Rashysm: license for genocide
Authors:   Institute of World History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Tkachenko Vasyl 
Published: March 2024

On May 2, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Resolution «On the Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine «On the use of the ideology of racism by the political regime of the Russian Federation, condemnation of the foundations and practices of racism as totalitarian and misanthropic.» A feature of the mentioned document was the introduction of the term «racism» into scientific, professional and colloquial discourses as a definition of a new type of totalitarian ideology and practice. Racism as a phenomenon is based on the traditions of Russian chauvinism and imperialism, the practices of the communist regime of the USSR and National Socialism (Nazism). In its Statement, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine condemns the Russian Nazi totalitarian regime of President V. Putin as criminal, and calls to recognize the Russian Federation as a terrorist state that carries out a policy of genocide of the Ukrainian people. Therefore, in the eyes of the people of Ukraine, the Russian Putin regime became the sponsor-protector of a new reactionary and misanthropic ideology – racism. For now, we state: in our time, the ideology and practice of the Russian variety of Nazism, masquerading as anti-fascism, has been formed. What are its specific, distinctively Russian features is a matter of separate meticulous consideration, to the realization of which a number of steps were taken in this study as well. In my opinion, sooner or later, but objectively, the problem of considering the blatant facts of genocide committed by the Russian Federation against the Ukrainian people in the UN International Court of Justice (UN IC), the main judicial body of the United Nations, will arise. So far, on February 26, 2022, Ukraine submitted to the Secretariat of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations an application to initiate a case against the Russian Federation on the issue of interpretation, application and implementation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. For now, it will only be about proving the falsity of Russia’s claim that Ukraine allegedly committed genocide, because it was this version that the aggressor used as a basis for a full-scale invasion of a sovereign state. Meanwhile, as of the fall of 2023, the military campaign on the territory of Ukraine has turned into an integral part of the international political landscape. Moreover, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine will remain the main factor influencing the balance of power in the world in the near future. In the fall of 2023, a number of international forums were held. They testified to a number of fundamental shifts in the perception of racism by world socio-political opinion. In particular, they state that it is time to give up the high-minded hopes for the universal triumph of democracy around the world, and instead mobilize the forces of goodwill and cross a number of «red lines» that for a long time deformed the adequate perception of the main trends of the modern international situation. If we summarize what has been said, then, first of all, it is necessary to recognize the fact of the end of the «post-cold war» period and to recognize that Russia’s relations with the West have now turned into an acute form of hybrid war. Secondly, the concept of a Russian-Ukrainian «bilateral conflict» should be categorically abandoned and the presence of full- scale Russian aggression against Ukraine should be recognized, which poses a challenge to the entire «consolidated West». Thirdly, the time has come for the international community to widely acknowledge the fact of the genocide of the Ukrainian people, which is being carried out by the Putin regime in Russia. Fourthly, the need for widespread recognition of «racism» as the ideology, politics and practice of the Russian form of Nazism, masked by the slogan of «anti-fascism», is ripe. It is significant that in September 2023, in the hall of the United Nations, US President Joe Biden called on all countries of the world to support the brave people of Ukraine, who strive to reach a diplomatic solution, protecting their sovereignty, territorial integrity and freedom. This call was a logical continuation of a number of other political steps already taken. Thus, in December 2022, the US Senate Committee on International Relations supported a resolution recognizing Russia’s actions in the war against Ukraine as genocide of the Ukrainian people. In April 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of Russia as genocide. Subsequently, on May 22, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly unanimously recognized Russia’s crimes against Ukraine as genocide, and the terrorist regime in Russia as racism. The Independent International Commission for the Investigation of Violations in Ukraine under the UN Human Rights Council is currently doing a lot of work, focusing on research into various forms of genocide committed during the aggression in Ukraine. The problem of creating an international tribunal to consider both the crime of aggression against Ukraine and the committed crimes against humanity is brewing. In the context of the implementation of this problem, on March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on charges of illegal deportation of thousands of children from Ukraine. The ideology and practice of Russia’s genocide are so self- evident that they do not raise any additional questions. According to the world-renowned American historian Timothy Snyder, «the problem today is not a lack of evidence of genocide, but that there is too much evidence. We are overwhelmed with evidence of both the commission and intent to commit genocide. And this overload leads us into a closed circle, in which the standards of recognition of genocide are raised with each turn, because what is committed becomes commonplace, and it seems that it no longer reaches the level where genocide can be defined. This cycle can repeat itself indefinitely, with the level at which genocide is recognized continually rising.» Meanwhile, the Law of Ukraine (No. 2265-IX dated May 22, 2022) defines the political regime of the Russian Federation as «Nazi in nature and practice and ideologically imitates the National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regime.» Therefore, Ukrainian society hopes that the international community will widely join the recognition of the current political regime of Russia as criminal, the Russian Federation itself as a terrorist state, and condemn the genocide as a manifestation of the ideology and practice of the Putin regime – racism.