The Geopolitics of Russophobia: A Hybrid Warfare

All record a surge of direct Russophobia in the CIS countries. The question is: why now? In fact, the area of ​​interethnic relations is a very delicate topic. Everything is here in any society. Sometimes this takes on catastrophic proportions, up to clashes and pogroms. Moreover, it could result in a full-scale war.

Sometimes it remains at the level of everyday clashes. But in any case, if the goal is to shake this or that society, then the sphere of interethnic relations is the most convenient means. Virtually trouble-free.

The media play an essential role in this area. If their attention is systematically focused on such topics and plots, it can easily fuel escalation. An everyday and insignificant conflict – in the spirit of drunken abuse, domestic crime, or mental breakdown – can easily develop into a serious problem.

Just imagine that there is a movement against car accidents. Every accident – including mutilated bodies, blood, mixed parts of the body and car parts, children, pets, unhappy old people – all the victims are filmed and broadcast on TV. Videos are posted on the networks. Every car accident is carefully documented. After a month of such a campaign, the adoption of a law banning cars in the city will be automatic. And those who resist run the risk of being lynched.

This is not happening just because the amount of money in the auto industry is immense.

The same is with interethnic conflicts. It is worth recording them carefully, then widely disseminating and emitting vigorous coverage, discussing and analyzing, and after a while, it is quite logical to expect real clashes, and even war.

This is the logic behind the current surge of Russophobia in the CIS countries. There is no doubt that there is friction. They have always existed, and in the era of the collapse of the USSR, they bore a character close to ethnic cleansing against the Russian population and the practice of genocide – on a large territory of the CIS countries. Today the scale is incomparably smaller. And because millions of Russians were forced to flee. And because it is completely unprofitable for the authorities of the CIS countries to draw additional attention to this. Of course, new countries are building their own national states, and language plays a key role in such cases. But even this can be solved gradually and gently. And when necessary, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan do just that.

But here are the viral videos where the residents of the Central Asian republics systematically and painfully humiliate the Russians. The topic is picked up by local nationalists who are everywhere. And then there was a wave of indignation from us. Quite justified – we are outraged at how our Russian brothers and sisters are being insulted. We immediately forget what epithets we ourselves are awarding to immigrants from these republics – guest workers and illegal migrants. But we are one, and they …

And now a picture is already emerging that a big pogrom of Russians in Central Asia is brewing. And something must be done …

Why is all this right now? I am simply convinced that this is part of the West’s strategy to undermine the integration of the Eurasian space. The influence of the West, including in the Central Asian republics, is constantly decreasing. Russia as a sovereign pole, on the contrary, is strengthening. After the US fled Afghanistan, the prestige of the West tends to zero. Further, the threat of expansion of the Taliban banned in Russia hangs over Central Asia, from which only Russia can protect Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and at the same time Kazakhstan.

Of course, Russia will demand something in return. The military-strategic integration of the Eurasian space suggests itself. And now some feeble-minded Turkic nationalist creates a channel that systematically humiliates Russians. A noble human rights activist in Kazakhstan, who interceded for the Russians, is imprisoned. But the Russian nationalist responds in kind only in relation to the Turks. A batch of illegal migrants is being expelled from the country. It is enough to provide a couple of compelling comments to the dispatch, and the problem begins to grow like a snowball.

This is how hybrid warfare works. There is a goal: to disrupt the strengthening of the weight and role of Russia in the Eurasian space. Strategy: using interethnic tensions – Russophobia and reciprocal Russian nationalism. Remedy: Network, media support for the company, and a series of political showcases to reinforce the trend. Hybrid warfare involves not only agents and staff but also far-right nationalist provocateurs. It uses sincere people, human emotions, the desire to restore justice and protect their own. But be that as it may, the goal has been achieved. Moscow is beginning to get angry with its Central Asian partners. Those respond in kind. Integration in question. The task of the West, which is going through hard times, has been fulfilled.

According to the same scenario, everything was built in Ukraine, and in the Baltic States, and in Moldova. Isn’t that so? Is it?