It’s day 16 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and all of Scandinavia is regrouping and reconsidering its stance on a neighbor gone cuckoo. Finland shares a 1,300+ -kilometer (800+ -mile) border with Russia, so naturally they’re perturbed. Sweden likes to think they’re Switzerland but now realizes they need to up their military game chop-chop. Joining NATO is once again on the table and since that is exactly what Voldemort Putin wants off the table and out the window you have to ask: how did you think this would go? And if starting Cold War 2 is all the same to you, again, how do you think this will go? Go ahead and hate us so long as you fear us, is that what you’re saying? Again, how do you think that will go in the long run? Putin doesn’t seem to care about how this will affect Russia and its citizens, so how do you solve a problem like Putin’s Russia?
What do you do when your neighbor starts disturbing the peace and engaging in disorderly conduct? You lay down the law, of course. But what if they don’t care about rules or regulations? What if they’re playing a totally different game on a totally different field or board? You need to defend and protect yourself, of course, and you need to isolate that bully of a landlord in question. How do you do that? You assign blame where blame is due. You separate the landlord from the tenants. When speaking of the invasion of and attack on Ukraine say Putin instead of Russia. Putin (and his cabinet) is the aggressor, not all of Russia since there was no referendum. Russians can’t even call the war a war or the assault an assault, using those words in this context is now a criminal offense. So, Putin’s war, Putin’s attack, Putin’s army, Putin’s doing. Demonizing and ostracizing all of Russia and all Russians, any type of Russophobia directed toward the people and the country at large only serves Putin’s narrative. "Look! It is as I keep saying, it is true, look at how they hate us!"
What Putin is doing in Ukraine and to Ukrainians is evil and monstrous and it has to stop. The sanctions imposed will hurt all of Russia but that is on him, on Putin. And change can only come from within. Putin is finished. Maybe not today or next week, but he is toast. If he manages to hang on to power, if the Iron Curtain falls, every Russian will be trapped in there with him. That would be yet another tragedy in the too long reign of Vladimir the Terrible. We should stand with Ukraine, no doubt or two ways about it. On that other field and board, we should stand with every Russian suffering under the yoke of an ever more brutal regime.
We are not powerless. You are not powerless. When you want to speak up, do as Scandinavians are trying to do and choose your words with care. Do not give Putin ammunition by engaging in Russophobia. Assign blame where blame is due. Countless Russians still root for Putin because they have been on a steady diet of lies and state propaganda for years, and the machinery is hard at work as we speak. You can help combat that too. Swedish Dagens Nyheter, Finnish Helsingin Sanomat and Danish Politiken are now translating news articles “to provide Russians with impartial and trustworthy news and coverage.” Feel free to spread the word. Putin controls state media but has no control over us or Russians living abroad. The longer the war drags on the more questions it will raise at home and the harder it will be for him to keep an airtight lid on what is going on.
It will get worse, so much worse before it gets better, on both boards. Scandinavians will always have Russia as a neighbor, there is no escaping that fact. But as much as Putin would like to rewrite history he will only be remembered not as the strong man he thinks he is but yet another heavy-handed totalitarian who could not rule without being cruel. One day there will be no more Putin, but there will always be our Russian neighbor. Believe me when I say to you that Scandinavians would really, truly, absolutely rather wave than shoot across that border.
*Margaret Atwood
No comments:
Post a Comment