専門家のみた典型的ロシア人像

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

The undeniably broad domestic support for Russia’s brutal attack against Ukraine has baffled and horrified people around the world. How could so many ordinary Russian people fall for Kremlin’s crude and outlandish anti-Ukrainian propaganda? A long 🧵

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

Trying to make sense of this has become an obsession for me. My conclusions are undoubtedly informed by my own positionality as a Central Asian. In short, the propaganda works because it taps into something that has been a crucial part of Russian identity long before Putin.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

Russian society famously underwent extreme upheavals in the 20th century. Revolutions, World Wars, emergence and collapse of the USSR - the dizzying magnitude of change and disruption is hard to exaggerate. Yet, amidst all the turmoil, one part of the Russian worldview persisted.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

The remarkably stable and enduring phenomenon transcending different historical periods and regime types is the self-conception of Russia as a great power that brings good to those around it and Russian people as bearers of superior culture and morality.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

Deeply internalized, the idea of its own benevolence has long permeated and shaped Russian society. In this narrative, unlike the old European powers guilty of ruthless colonial conquest, Russia is a selfless bringer of culture, prosperity, and order.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

The view of Russia as a big brother bestowing its blessings on the lesser people around it is ubiquitous among Russians of all political persuasions. In this narrative, Russia’s neighbors are perpetually indebted to it. The relationship is always unequal.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

The word “gift“ features prominently. The gifts include Russian language, literature, music, and art. But also science and, even, modernity itself. Naturally, in this worldview, Russians are superior and those on the receiving end of Russia’s largesse are expected to be grateful.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

Russia’s view of Central Asians is unabashedly and unapologetically racist, of the “we taught you how to piss standing up” variety. Russia’s long-standing view of Ukrainians is more complex but equally pernicious and condescending. twitter.com/mariamposts/st…

Mariam Naiem @mariamposts

Russia’s war in Ukraine is a result of a centuries-old dangerous mainstream ideology of Russian chauvinism, and of the oppression this ideology has produced. Let’s take a look at the cultural dimension of this oppression through the lens of Russia’s stereotyping of Ukrainians🧵

2022-10-27 00:24:47

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

Ominously, according to Russian politicians from Putin on down, in case of #Ukraine and #Kazakhstan, the list of Russian “gifts” includes chunks of territory or even statehood itself. Sovereign nations since 1991, both 🇺🇦 and 🇰🇿 have been described by Putin as artificial states.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

A central part of this worldview is a refusal to accept that nations formerly under Moscow’s control could have agency of their own. Attempts by Kyiv, Astana, or Tbilisi to set a course diverging from that of Russia are seen as a result of manipulation by great powers elsewhere.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

In this worldview, Ukraine that seeks to decide its own affairs, free of Moscow’s control, is an aberration, a result of gullible/corrupted Ukrainian leaders being manipulated by Washington, London, etc. Because why else would they want to escape Russia’s “sphere of influence”?

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

The power of this idea in Russia’s public imagination is impossible to overstate. To wit, consider the much touted expectation that invading Russian soldiers would be met with flowers by “liberated” Ukrainians.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

To understand Russian public support for the horrible attack against a sovereign nation, Russia’s long history as an unapologetic colonial power and its long-held view of itself and its neighbors must be taken into account.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

Putin’s propaganda is so effective because it taps into the imperial idea deeply held by Russians. In fact, the imperial idea has been the trump card in 🇷🇺 politics and society for a long time. It’s not Putin’s war, it’s Russia’s war. It’s not Putin’s Russia, it’s Russia’s Putin.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

As long as Russia views itself as a benevolent empire and sees the sovereignty of its former colonial subjects as a “geopolitical catastrophe” that needs fixing, no one is safe. The sooner the world recognizes this, the better.  THE END

Tennessee to California @hmh461

@azamatistan @Biz_Ukraine_Mag Just look at the Evangelical people in the US. They are constantly blasted with propaganda from the same social bubble. The majority of these people have never moved or lived further than 50 miles from where they were born.

Ivars Auziņš @ivars_auzins

@hmh461 @azamatistan @Biz_Ukraine_Mag Are they still doing that crusade thingy?

Bodio 🇺🇦🔱🇺🇦 @BodioKozak

@azamatistan @Biz_Ukraine_Mag 💯 accurate!! Rushists must be defeated at all costs. ALL costs!

Luccia Breznianska @LuciaBrezianska

@azamatistan 👏👏👏

No Hero @n0h3r0

@azamatistan Funny, I ask myself the same thing about most of the world’s religions…

Marina Calland @mar_supa

@n0h3r0 @azamatistan Yep. Lots of similarities.

Alex @Alex54304335

@azamatistan Thank you for that clear and cogent analysis.

Scott Sterbenz @SterbenzScott

@azamatistan Great thread. Recommended reading.

Azamat Junisbai 🇰🇿🇺🇦 @azamatistan

@SterbenzScott Thank you!

David Zelinger 🇺🇦 @ZELINGER

@azamatistan Thank you for sharing. A great analysis!