Russia: Hatred For Others and Provoking Conflicts

What Moscow’s Policy Results in for the Russian Federation

Ivan Sichen

The Putin regime’s main method to implement rashism ideology as a kind of Nazism and racism is the introduction of acute hatred for all other nations and peoples among Russians. We see this in the example of Ukraine and Ukrainians, whom Russian propaganda has made irreconcilable enemies for Russia. However, as always, all the evil that Russia does to others returns to itself. We have already written how Putin’s war against Ukraine is spreading to the territory of the Russian Federation. Now the same applies to the consequences of a new large-scale conflict in the Middle East, which was provoked by Moscow to divert the world community’s attention from its attack on Ukraine. Such Moscow’s actions turned into anti-Semitic riots in the North Caucasus of the Russian Federation. As it is always the case with Russia, they escalate into clashes between other groups of the population of the Russian Federation. These trends will inevitably lead to the collapse of the Russian Federation and the outbreak of a civil war on its territory.

With the beginning of the so-called perestroika in the former USSR, a civil war actually arose on its territory, which continued in various forms, including the spread of interethnic conflicts. They did have historical reasons but were specifically provoked by Moscow in order to keep the Soviet republics (and then the newly independent states) under control. At this, a fairly simple method was used, which provided for the Kremlin’s incitement of separatist sentiments among certain groups of the population, as well as urging them to seize power by force in areas of compact residence, which forced the leadership of the republic or state to respond to the situation, including with the use of force. After the start of armed confrontation, Moscow intervened on the side of the separatists, followed by the consolidation of its military presence in the self-proclaimed republics (by deploying Russian “peacekeepers” or military bases).

It was exactly in this way that in 1989–1992, Moscow created self-proclaimed republics in Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, Transdniestria in Moldova, as well as Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia. Since 2014 and 2022, they have been joined by the Donbas, Crimea and the south of Ukraine. But the “virus” of separatism and the aggravation of problems in relations between different nations and peoples, once they were launched, tend to spread. And they covered the South Caucasus of Russia.

Examples of this were the Ossetian-Ingush conflict in North Ossetia in 1992 and the first and second Chechen wars in 1994–1996 and 1999–2000. And in 2018, a conflict arose between Chechens and Ingushes. In all cases, Moscow was forced to use military force, but now in order to counter separatism. However, interethnic problems in the North Caucasus have always existed. Including between Chechens, Dagestanians, Ingushes, Ossetians and other peoples in the region. And after the Russian Empire intervened in the North Caucasus, between all of them — with the Russians. The same applies to the South Caucasus and Central Asia. There, the contradictions between different ethnic groups of the population have been and remain no less severe.

A separate problem in Russia has always been the anti-Semitic sentiments that have permeated it from top to bottom. Suffice it to recall Empress Catherine II‘s 1791 decree on the introduction of the so-called Pale of Settlement for Jews, outside of which they were forbidden to stay permanently. In fact, reservations were introduced for them in specially designated areas on the territory of present-day Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Restrictions existed until 1917. The only exceptions to them were certain categories of the Jewish population, in particular, merchants of the first guild, persons with higher education, demobilized soldiers, and artisans assigned to the guilds. But they were not much more “lucky”. They suffered from the pogroms against Jews organized by various Russian organizations of a nationalist, monarchical, and religious (mainly Orthodox) nature. They are commonly known as the “Black Hundreds”.

The leadership of the USSR also pursued an anti-Semitic policy, although it proclaimed “the equality of all nations and peoples”. At the state level, anti-Semitism emerged in the Soviet Union in the late 1930s and peaked in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The campaign against “cosmopolitanism”, which was launched in 1946, quickly turned anti-Semitic, with mass persecution, arrests, and executions of Jews. In 1948, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and a number of other Jewish national organizations were closed, and most of their members were executed. Even more extensive repressions, including the deportation of Jews to camps, were planned in the 1950s. The reason for this was to be the case of “Doctors’ plot”, which was opened in 1953. Fortunately for the Jewish population, it was closed after Stalin’s death.

However, Jews continued to have their rights restricted until the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were prevented from obtaining higher education, admission to the ruling Communist Party, appointment to positions related to state and military secrets, as well as traveling abroad. The work of synagogues and the performance of religious rites by Jews were actually banned.

At the same time, the USSR pursued an open anti-Israeli policy in the international arena. Moreover, Moscow contributed in every possible way to attacks on Israel by all sorts of Islamist extremists, organizations, or Muslim countries. They were provided with financial assistance, weapons and military advisers. Egyptian and Syrian officers were trained in Soviet military academies, while militants and terrorists were trained in special camps and training centers.

In 1973, Moscow incited Egypt and Syria to attack Israel, provoking the so-called Yom Kippur War. The formal goal of Cairo and Damascus was to regain their territories lost during the previous war with Israel in 1967. In fact, they were actually following Moscow’s order to destroy Israel as a state. It was for this reason that the USSR demanded the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces from the zone of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which allowed Egypt and Syria to attack Israel.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow changed its policy towards Israel and established constructive relations with it. However, with V. Putin’s coming to power in Russia, everything, in fact, turned back. However, the ties between Moscow and Hamas and other Islamist organizations have never stopped. They were supplied with weapons and ammunition that were used to attack the Israeli state.

And in October 2023, Russia openly sided with the Islamists and once again incited them to attack Israel. How and why this was done is described in detail in the article “The War Between Israel and HAMAS. What Does It Mean for Ukraine?” Therefore, I will only remind that with the help of such a provocation, Moscow tried to divert the world community’s attention from the Russia’s war against Ukraine, as well as to reduce the West’s ability to provide us with financial and military aid.

In a way, Russia has managed to achieve its goal. Thus, according to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, the situation in the Middle East is already affecting international support for Ukraine, which is fighting Russia’s invasion. This is a real problem and Europe must make efforts to remedy the situation.

However, as always, Russia’s actions to harm other countries turn against itself. As you know, on October 29, 2023, several thousand people broke through to the airport in Makhachkala in Dagestan. Some of them penetrated directly onto the airfield and even into a passenger plane that arrived from Israel. The rioters checked the passports of everyone they saw and searched for Israeli citizens among them. At the same time, slogans in support of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were chanted, and posters of similar content were unfurled. Similar events took place in Makhachkala itself.

The riots in Dagestan were the reaction of radical Muslims to Israel’s launch of a military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to an attack by HAMAS. Moreover, some Dagestani police officers refused to comply with orders to disperse protests, but there were also those who joined the protesters. In view of this, Moscow was forced to replace them with Chechen special units “Akhmat”, which arrived in Makhachkala. As a result, the anti-Israeli actions of the Dagestani escalated into their clashes with Chechen special forces, which led to losses in their ranks.

Eventually, the unrest in Dagestan was suppressed, but it showed the existence of significant problems in Russia, both historical and provoked by the policy of the Putin regime. In particular, in the context of this article, the following aspects can be pointed out:

• firstly, despite all the efforts of the tsarist, Soviet and current Russian regimes to assimilate the population of the Russian Federation within the framework of a single nation, there are a significant number of different nations in the country in which internecine contradictions are irreconcilable;
• secondly, the Kremlin’s actions to form Russians’ hatred for the peoples of other countries lead to the aggravation of interethnic problems in the Russian Federation, which sometimes turn into open confrontation;
• thirdly, in the Muslim regions of the Russian Federation, especially in the North Caucasus, radical Islamism is not just preserved, but it also spreads, which is the source of instability throughout the country;
• fourthly, Moscow continues to adhere to an anti-Israeli policy and provoke Arab-Israeli conflicts (wars) in its own political interests. This leads to the strengthening of anti-Semitic sentiments in Russia, which is another source of interethnic tension in the country;
• fifthly, the unrest in Dagestan confirmed the trend of the Putin regime gradually losing control over the situation in the Russian Federation. Therefore, there will be new clashes and riots of greater cruelty and scale.

Currently, all such processes have already acquired irreversible forms and are another factor that determines the inevitability of the collapse of the Russian Federation along with the outbreak of a civil war on its territory. And no totalitarian regime led by V. Putin or some other similar dictator will save Russia from this. And the war with Ukraine will only accelerate its disintegration.