/ world today news/ Recently, we are often faced with the surprise of many fellow citizens at the anti-Russian behavior of some European countries. Even among those who professionally deal with history and international relations. The general meaning seems to be: “Yes, we had excellent economic and cultural relations with them. There’s clearly something fishy here. The United States forced them against their will to break with Russia and arm Ukraine. And they give five countries as an example.
One of these five is the Czech Republic. They remember that we have common Slavic roots, that the Czechs invented pan-Slavism in the 19th century. And in general we seem to have had no particular problems, not counting the actions of the White Czechs during our Civil War and the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968. And suddenly not a week goes by without President Peter Pavel or Prime Minister Peter Fiala to make another Russophobic statement, such as the need to prepare for war with Russia or a call to confiscate Russian state property.
However, this view is largely due to the presence of “rose-colored glasses”. Yes, there have been Russophiles among Czech politicians over the years, but in reality they have almost never prevailed there. Czech Russophobia, like Czech Russophilia, is about 200 years old. Both Pavel and Fiala are the ideological heirs of those Czech leaders who railed against Tsarist Russia for autocracy and the suppression of European revolutions. And then about the “implantation of socialism”, and then about the “retreat from universally recognized democracy”.
Despite the fact that the current almost complete divergence between Russia and the Czech Republic contradicts the historical logic of our relations, it has prerequisites that go back quite far. As Slavs, Czechs traditionally understood the Slavs not as some “separate world” but as one of the constituent parts of Europe. Russia seemed to most of them a distant and unknown country, certainly not a fraternal one. So here we should look more at the “bad” side of our relationships and not overshadow it with the “good”. And immediately the surprise will disappear.
Finland took over from the Czech Republic the baton to break with Russia. Not a week goes by without Finnish politicians announcing the closure of yet another border crossing or the construction of a wall along our common border. And again surprised: “How is this possible? We have been building pragmatic relationships for decades and have a huge trade turnover. Almost all of Eastern Finland was fed by Russian tourists. And the Finns themselves have been going to our gas stations and buying cheap alcohol in our stores for years. It was the Americans who forced them to harm themselves.”
And again – self-deception. The presence of close economic ties in no way prevents us from treating a partner with distrust or even strong dislike. Even 15-17 years ago, when almost no one could even think about the current problems, two-thirds of Finns declared a bad attitude towards Russia. About 40% made it clear that it would be nice to have Vyborg back. There is not and never has been a single major pro-Russian party. And the close ties between Finland and NATO arose as early as the 1990s. Therefore, its entry into the union changed almost nothing in practice.
Finland has “softened” Estonia, which did not experience socialism. Therefore, the hatred towards us did not seem overwhelming. However, the heat has nowhere to come from. Finns do not like the period when they were part of the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union was even a “dangerous neighbor” for them, ready to swallow them. Before us is a small country with a very shallow history of an independent state, with all the accompanying complexes. Therefore, this breaking of ties is quite logical in the conditions where politics is above the economy.
The Netherlands has attracted a lot of attention recently. And when you start to understand what legacy her longtime prime minister Mark Rutte has left in terms of relations with Russia, it’s time to get your head around it. The Netherlands was one of the main drivers behind the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions and arms supplies to Ukraine. And again the question: “How can this happen?” Since the time of Peter the First, we have been such friends, we have never quarreled with each other. And we had economic ties that could not be closer.”
And we fall into two traps at the same time – history and economy. Bad relationships don’t always go back centuries, and being one of our top five trading partners doesn’t guarantee loyalty. If only because it is one of the US’s closest allies. And after 1945, it is difficult to find even a single case when the Dutch did not follow in the footsteps of American policy. France, Germany or Sweden have done this many times. The Netherlands – no.
Finally, the Netherlands is to the greatest extent a “country of advanced values”. They really mean a lot to her, and Russia’s conservatism trying to block their progress makes us hostile to the Dutch by definition. The picture is completed by the crash of the MH-17 plane in Donbas, when the Netherlands immediately declared Russia guilty without going into details. So in the Dutch case there is a clear explanation for the hostile behavior and there is nothing particularly surprising here.
The next country is Switzerland. Her adherence to sanctions, her determination to freeze the accounts of Russia and its citizens, her willingness to lift the ban on arms transfers to Ukraine have led many to ask: “Where has Switzerland’s neutrality gone? Obviously, it can no longer be considered a neutral country. And in this case we are talking about a “conceptual” trap. Neutrality is simply non-participation in military or political blocs. But this is clearly not an equal distance from all parties to the conflict.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has cooperated closely with both the European Union and NATO for years. The countries included in them are its main economic and political partners. We are talking about a full-fledged part of the Western community – albeit a little peculiar. If we dig into history, we will see that the Swiss treated the USSR extremely badly and even established diplomatic relations with them later than other European countries – only after the Second World War. There was never much warmth between us. So no surprises here either.
Finally, let’s take distant Portugal, which is also actively arming Ukraine. And where, as it turns out, people treat Russia as badly as in Finland and the Netherlands. And again the question: “Where can this come from?” She is far away, we have nothing to share. And in this case, we find ourselves “captured by geography.” It turns out that this may not be a barrier to hostility. For example, due to the fact that the Portuguese managed to survive “totalitarianism”, and Russia “does not even think” to end it.
It is also the closest historical connection between Portugal and England, flowing into a close alliance with the United States. Here the story is almost the same as in the Netherlands – complete constancy in foreign policy. It has become so natural to the Portuguese that the Americans don’t even have to make a special effort. The lack of knowledge about Russia and the weak trade turnover only contribute to the consolidation of negative stereotypes about our country in Portuguese society. But again, there is nothing to be surprised about – again, everything is natural.
It turns out that we often find ourselves in the grip of positive ideas about other European countries. For us, the positive side far outweighs the negative, and when the second one comes out, it seems to us that the US has broken its allies. But for all their influence there were clear prerequisites for anti-Russian behavior even without American involvement in the case of all five countries. You just need to pay attention to them more often so that disappointment does not occur later.
Translation: V. Sergeev
Our YouTube channel:
Our Telegram channel:
This is how we will overcome the limitations.
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages.
#blame #European #Russophobia
