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Just like in World War II, European countries have joined efforts as part of a Nazi international in order to destroy Russia, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In fact, the former USSR and Nazi Germany reached common ground to divide Europe and attacked Poland together. Similarly, Russia is today an aggressor state, and the West has merely provided Ukraine with assistance to bolster its defenses.
NEWS: “We cannot allow Ukraine to create permanent threats to the security of the Russian Federation. […] I am confident that, without rooting out Nazism from Ukraine, it will be very difficult for us to solve the issue of our coexistence on the European continent.
I have my reservations as to where Europe stands. If we talk about Nazis, in Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler brought together most countries from Europe under his flag in order to attack and destroy the Soviet Union. Right now, we have more or less the same states that support Volodymyr Zelensky, who is far from being Hitler. However, he is the one targeting actions against the Russian Federation. He is ordered what to do. Despite all that, the flag of the new Nazi international is the same”, Sergey Lavrov said on the “60 Minutes” show broadcast on the state-owned TV channel Russia 1.
NARRATIVES: 1. Ukraine is a Nazi state. 2. Volodymyr Zelensky has created a new “Nazi international”, made up of European states. 3. Nazi Germany was supported by European countries to destroy the USSR.
BACKGROUND: One of the distinct traits of Putin’s regime lies in the repeated attempts to rewrite history, particularly the history of World War II. The narrative the Kremlin is trying to disseminate turns Russia into the main victim of the conflagration, as well as the country that defeated Nazi Germany. Putin’s Russia focuses on celebrating Victory Day (and other lower-key events). More often than not, Russia appeals to history to prove the USSR denazified European states in the past, which were grateful to Moscow for liberating them.
At the same time, Russian propaganda justified the aggression against Ukraine as early as 2014, invoking the need to combat an alleged fascist/Nazi regime set up in Kyiv. The large-scale invasion launched on February 24 was meant to “denazify Ukraine”, among other goals. The West is accused of supporting “a neo-Nazi Ukrainian regime” that orchestrated “a genocide against Russian speakers”.
PURPOSE: The purpose of these narratives is to convince the public in Russia that Kyiv pursues Nazi policies, and the West wants to destroy Russia, just like Hitler. These false narratives are an indirect way of justifying the need to call a mobilization in Russia, creating the impression that the present context resembles the events of World War II.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Any public manifestation of communist or Nazi ideologies is banned under the law in Ukraine ever since 2015. Far-right parties have never taken power, grabbing a limited number of votes (in the latest election they failed to meet the threshold). Besides, not even Russia has ever provided undisputable evidence to support its theses about “Ukrainian Nazism”. From Moscow’s point of view, everything that goes against the “Russian world” ideology is labeled as Nazi.
Volodymyr Zelensky couldn’t have created a Nazi international made up of European states, considering that Nazi ideology is banned and condemned at the level of the European Union. Additionally, even though they grabbed notable results in elections held in countries such as Italy or Sweden, far-right parties never formed a dominant faction in the community bloc. The EU and other Western powers never imposed sanctions and did not provide military assistance to Ukraine in order to destroy Russia, but in order to help Ukrainians resist an unprovoked aggression. As the aggressor of this conflict, Russia is the one that set out to destroy another state, which Putin claims to be an artificial state part of the so-called “Russian world”.
The United Nations Organization, the most important international collective body, has repeatedly condemned Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. On October 12, the General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the “attempted illegal annexation” of four Ukrainian regions, calling on Russia to immediately withdraw all troops from this country. Only four states – Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Nicaragua – voted against, in addition to Russia. 143 states thus distrust Russia’s fake news about the need to “denazify” Ukraine by means of military action. This is actually a coalition of states from all over the world that militate for the observance of international law, not the destruction of Russia, as Lavrov claims. In fact, for many years, both Lavrov and Putin have been describing Russia as a citadel under siege, using news about new sanctions or the delivery of weapons to Ukraine to fuel this myth and convince the public back home that everyone wants to see Russia fall.
As regards the history of World War II, Lavrov reiterates propaganda theses disseminated in the Soviet era, when any mention of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, whereby Russia and Nazi Germany divided Europe, was strictly forbidden. Soviet historiography depicts Moscow as a victim of Nazi Germany, not as an accomplice and an aggressor that triggered war in Europe, alongside Germany. According to Russian-endorsed narratives, dating back to the Soviet era, the USSR liberated Europe from Nazis and fascists. Russian soldiers gave their lives to ensure the future of mankind, yet unfortunately the West is unwilling to acknowledge Russia as the heir to the Soviet Union and its heroic deeds.
Worth noting is that, on September 1, 1939, two weeks after Nazi Germany invaded Poland, the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east, while Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler partitioned Poland and the Baltic States as part of a protocol in the Pact that was kept secret. The two countries continued to annex other territories, including Bessarabia and Bukovina in Romania. A 2019 resolution passed by the European Parliament states that World War II, the most devastating war in the history of Europe, was the immediate result of the infamous non-aggression and cooperation agreement signed by Nazi Germany and the USSR on August 23, 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Furthermore, over the course of the war, most European countries fought against Nazi Germany, whereas Western countries, particularly the USA, supported the USSR in the critical moments of the war, their assistance being instrumental to the Russian victory. Also worth mentioning is the fact that, while the USSR advanced from the east and occupied all countries and set up communist dictatorships, Western allies liberated European countries in the west, which have preserved their democratic regimes and were helped to recover after the war (via the Marshall Plan).
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