The West’s “canceling” of everything connected to Russia since the start of its special operation almost two years ago is textbook bigoty that promotes hatred against people on the basis of their identity. This policy falsely implies that there’s credence to Hitler’s debunked conspiracy theory that someone’s ethno-national and/or religious identity at birth automatically predetermines their political views later in life. Russia is resolutely opposed to that fascist paradigm, however, which is why it won’t respond in kind.
Sergey Karaganov, the highly influential honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, confirmed this position in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta at the end of last year that was translated into English and republished by RT here. When asked by his interlocutor whether “we should act in reverse and ‘cancel’ the West” due to its “deliberate dehumanization of Russians in the media”, he responded as follows:
“Absolutely not. The West is now closing the Iron Curtain, first of all because we in Russia are the real Europeans. We remain healthy. And they want to exclude these healthy forces…Of course, we will not cancel anything, including our European story.
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Western Europe is not only abandoning Russian culture, it is abandoning its own culture. It is cancelling a culture that is largely based on love and Christian values. It is cancelling its history, destroying its monuments. However, we will not reject our European roots. I have always been against looking at the West with mere squeamishness. You should not do that.
Then we would be like them. And they are now sliding towards an inevitable march towards fascism. We do not need all the contagions that have been and are growing out of the west of Europe. Including, once again, the growing contagion of fascism.”
Several days later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov railed against those who want to “cancel” English in Russia, saying that “I don’t think they are right, those who say ‘Well they are setting the entire world against us, so let’s get away from the English language.’ That’s stupid, because the language has nothing to do with it. That’s just like when [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky banned the Russian language, Russian education, [and] Russian media in Ukraine.”
“Putin Importantly Clarified That The Western Elite, Not Ukraine, Are Russia’s True Enemies” during his meeting with servicemen at a military hospital on New Year’s Day. While there’ll be some hardline anti-Western ideologues in the Alt-Media Community who disagree with Russia’s refusal to “cancel” the West and Ukraine after those two already “canceled” it, this is arguably the most pragmatic policy. If Russia stooped to their level, then it would cede the moral high ground in the New Cold War just to spite them.
