UKRAINE DENIAL: Putin's self-defeating refusal to recognise Ukrainian uniqueness

Photo: youtube.com.

Many Russians view the Kremlin's military intervention in east Ukraine as an attempt to right an historic wrong in a country whose post-Soviet independence they still struggle to accept.

Vladimir Putin on 19 June once more repeated his conviction that the Russian and Ukrainian nations constitute 'one people'. Speaking at an international economic forum in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin leader stated, “Russians and Ukrainians are one people, with a common history, culture and spiritual roots. Whatever has happened, Russia and Ukraine are fated to have a shared future in the end.”

This denial of a separate Ukrainian identity lies at the core of Russian policy in Ukraine, which is driven in large part by a pathological refusal to accept that an independent and sovereign Ukrainian nation actually exists. Instead, for many in today's Russia, Ukrainian independence continues to be seen as an accident of history and the gravest of the many injustices suffered by Russia amid the collapse of the USSR. When viewed in this context, invading Ukraine is not perceived as an act of foreign aggression, but rather as the righting of an historic wrong.

Few outsiders are able to fathom the ubiquity of this 'Ukraine Denial', which is rampant among both Kremlin leaders and ordinary Russians. However, without a clear understanding of modern Russia's stubborn refusal to recognize a separate Ukrainian nation, it is impossible to comprehend the hostile Russian attitudes towards any and all expressions of genuine Ukrainian independence. Many in Russia continue to regard Ukrainians who see Ukraine as a separate and independent nation as dangerous extremists and traitors, hence the widespread Russian delusion that Ukraine's move towards European integration could only possibly be the result of dastardly scheming by foreign agents and radical elements.

This Ukraine Denial is nothing new, of course. It has been a fairly consistent feature of Russian public life for hundreds of years. For example, back in the mid-nineteenth century when the imperial Russian authorities were attempting to ban the use of the Ukrainian language, they chose to refer to it as 'the Little Russian dialect'. Recognizing the Ukrainian language would have meant tacitly acknowledging a separate Ukrainian identity, whereas defining it as a dialect fitted well with the notion that Ukrainians were just Russians who didn't realise it. The fact that such attitudes remain current today says much about the failure of modern Russian society to come to terms with the realities of the post-Soviet world.

In recent months, Putin has publicly proclaimed his belief in the 'one people' myth on numerous occasions. Even the widespread antipathy towards Putin himself which has emerged in Ukraine since the Russian invasion of Crimea has not proved sufficient to force the Kremlin leader into rethinking his point of view. Meanwhile, Kremlin-controlled Russian media outlets have also fed the culture of Ukraine Denial, regularly questioning the credibility of Ukraine's claims to statehood. Earlier on during the current crisis, Russian channel NTV set the standard by broadcasting a feature-length documentary which argued that the existence of a separate Ukrainian nation was actually the result of a centuries-old plot by an unholy alliance of Austro-Hungarians, Nazis and Americans, with the ultimate goal of undermining Russia. Similar sentiments are regularly expressed throughout the Russian media.

Ironically, Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine have been the single biggest factor behind the recent consolidation of the self-same Ukrainian national identity which Putin continues to deny. Putin's continued refusal to admit what he has done is understandable, but it does not change the fact that Ukrainians and Russians are now further apart than ever as a direct result of the conflict which the Kremlin has orchestrated.

Putin is now in real danger of becoming known to Russian history as 'The Man Who Lost Ukraine' - an epitaph which is completely at odds with his posturing as a great Russian leader, but one which reflects the self-defeating folly of his imperial ambitions.