Throughout the 1990s, most western powers were celebrating their triumphant against ‘evil socialism’, narrative such as the ‘end of history’ were accelerated, and taking absolute advantage against Russia’s acute vulnerability of the then. The huge state infrastructures that the Soviet once built up were either privatized or in the utter state of chaos in the 90s, together with social declined. But this situation has changed with Putin coming into the political scene of the 21 century.
By Chongtham Gunnamani
At least 25 civilians have been reported killed in a wave of Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, as Kyiv said it was nearly ready to launch a huge assault to retake occupied land.
The attacks on the cities of Dnipro and Uman in the early hours of Friday (April 28) were the first large-scale air raids in nearly two months. Firefighters tackled a blaze at a residential apartment hit by a Russian missile in the central town of Uman and rescue workers clambered through a huge pile of smouldering rubble, searching for survivors and bodies as anxious people stood by. Officials said at least 23 civilians were killed there, including four children. This is the latest development so far as reported by world media.
What we get to hear and read on the war is nothing but destruction and devastation, leaving thousands of people helpless. When we see death and destruction, any concerned citizens of the world will ask this question, who wants war? Who wants to go for a war especially in 21st century? The answer is no one.
As we all have agreed that any war has catastrophic consequences, be it in Iraq, Vietnam or elsewhere. Any rational mind would certainly be against wars in principle. But, this ongoing Russia’s war against Ukraine since 24 February 2022, which Russia called it as ‘Special Operation is justifiable from the perspective of a nation-state, sans so called western interpreted international peace, justice and so on.
For long, Russia has been provoked and betrayed by the geo-ideological construct called ‘western’ powers, primarily dominated by Franco-British, US and the followers in their shared logic of exploitative capital, asserting always terms such as democracy and human rights in disguise. People around the world are quite fade-up of the western rhetoric of democracy as it has witnessed in toppling of elected governments; Mosaddegh’s Iran, Allende’s Chile or Sukarno’s Indonesia, to mention a few, and backed many worst dictators.
The US, being the only nation so far that dropped atomic bombs against the civilians of Japan, is so apprehensive of any powers, most prominently skeptical about Russia and China, and also wanted to keep all nations under its knee in align with former colonial powers which have shared common interest in dominating the world. Time and again, the US has been well known as a trouble maker throughout the corners of the world; Latin America, Asia, Africa, anywhere, its sole objective is to control. So far, Russia stood against this western hegemonism, a position which exemplify moral power of freedom in many third world countries.
At the absence of former Soviet bloc, the world has been witnessing continuous NATO’s eastward expansion, which is a total betrayal of what was agreed upon during the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Contrary to the facts, most western media are reporting fake news on Russia issues as a mere tool of western powers and corporate; their sole interest is nothing to do with democracy or human rights as they preached, but to exploit the Russian market and its vast natural resources.
Anti-Russian propaganda has been quite normalized for decades and it is internalized in the psyche of the western world. It is something like of what Noam Chomsky termed as ‘manufacturing consent’. Since the beginning of this war, Russian side of narratives have been systematically censored from the social media, and anti-Russian propaganda have increased on gigantic scale.
It’s not new that the western powers have instigated crisis after crisis in Ukraine against Russia. Those western staged ‘Colour Revolutions’ in the former soviet republics, including Ukraine destabilized the whole social fabrics in the region. The western powers have been orchestrating anti-government protests when any democratically elected Russian incline governments come to power in Kiev. The Euro-American powers have a firm objective to control over Ukraine and always install a their friendly government in Kiev, in order to exert their hegemony over Russia. So, Ukraine has become a springboard for western hegemony, no doubt about this.
It’s also a common practice that the western powers have been accelerating ethnic divides in the former Soviet republics, whether in Ukraine or in the Baltic states, where Russian speakers are categorised as ‘other’, and treated them as ‘outsider’ at their own states. As a consequence of such policies of systematic exclusion, we have witnessed the extreme forms of rebellion in Donbas, Crimea, etc. If the Euro-American powers hadn’t meddled Ukraine, and let Viktor Yanukovych continue as the president in 2014, much bloodshed could have been avoided. It’s not new that the Euro-American powers meddled and hijacked elected authorities if the people voted against their wishes, but the consequences are end up in disaster. The case of Ukraine has no exception.
Throughout the 1990s, most western powers were celebrating their triumphant against ‘evil socialism’, narrative such as the ‘end of history’ were accelerated, and taking absolute advantage against Russia’s acute vulnerability of the then. The huge state infrastructures that the Soviet once built up were either privatized or in the utter state of chaos in the 90s, together with social declined. But this situation has changed with Putin coming into the political scene of the 21 century.
With the dawn of 21 century, Putin stabilized Russian socio-economic order, and Russia emerged at the world stage as a source of physical and moral power to many nations which have suffered the pains of western imperialism. Putin effectively mitigated western hegemonism in spheres of world politics. Thus, he builds up a confident and self-reliant Russia, that’s why the west hated Putin. But, he is performing of what an independent nation-state is supposed to perform. So far his position on the Ukrainian stalemate is cleared and that is the NATO expansion at Russia’s border.
So if NATO defended its invasion in Yugoslavia as ‘military humanism’, NATO has no reason to condemn Russia for the war against Ukraine, though it’s not a secret that, this war is fought between Russia and NATO, not Ukraine. And, the fundamental difference is between the issue of Yugoslavia and Ukraine is that Yugoslavia was never posed a threat to NATO, but the inclusion of Ukraine into NATO is an existential threat for Russia. So, this war is inevitable for Russia.
(Chongtham Gunnamani is Assistant Professor (Centre for South East Asian Studies), Nagaland University. His specialization/area of Interest include International Relations and Asia-Pacific Affairs.)