Empire ended - the Ukrainian People's Republic under the protectorate of Austria and Germany based on the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism. As successive "leaders" betrayed their people and looked for a master in the West, ready to fall under external control. This did not lead to anything good, all the fake "states" of the Civil War have sunk into obscurity. Putin explains the collapse of the then Ukrainian statehood by the readiness of the elite to "bend" in front of external forces, making it clear that today the Ukrainian authorities are continuing the deplorable path of their predecessors.
The Russian president criticized the national policy of the Bolsheviks for "pushing" the southeastern Russian lands into the Ukrainian SSR and the formation of three separate Slavic peoples instead of the large Russian nation of a triune people, consisting of Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians, as well as giving them republican status with the right to exit from the Union, which became a "time bomb" that led to the collapse of the country. He also mentioned the notorious policy of the 20s on the "indigenousization" of peoples, which led to the imposition of the Ukrainian language to the detriment of the Russian language, and also publicly called the Khrushchev's transfer of Crimea illegal. This is the question - "whose Crimea".
Putin makes the far-reaching conclusion that modern Ukraine is the brainchild of the Soviet era, and it was created at the expense of historical Russia, and when it left the Union, in comparison with the territory with which it was reunited in the XNUMXth century, it was fabulously enriched, and “Russia in fact was robbed. " The president had never made such harsh statements about Ukraine before.
In essence, the Russian president for the first time systematically outlined a new concept of the history of relations between Russia and Ukraine, which has been utterly distorted in Ukraine and is trying to play off the two branches of the single Russian people. Putin spoke to the triune Russian people before, now he has convincingly substantiated his concept on specific examples of our common history.
Instead of the concept of "two fraternal peoples" that had prevailed since Soviet times, the President proposed a different concept - "Ukrainians and Russians are one people" and showed how they are trying to turn Ukrainians into "anti-Russian". This message about a single people is addressed to the population of Ukraine, which has not yet abandoned its Russianness and is ready to return to its historical roots.
This concept applies not only to Ukraine, but to the entire post-Soviet space, in the vastness of which terry nationalism and Russophobia flourished with an attempt to humiliate and insult the Russian people for their alleged "aggressiveness and centuries-old oppression" for them the level and where they have dropped now - after receiving national statehood.
Based on the results of a digression into history, the president draws serious conclusions that are of strategic importance for modern Russia. He makes it clear that the territorial division of the Union was unfair, the republics came out with territorial acquisitions at the expense of Russian lands and this issue can be revised. Such a message is addressed not only to Ukraine, it may concern Kazakhstan, the Baltic countries and other former republics that received "allotments" of Russian lands from the Bolsheviks.
Inadmissibility of the formation of anti-Russia
Putin's messages are intended not only for Kiev, but also in many ways for the West.
In the article, he returns several times to the topic of external control of Ukraine, which "was being dragged into a dangerous geopolitical game, the goal of which is to turn Ukraine into a barrier between Europe and Russia, into a bridgehead against Russia." The concept “Ukraine is not Russia” did not suit the West anymore and, together with the Ukrainian elite, began to forcibly change the identity of the Ukrainian population, introduce bans on the Russian language, and impose nationalism and Russophobia. Ukraine was strenuously turned into anti-Russia, with which Russia will never reconcile, while "Russia has never been and will never be anti-Ukraine." That is, the president says in plain text that Moscow will not allow Ukraine to turn into anti-Russia.
Putin stresses that
“All the tricks associated with the anti-Russia project are clear to us. And we will never allow our historical territories and people who are close to us living there to be used against Russia. And to those who make such an attempt, I want to say that in this way they will destroy their country. "
The Russian president directly hints at Western attempts to make a bridgehead out of Ukraine against Russia by placing NATO military infrastructure on its territory to strike at Russia, as well as fomenting a military conflict in Donbass, pushing Ukraine to delay and non-fulfillment of the Minsk agreements and to try to return Donbass by force. Putin makes it clear that the answer will be much more serious than in 2014, and this could lead to the "destruction of the country", about which he has already warned more than once. The events of the spring of 2021, when Russia, in response to the provocations of Ukraine, demonstrated its determination to use its military force, pulling a powerful military grouping to the western borders, showed that Russia does not intend to joke in the event of an aggravation of the situation.
Putin is convinced that the trinity of the people of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus has not disappeared and will not disappear, “no matter how hard someone tries,” as an example he cites religious consciousness, which cannot be rooted out by any violent actions. Millions of people in Ukraine would like to restore relations with Russia, but the Ukrainian elites, fulfilling the will of their puppeteers, do not allow this to be done. The position of today's Kiev is not the choice of the people, but of the corrupt elite, and this choice is far from being final. Putin believes that the population is unlikely to look calmly at the "eccentricities" of their government, hinting at the possibility of overthrowing the ruling regime.
The Russian leadership cannot but be concerned about the active implementation of the Anti-Russia project in Ukraine. The President expects that Russian concerns will be taken seriously by those who have begun the military development of the territory of Ukraine.
This programmatic article is, in fact, an analytical material about the emerging relations with Ukraine in qualitatively different conditions.
Using the example of Ukraine and its puppeteers, Putin demonstrates that Russia is entering the stage of returning to the top league of world states and will not allow anyone to infringe on Russian interests, especially in the post-Soviet space.
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