By: Alternative Viewpoint
Nowadays, against the background of the on-going special military operation in Ukraine as well as Western anti-Russian sanctions, many people believe (and we would agree with them) that the world has entered the era of changes: the world order which has existed since the collapse of the Soviet Union is gradually finding itself in the rearview mirror, giving place to something new.
We would like to contribute to that discussion by saying this: we live not just in the age of change, but also in the age of revelations as the West has finally decided to throw off the mask and show us its real, twisted face.
Rampant anti-Russian hysteria which is been actively instigated in the West through the mass media has shown one simple, yet unpleasant truth about the so-called “Western democratic values”: those values simply do not exist, at all.
They are as solid and unbreakable as a square of paper in a thunderstorm because, if need be, they can be easily discarded as if they never existed. All these years the West has been mentoring the entire world of necessity of supporting free media, freedom of expression, tolerance, human rights, social justice, democracy, rule of law, inviolability of private property and celebration of diversity.
However, the collective West gave us a brilliant demonstration that in reality, it cared of only one of its “exclusive rights” – the “right” of doing whatever it wants with zero regard to concerns and interests of others.
Allow us to give you some illustrations to the point we are making.
First, the fable of “free media and freedom of expression” has reached its unhappy end. The ban of Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik in the West is nothing else but a pure act of censorship.
The West just labeled it as “Russian propaganda” and cut RT and Sputnik off. Apparently, everything that is not consistent with the convenient mainstream Western narrative can be labeled as such and prohibited from being accessible to public. One might argue that Russia should have seen that coming - blocking of its media came as retaliatory measure after Russia launched military operation in Ukraine.
But the Russian media had been under constant pressure long before the operation started. For example, in Baltic states Russian TV channels have been taken off air, Russian journalists constantly discriminated and threatened. UK adds to it with blocking RT’s banking accounts. Another example is RT Deutsch that has been taking off air in only 6 days after it started broadcasting. So much for “freedom of speech” and “pluralism of opinions”.
If you thought that Russian media, officials and state entities were the only targets of the Western xenophobic onslaught, you are wrong. Even common Russians, people of Russian origin and even émigrés who do not hold Russian passports anymore are now under attack “German police report hundreds of anti-Russian attacks” (Deutsche Welle), “Anti-Russian hate in Europe is making chefs and school children out to be enemies” (The Washington Post), “Russians across Europe face discrimination, hostility due to war in Ukraine”, (Anadolu Agency), “Russian restaurants in U.S. face harassment over Ukraine war” (CBS).
This process has already fell down to total absurd: not only Russian brands but the brands that “seem” or “sound” like Russian are too getting under fire of public rage.
The media now even found themselves explaining to people which brands actually belong to Russia – “No, Smirnoff and Stoli are not made in Russia” (Wusa 9).
But, perhaps, the most infuriating example of this sever-all-ties-with-Russia hysteria is this: “Oncology Groups Support Ukraine, One Cuts Ties With Russian Docs” (MedScape). Appalling. Treatment of cancer and foreign politics are not related to each other, yet doctors from cancer organizations decided to break their Hippocratic Oath for the sake of not falling off the mainstream and remain “trendy” with these anti-Russian steps.
We hope that the cancer organization that broke ties with Russian colleagues is very happy with its “important contribution” to “peace”. Maybe this step took away the opportunity to save innocent lives, but who cares – those are just Russian lives - when you need to make “an important statement” and “contribute to fight against the aggressor”, right? Let’s delve in this thought for a minute.
In that sense, Ukrainians who’s military torture and kill Russian POWs are indeed Europeans, as they have been insisting for quite some time, and Ukraine is already part of the West. These are the values of xenophobia that Ukraine and EU share as soul mates and kindred hearts. Isn’t that the reason why NATO defends “democratic” Ukraine?
But here is the catch: this does not contribute to anything good. Drunk on the sense of self-righteousness, the Western plunge into hatred and cynicism and drag their peoples into the same quagmire.
While the Western mainstream media and politicians are trying to convince their own people that they are doing the “right thing”, they conveniently forget that they were keeping silence of atrocities and crimes that had been committed by the Kiev regime in Donbass for 8 years.
It was okay for the Western elites to turn a blind eye on the genocide in Donbass and lie to their peoples by telling Ukraine has become a “true democracy”. Now they made themselves look as “champions of humanism” only when it became politically beneficial and useful in their confrontation with Russia. So much for “tolerance”, “social justice” and “human rights”.
As a stand-alone “track” of demonizing and assaulting Russians in Europe, there is so-called “fight against Russian oligarchs”: “Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich sanctioned by UK Government” (Sky Sports), “UK freezes assets of seven Russian oligarchs including Roman Abramovich” (The Guardian).
Let’s stop here for a second. Who gave the British government the right to simply take away private property? Sanctions? Unilateral sanctions are illegal in the first place. There was no investigation and no court decision that would’ve formed basis for these actions. Russian citizens and/or people of Russian origins are being simply robbed of their private property. It is called pillage.
All the while the UK tries to justify its actions with the so-called “fight against corruption and illicit enrichment”. Note it is uniquely Russian “oligarchs” that are being fought against, “oligarchs” from other countries that stay in London are doing just fine. “Rule of law”, they say? “Inviolability of private property”?
In one of its articles, the Guardian newspaper describes all this madness and, in fact, indulged lawlessness and crimes against Russians solely on the basis of their ethnicity as follows: “Ordinary people around the world are finding their own ways to resist Russian aggression”. A fancy way of saying “people around the world are allowed to find their own way to spread Russophobia”.
The Guardian, what is happening is nothing but cynical manipulation of people’s emotions for the purposes of achieving certain filthy political goals, turning people into an angry mob that commits crimes without even understanding it. It is a method of sowing hatred towards Russians (regardless of their individual position on conflict in Ukraine, mind you!). This is pure racism and discrimination. Nothing more and nothing less.
As if all the aforesaid wasn’t enough, the West apparently decided to “cancel” everything Russian. Take a look at these headlines: “No Dostoevsky in Italian university, ban on Russian cats — fallout of Russia-Ukraine war” (The Print), “10 States Have Banned Russian Vodka—A Symbolic Gesture With Little Economic Punch” (Forbes), “Famed 198-year-old Russian oak banned from European Tree of the Year contest due to war” (The Mirror).
How do you like it? As one of the Middle East Eye’s titles rightfully points out: “Western rush to ban everything Russian, from cats to Dostoevsky, smacks of totalitarianism”. Even Russian cats now pose a threat. Was there any collective statement by Russian cats in support of special military operation? We don’t recall one. Yet that didn’t prevent the West from imposing sanctions against cats(!) simply because the animals were bred in Russia. This is beyond common sense. This is mass paranoia.
In an attempt to “cancel” everything Russian, the West gradually comes to “cancelling”…the Latin alphabet. We are speaking about gradual ban of letters “Z” and “V” as they became the symbols of support of Russia’s military operation. “Latvian parliament bans Russian military symbols 'Z', 'V'” (Anadolu Agency), “German states outlaw displays of the letter 'Z,' a symbol of Russia's war in Ukraine” (NPR), “Zurich Insurance removes Z symbol after letter used to show support for Ukraine war” (Reuters).
Letters now pose a threat. Amazing. How about banning the entire alphabet just in case new letters would be used in support of Russia? And we think that this ban of Z and V is still far from being consistent. If we follow this logic to its conclusion, then Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky should be dubbed as Ladimir Yelensky.
What we would like to point out in conclusion, that it took the West less than a month to stop even pretending that it adhered to its democratic “values” that it touted for decades. It turned out that the West was simply using them to promote its own interests without truly believing in them. If the idea that Russia created some sort of “extraordinary circumstances” and it the rights of its citizens, their dignity and security can be violated as an “exception” ever crossed your mind, we would like to propose you to look at it from a different viewpoint.
Firstly, there can be no exceptions in this regard. Impunity brings more impunity, hatred only brings more hatred. Hating a certain nation or ethnicity cannot be “trendy”, it cannot be “righteous”. It is not a way of “resisting Russian aggression”. It is a first and a very confident step towards plunging into Nazism and xenophobia.
The West deliberately tries to manipulate people’s emotions and exploit their natural desire for peace to open this Pandora box – we all know there will be no way back should we open it. More violence and more hatred will be our only future before we even know it.
Secondly, the West allowed itself to make such “exceptions” in the past. When NATO destroyed Yugoslavia and Libya. When US invaded Vietnam and Iraq. When the collective West ignored the 8-year-long tragedy of Donbass.