Cemil Kerimoglu

@cemilkerimoglu

PhD in neuroscience. History lover and polyglot. I share my thoughts on history, politics and modern western society.

Sept 4, 2025

There’s a literal genocide going on right now in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. Ukrainian identity is being erased. Possession of Ukrainian symbols, even speaking in Ukrainian is being brutally punished; and by “brutally” I mean typical Russian brutality – savage and remorseless, unfathomable to any European. Teaching of Ukrainian is forbidden in schools. Moreover, Ukrainian children are being kidnapped and dispersed throughout faraway corners of Russia, torn away from their roots. This way, Russia is forging the next generation of “Russians” out of ethnic Ukrainians whom it will deploy against Europe in its next round of invasions.

Moreover, Russia is changing the ethnic makeup of those occupied territories – like it has always done throughout its 600-year history with the places it had conquered. It is resettling Russians and a lot of Central Asians into those regions. The property of native Ukrainians is being expropriated at will, Russian soldiers enter any house with impunity and do whatever they want with the residents. Needless to say, locals have no legal recourse.

And as it has always done throughout history, Russia presents the destruction and misery it brought as a stunning success. Behind the facades of a handful of fake nice-looking buildings that Russians show in their propaganda lies the ocean of destruction: no shelter, no running water, no other facilities. After all, Potemkin village is a typically Russian phenomenon, perfectly congruent with the Russian psyche that has a very lenient attitude to truth. 

Accepting this state of affairs, and what is worse, pressuring Ukraine to accept this state of affairs, is deeply immoral. It’s despicable. This war will not end until all those occupied territories are liberated. Not until all those new Russian arrivals (and non-Russians brought by Russia) – essentially invaders, just like the soldiers themselves – are kicked out. And not until Russia is demilitarized, denuclearized, pays reparations, atones for its 600-year criminal history and is desintegrated into dozens of states with their own national/regional identity. Russia must be destroyed. Whatever it takes. Rusia delenda est.

…………

Putin says with a straight face that Russia “has never attacked anyone and doesn’t harbor any plans to attack anyone in the future”. 

This is the typical Russian character trait. And Putin with his entourage embody the Russian psyche perfectly. Only Russians can lie like this without blushing. Because their radically nihilist psyche does not recognize distinctions, and hence it doesn’t recoil when confronted with even the most glaring contradictions. 

Many other states engage in deceitful propaganda or have engaged in it in the past. But none of them went so far as claiming that 1+1=1000. None of them was so blatant and remorseless in their lies. For example Nazi propaganda never claimed to pursue peaceful aims, it never claimed to have never attacked anyone. In fact, it was doing the exact opposite: with innate German directness, they were telegraphing their intentions for the whole world to hear. Also, unlike Russians, Germans did not try to obscure their crimes or accuse others of their own crimes. They were actually openly justifying their crimes.

But Russians act on a different plane. One can say that they are the exact opposite of Germans. Germans are innately honest and value truth. It is in their nature. That’s why they can’t lie plausibly. Whereas Russians don’t feel any distinction between obvious truth and glaring falsehood. And that is why, unlike Germans, Russians can lie VERY plausibly. So plausibly that they could convince a significant portion of European population of their asinine lies. 

In fact, conversation of Europeans and Russians is the worst kind of interaction imaginable. On one side, a people that value truth and are trustful. On the other side, a people that do not even distinguish truth from falsehood and lie compulsively. Within such an interaction the pathological liar (Russians) will always take advantage of and eventually prevail over the honest person (Europeans). 

All those voices calling for dialogue with Russians, they are wrong on so many levels. This is in fact the worst idea. Europeans, honest and trustful as they are, should avoid any interaction with Russians like plague. Because due to this constellation of character traits they are uniquely susceptible to Russians’ manipulations. 

Russians should not be conversed with. You don’t converse with and try to reach an understanding with an inveterate liar, with a wily manipulator. You avoid that manipulator at all costs. Russians should not be understood. Instead, they should be confronted straight on. They should be totally defeated. Without conversation, without interaction. Westerners should not “hear the Russian side”. Because whatever the Russian side tells will be lies and manipulations.

………..

Civilizational nationalism is imbued with both significant depth and breadth of feeling. It is the true middle ground between the two poisons that have plagued Europe – limitless open-borders universalism and petty nationalism. It is at the same time the true universalism and true nationalism. It balances breadth with depth. It creates solidarity expansive enough to unite hundreds of millions of people, yet intimate enough to be deeply felt by every European. It is rooted in common ancestry, shared historical memory, and the recognition that Europeans are one people – a people related to each other biologically, forged in the same crucible of history and heirs to the same civilization. Only such a nationalism can give Europe the strength to fight its enemies; most urgently now – Russia.

Comment from :

Eleanor

Is Russia not partly mother to the same civilisation? 

Are Rachmaninoff, Tolstoy, Turgenev not part of European civilisation?

Today Russia is at odds with the rest of Europe (barring Hungary, Belarus and Serbia) but so was Germany 80 years ago. That doesn’t mean (and didn’t then) that Germany is somehow outside of Europe.

Cemil Kerimoglu

No, Russia is not part of Western Civilization. The cultural achievements of Petrine Russia you alluded to were top-down installments that were completely alien to and were not internalized by the general population. In fact, what is called “Russian Culture” is a German creation and was an artificial phenomenon within the Russian realm.

Muscovy-Russia is at odds with Europe not only today, but for the whole of its 600 year history. From European perspective First and Second World Wars were an internal family matter, i.e., Germany being at odds with France, Britain etc. But with Russia its different. Its animosity towards Europe is not an aberration or bickering within a family, but animosity of an outsider who hates Europe with every fiber of its being.