In 2014, at the time of the annexation of Crimea to Russia, Vladimir Putin distributed to his main collaborators some writings by Ivan Il’ic, the forgotten philosopher who died in Switzerland and whose remains the neo-tsar had decided to bring back and pay homage to his homeland. The thinker most cited by Putin is the one who had lashed out against “the failure of God”, praised Mussolini and Hitler, theorized the passage of his homeland “symbol of spirituality” towards “a superior form of fascism”, theorist of Eurasia as an alternative and superior civilization with respect to “the spiritual and existential threat represented by the West”. Putin must have greatly appreciated the fact that his philosopher of reference “evaluated the absence of the rule of law as a Russian virtue”, effectively summarizes Timothy Snyder, a respected historian of Caucasian tragedies.
Therefore, it does not matter to the autocrat of Moscow whether the referendums with which four regions of Donbass were integrated into mother Russia were grotesque, a foregone conclusion, stellar percentages, and a glittering imperial parade. Perfect for a leader who has been militarily cornered after hoping to occupy the enemy capital with a blitz of a few days. It matters little whether the self-proclaimed annexations actually concern the “Oblasts” largely reconquered by the Kiev counter-offensive; if the voters were asked to express themselves accompanied house by house by armed men; if the ballots were collected in transparent urns; if hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of those areas had already fled, abandoning the eastern regions; if millions voted for the “historic turning point” while in Russia; if the occupation troops were certainly not greeted by enthusiastic crowds after their homes were destroyed; and if the “international observers” (certainly neutral) had been invited by the splinter leaders. A crystalline example of democracy in a Putinian style.
As well as the false narration of the Russian minority that was in danger of extinction, when in reality in the last two or three years the victims of the civil war, which began after the illegal self-proclamation of the republics, had been a few dozen; and the equally quick explanation that there had already been 14,000 deaths, without ever specifying that the victims were counted on both fronts. For eight years Russian soldiers in disguise and in anonymous uniforms (the so-called “green men”) garrisoned the disputed regions, with a few militias in tow like Wagner, the paramilitaries financed by Moscow. Far-right paramilitaries with quick methods. A former commander of theirs, Marat Gabidullin, who eventually writes in his biography: “I was leaving the Donbass with a feeling of frustration and disappointment. I quickly realized how false and illusory was the alleged noble cause that claimed to defend the interests of the Russia in the face of the interference of a hostile foreign power “. Surely a hired by NATO and Europe, for the supporters of the “official truth”. And what about the Chechen commander Razman Kadyrov, Putin’s fierce ally in the bloody massacre of his people, who today asks his friend from Moscow to unleash tactical (“low intensity”, sic) nuclear weapons. One put to reign over the bloody rubble of Grozny. By all means, Putin insisted. Against the West called “demonic”.