Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1497523
and forcing Ukraine to return from the wrong path. Then, Russia, for 8 years, has been trying to resolve this situation diplomatically, via the Minsk memoranda. As no progress is recorded, and the West is making efforts to prepare Ukraine for another hot stage of the conflict, the Russians have no choice other than to attack Ukraine, conducting a pre-emptive strike, before Ukraine has a chance to attack Donbas and Crimea. In this scenario, Ukraine acts as the western tool used to combat and ruin Russia. Russia is defending itself, and it is also fighting for the return of illegally captured areas - captured through hybrid operations, conducted by the West. In essence, the above refers to Ukraine as a whole. From the Russian point of view, we are dealing with one devious plan, made by the US and its allies, and that has been there since the Cold War. And this is how the Russians may view the war in Ukraine as a defensive effort - they are indeed attacking Ukraine, but they have been forced to do that by the destabilizing actions previously undertaken by the West. When Russia is saying that it is defending itself, it usually refers to the western aggression, that has been continuously underway, at least since 1991. DENAZIFICATION Another interesting theme refers to the so-called denazification of Ukraine. The Western analysts have been puzzled, when they found that objective, among the official goals adopted for the Special Military Operation. Many people disregard that matter, treating it as another clever piece of propaganda. The Western audience may even find it absurd. Even if we can observe extreme nationalist groups in Ukraine, a state that chooses (73% of the votes) a Russian-speaking Jew to become its president cannot be viewed as a Nazi nation. Nonetheless, that argument seemed natural to the Russians. It was not laughed at by them. And why is that? Where did the denazification idea even come from, concerning a neighboring, democratic state? All stems from a historical concept regarding the USSR's role in WWII - and that concept remains highly popular in Russia. The Russians do not admit that they had any role in WWII, and they do not recognize the collaboration with Nazi Germany, based on secret pacts made before 1939, and during the war - until 1941. To remove the USSR's blame, and bleach its reputation, a concept was created assuming that Western European nations (the UK, France, and the US) actively supported the Nazi path to power, and were supporting Germany economically, so that the Nazis could attack and destroy the USSR. The fact that the Nazis first attacked the UK and France (theoretically bringing the aforesaid theory to a collapse) is cleverly omitted by the Russians, blaming the capitalist financial elites ruling the world and gaining wealth from wars for that - not the governments and states per se. That way, the Nazis, during WWII, could have been viewed as a Western tool used to ruin Russia. And only Russia itself, by opposing that, has reversed the conflict and ruined the plans made by the adverse forces. Similar theories could be considered to be marginal ones for quite some time - but these days, they have been made official, at the parliamentary level, and among the key representatives of the Russian elites. And that image of the heroic USSR war effort, undertaken against the Nazis, and considering the cult of Victory in the so-called Great Patriotic War, would altogether make it easier for us to understand the denazification of Ukraine. From the Russian point of view, we are dealing with an identical mechanism, to the actions happening 9 decades ago. The West is making attempts at ruining Russia, thus actively creating Neonazi circles in Ukraine, and promoting Nazi elites. These groups are reportedly responsible for the xenophobia in Ukraine, targeting everything Russian, within that, let me recall, indigenous Russian territory. From the Russian point of view, Russia is to carry out a purge www.fragoutmag.com