Aug 22, 2023

Russia cannot change. I know the objections you may have to that statement, like giving examples of other countries that were ruled by bloody maniacs but now they are peaceful and civilized. But here is the problem: Russia is not a single ethnicity. It is called “a prison of nations” for a reason. Or do you really believe that huge area united willingly? It took over 500 years to grow that big.

There are 65 endangered languages in Russia. Which means they were independent kingdoms or chiefdoms in the past. They were all colonized. And these 65 are just those who made it to today, hundreds are dead already. The languages belong to different families: Slavic, Finnic, Turkic and Caucasian etc. Some regions are Christian, some Muslims, some are Buddhist, some have local animistic religions, all with different traditions.

There are also economic reasons. Areas like Kamchatka and Vladivostok are economically closer to Japan and China than to Moscow itself. There are much better off without Moskow. And other areas too, as Moskow sucks all the resources and leaves the provinces poor.

This all can be held together by brute force only. If Russia changes to truly democratic, it will simply fall apart, because no one will want to feed Moscow in exchange for nothing. If they all revive their languages and culture, they will reject Russian identity.

So, there are to ways: either Russia stays as empire or it falls apart into many democratic nations. There cannot be a “democratic Russia”, this word combination is an oxymoron. Russia can only live as an empire, it goes not have any other geopolitical metabolism.

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This is another reminder of “Russian historical lands” that Putin speaks so much about. There is a mistake in this picture though. In 1471, it was not Russia, it was Moskovy.

Rus or Ruthenia had its center in Kyiv, modern Ukraine. And “Rossia” is just a Greek spelling of “Rus” used by the Emperor of Byzantium in 10th century. Yes, you read it right “Rossia” is ancient name of Ukraine in Greek language.

In 13th century, the Pope was addressing Danylo of Kyiv as “King of Rus”, while Alexander Nevsky was just “Duke of Suzdal”.

Officially, the Tsardom of Moskovia was renamed to Russian Empire in 1721, after taking over Rus (Ukraine).

So Rus (now Ukraine) existed long before Moskovy (now Russia). Moskovy is a split off, not the other way around.

All the above should not matter today, there are internationally recognized borders, and Ukraine is not going to claim its ancient lands and restore our kingdom of Rus, because we are not nuts and we live today. But Putin wants to raise the dead in his delirium, hoping they will help him. They won’t, especially if we know his stories are mostly fake.

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“I was born in Taganrog, a wonderful Ukrainian city” – these are the words of Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian writer (1860-1904). He was one of countless Ukrainians who changed his identity to Russian under the pressure of empire. He was telling himself: “I am real Maloros (Ukrainian), and in my childhood, I spoke Malorossian (Ukrainian) only”.

Taganrog is a city in Rostov Oblast. And the full version of Ukrainian anthem says “Brothers, together we will stand in a bloody fight from the river San to the river Don, not to let anyone rule our land!”. Well, river San starts at the Ukrainian-Polish border, and river Don is still in Russia. Taganrog is on our side of the river.

The anthem was written in 1862, when Ukraine was a part of the Russian empire. After gaining independence, we shortened the official version to make it politically correct. We had no intention of returning our historical lands and just wanted to live on our internationally recognized land. But then came Russians screaming about “their historical lands”. Now the prophecy from our anthem came true, together we stood in a bloody fight for our freedom.

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Interesting picture of how the trade with Russia in EU changed since the beginning of the war…

Like it or not, but business with Russia means death to Ukrainians. Because the money end up as taxes to Russian government, a great part of which will be spent on weapons and soldier salaries. And apart from that, Russia is making their most deadly and advanced weapons from Western components, they don’t have their own technologies.

So, if you are working with Russian suppliers or clients, you are contributing to the war. It’s a plain fact, and the excuses do not matter.