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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Schools, doctors, pensions. Western experts curse the horrors of the 'Russian occupation' |
| 2024-02-16 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Gevorg Mirzayan [REGNUM] “The Kremlin manual on occupation. Forced Russification and Ethnic Cleansing in Occupied Ukraine.” This is the name of the report released by the American Institute for the Study of War. A report whose purpose is to close a serious hole in the Western propaganda construct. The fact is that after Russia liberated the former Ukrainian territories, it “suddenly” turns out that Ukraine not only does not exist there, but has never existed. Yes, it was present in toponyms, in yellow-and-white coloring, in documents... But as soon as this or that city returns back to its native harbor, it immediately turns out that Russians live there. Moreover, they (using the example of Crimea or Mariupol) see that Russia also considers these territories to be its own, and therefore contributes in every possible way to their restoration and further prosperity. Well, he treats the locals as if they were his own - unlike Ukraine. As a result, now all Western demands for the “de-occupation” of the same Crimea are broken not only by the provisions of the Russian Constitution, but also by the position of the absolute majority of the population of the peninsula. Any foreigner who comes there will immediately understand that Crimeans do not want to “return” to any Ukraine. Just like the Donetsk people. As well as residents of the already liberated parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. “Russia is trying to convince Ukraine and its supporters that the transition of the occupied Ukrainian territories to the control of Moscow is irreversible. Create the impression that these territories are forever lost to Ukraine. And thereby discourage Ukraine from wanting to release them, and the West from supporting this desire,” the report says. Moreover, using the example of the liberated territories, we can conclude that the concept of political Ukrainianism in Novorossiya is generally unviable. That as soon as it begins to openly compete with Russian reality (that is, the population leaves the Ukrainian information space), it will immediately lose dry. It will immediately become clear that representatives of the Russian world live in the Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, and Nikolaev regions. Accordingly, Western propagandists needed to somehow explain that this was not an objective reality, but the result of forced Russification. This is what American experts tried to do, including with the help of the mentioned report. The authors write that “ one of the key goals of Putin’s strategy is the destruction of Ukrainian culture, language and identity.” And this is done supposedly through various coercive mechanisms. YOU CAN BE A FOREIGNER First of all, through the fear of remaining Ukrainian. The authors of the report cite the difference between the Ukrainian census in Crimea in 2001 and the Russian census in 2014. In the first case, 58.5% of the population called themselves Russians, and 24.4% called themselves Ukrainians. In the second - 68% Russians and 15.7% Ukrainians. Well, through the mouth of one of the Kyiv political scientists, they explain this by saying that it is safer for local residents to call themselves Russians. Although in fact the numbers are quite logical. “Residents of Crimea simply stopped feeling the pressure of the Ukrainian state. When this pressure ends, the people who were once under the control of Ukraine can quite clearly understand themselves as Russians. They can quite clearly say that their native language is Russian. Now in Ukraine it is generally dangerous to conduct any kind of opinion polls, since based on the answers of any person you can identify and prosecute him for disloyalty,” Bogdan Bezpalko, member of the Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations, tells IA Regnum. And he adds that if surveys are conducted after liberation, the number of people identifying themselves as Ukrainians may even be overestimated - after all, people may be afraid that Ukraine will return, and therefore, just in case, they called themselves Ukrainians. At the same time, neither in Crimea, nor in the territories liberated in 2022, nor in the rest of Russia, people calling themselves Ukrainians by nationality are in any way persecuted. Further more. According to the authors of the report, Moscow is carrying out forcible passportization of the region. They say that if citizens living there do not receive Russian passports before July 1, 2024, then they “could become objects of mass deportation.” In reality, everything is completely different. There is no violence here. “Most residents of new regions quite voluntarily receive passports of the Russian Federation. And the number of people who want to receive them, as well as other Russian documents, is off the charts. I personally know people working in passport structures. So they are forced to get up at 5 am in order to start processing passports,” explains Bogdan Bezpalko. According to the expert, only people who are extremely politically interested and politically engaged can refuse to receive Russian citizenship and passports. “And yes, living in new territories even with Ukrainian passports for such people will simply be uncomfortable in all respects. Culturally, politically, mentally. Therefore, they will most likely leave Russian territories voluntarily. And this will not be deportation or coercion, but a natural desire of a person,” says Bohdan Bezpalko. No one is forcing anyone to do anything, and this is purely legal. In accordance with the presidential decree of April 2023, local residents must decide. Either they accept Russian citizenship or remain in the status of foreign citizens. Moreover, until July 1, 2024, they can live in the territory of new regions using Ukrainian documents, and after that they need to either obtain a residence permit or live as a foreigner (of which millions live in Russia). Simply put, they will be in Russia on common grounds with other citizens of Ukraine. Who actually have the right to visa-free stay in Russia if their Ukrainian documents are not expired. And yes, without a Russian passport, a local resident cannot count on a Russian pension and other social benefits. But these are the laws in Russia and other normal countries. And to say that evil Russians are deliberately hooking the population of the regions on Russian benefits, social payments (the same maternity capital) is like saying that social states are deliberately hooking people up on benefits so that they do not slide into anarchy and generally appreciated the place where they live. MASS VOLUNTARY RELOCATION But the authors of the report continue to talk about economic occupation. Thus, the system of patronage assistance (when Russian regions undertake obligations to restore cities or districts in new territories) is considered by the authors of the report as “an attempt to make Ukrainian settlements dependent on Russia in matters of economic support and infrastructural development.” The desire to discredit this assistance is also understandable. After all, we are talking not only about economic recovery, but also about restoring human ties and professional contacts between the “old” and “new” Russian regions. That is, simply put, about a new level of integration of Novorossiya into the all-Russian family. A family where these people are considered their own - unlike Ukraine. The authors of the report also did not miss working with the younger generation. “Russia is turning its education system into a weapon, replacing Ukrainian history with Russian history,” the report says. Well, replacing the Ukrainian language with Russian - as has already been done in Crimea. “97% of Crimean children are educated in Russian, slightly less than 3% in Tatar and 0.2% in Ukrainian,” write the authors of the report. They say that you can study Ukrainian, but only three hours a week. This argument looks dubious for those who, for example, lived in the republics of the post-Soviet space. Those who understand that even in national states on the Russian periphery it is necessary to know the Russian language - after all, without it it is difficult to break into the people. Those who remember how local parents are fighting precisely to send their children to schools with instruction in Russian - so that their children have the opportunity to receive a normal higher education. Actually, exactly the same sentiments now prevail in the “new territories.” People voluntarily choose to study in Russian for their children - and Russian political scientists actually harshly criticize the authorities of the same Zaporozhye for leaving the opportunity for children to study in Ukrainian. After all, this means reading Ukrainian textbooks and Ukrainian literature, filled with Russophobic meanings. Finally, the icing on the report's cake is Moscow's accusations of ethnic cleansing. In the mass resettlement of Ukrainians from liberated territories and replacing them with Russians from “old Russia”. Moreover, dreamers interpret deportation in a very specific way. For example, “deportation” with the help of doctors. They say they specifically send Ukrainians to Russian medical institutions for treatment. Thus, according to the authors of the report, 2,100 people were “deported,” including five hundred children. Children are also “deported” to participate in sociocultural activities. For example, visiting exhibitions in Russia. The authors bashfully omit the fact that after visiting the same VDNH, children from the liberated territories return home. And, of course, young Ukrainians are “kidnapped” through adoptions. “Forced adoption of Ukrainian children is designed to erase all ties that these children have with their homeland, which makes their further repatriation incredibly difficult,” the report’s authors say. Accordingly, Russians come to replace the Ukrainians. And Moscow, they say, is trying in every possible way to strengthen this process - even with the help of the tourism industry. Part of Russia's repopulation plans is an alleged proposal to turn Mariupol into a resort. “Depopulation followed by repopulation is the basis of the Russian campaign of ethnic cleansing. It is based on the deportation of Ukrainians, the destruction of their Ukrainian identity by the Russian population, language, laws and traditions. The Russian campaign to occupy Ukraine is a campaign to destroy Ukrainianness and its dissolution in Russia,” the authors of the report summarize. And, of course, they talk about scale. According to the report’s authors, 5 million Ukrainians in the “occupied territory” are now suffering from Russian policies, as well as another 5 million Ukrainians whom the Kremlin has “illegally deported” to Russia “since the invasion.” The second figure, of course, raises big questions - the Stalinist scale of resettlement in Russia was not noticed after all. However, it turns out that the second 5 million are the data of some Kyiv human rights activist, who by “deportation” means the voluntary departure of Ukrainians to Russia. Moreover, we are talking about both refugees from the combat zone and those who left Kherson, Izyum, Balakleya and other cities occupied by Ukraine. And the lion's share are, apparently, those who simply fled to Russia from the very beginning of the conflict. Those who initially considered our country to be at least friendly, and at most, their home. This is what Russia is for them. |
| Posted by:badanov |