March 6, 2020

“A specific disorder of the mind”

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“There is no Ukraine. There is Ukrainian-ness. That is, a specific disorder of the mind. A passion for ethnography that has surprisingly been driven to extremes. Such local lore full of blood. A mess instead of statehood. Borshch, Bandera and bandura. But there is no nation. There is the brochure titled ‘Independent Ukraine,’ but there is no Ukraine. The only question is whether Ukraine doesn’t exist any longer or doesn’t yet exist.”

Those were the words of Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin ideologue and former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview for a Russian media outlet called Actual Comments. Significantly, this man who was often called the “grey cardinal of the Kremlin,” was Mr. Putin’s point man on Ukraine until he was dismissed on February 18. The seven-year period during which he oversaw policy regarding Ukraine was marked by Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and its invasion of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk – Russia’s war on Ukraine that has killed 13,000, wounded and maimed untold numbers of Ukraine’s people, and displaced 1.5 million. It was also during this period that the concept of a “Novorossiya,” encompassing Ukraine’s southern and eastern lands, was promoted.

Mr. Surkov’s words should not surprise anyone who has been following Ukraine-Russia relations. Over and over and over again, Russian leaders have denied that Ukraine is a separate country, that Ukrainians are a separate nation, that Ukraine’s history is its own. (Indeed, such a position dates back to tsarist times.)

In 2008, President Putin told U.S. President George W. Bush: “Ukraine is not even a state. What is Ukraine? Part of its territories are in Eastern Europe, but the greater part is a gift from us.” In 2014, Mr. Putin said “the Russian and Ukrainian peoples are practically one single people,” and he has repeatedly made that outrageous claim. Russians and Ukrainians, he reiterated most recently, are “one and the same.” In an interview with TASS, he stated that Russia and Ukraine should unite. “Some like dividing Ukraine and Russia,” he told TASS. “Since any integration of Russia and Ukraine, along with their capacities and competitive advantages, would spell the emergence of a rival – a global rival for both Europe and the world.”

In Mr. Surkov’s aforementioned interview, the former behind-the-scenes machinator said: “Strangely enough, I’m an Ukroptimist. That is, I think that Ukraine doesn’t yet exist. But over time, it will come into existence. ‘The ‘khokhly’ [a derogatory term for Ukrainians] are stubborn guys, they will do this. However, what kind of Ukraine it will be, in what borders it will exist, and maybe even how many ‘Ukraines’ will appear are open questions. And one way or another, Russia will have to participate in resolving these issues.” He added threateningly that the only effective method in Russia’s relations with Ukraine is “coercion by force into fraternal relations” – a method that he said “has historically proven effectiveness in the policy towards Ukraine.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer was on the mark when he tweeted on February 26: “With Surkov as Putin’s main advisor on #Ukraine, little wonder that Kremlin policy over past 6 years has done more than anything else to forge Ukrainian national identity, push Ukraine away from #Russia and toward West, and broaden Ukrainian public support for joining NATO.”

However, at the same time it must be underscored that statements like those of Mr. Surkov, who has been replaced, and President Putin, who intends to remain in power indefinitely, do not bode well. As Taras Kuzio wrote last month on the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert blog: “Putin’s plans for lifelong rule look particularly ominous when viewed from Ukraine, which faces the prospect of perpetual imperial aggression at the hands of an adversary who views much of modern Ukraine as historically Russian and continues to ask fundamental questions about the country’s right to exist. For Ukrainians, Putin forever means war without end.”

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