The Reality of Russian Maneuvers
Adel Bashqawi
20 / 2 / 2022
In light of the escalation taking place between Russia on one side and Ukraine and its allies, the United States of America and NATO countries on the other, and the conflicting reports between the continuation of military exercises, or the increase, doubling and reduction of the Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian-Russian border, and in the two separatist provinces (regions) of Donbass and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, as well as in the Crimean Peninsula, come these Russian moves, perhaps to acquire other parts of Ukraine, and/or to approach other countries located beyond the Ukrainian borders.
It turns out that those who confront and oppose the current serious threats posed by the Russian build-up on the Ukrainian borders are carrying out various activities in order to draw attention to the dangers posed by such movements and threats at the present time, compared to the harsh experiences that they had to confront in the past when they were subjected to oppression, persecution and starvation to the point of the crimes of genocide against humanity that Ukraine was subjected to, called the “Holodomor.” [1] Knowing that the Republic of Ukraine was at the time one of the republics of the collapsed Soviet Union, which included fifteen republics.
Here we must mention a fact that can clarify that both Russia and Ukraine are considered to be of the same Slavic origin and were, in addition to Belarus, within a unified entity called Kievan Rus’, whose center and capital was Kiev, and adheres to the Orthodox Christian faith, but this did not deter the threat and intimidation that caused the military actions of the modern Russian state on several occasions. Ukraine lost the Crimea after its occupation and then annexation by the Russian Federation in 2014. In addition to, two other parts of eastern Ukraine under different descriptions and excuses, which is nothing but a follow-up to the implementation of well-known policies pursued in the past by both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.
It is known that the Mongols controlled all the Principalities and Duchies of Kievan Rus’ and remained so between 200 and 300 years, until they got rid of the Mongol influence one after the other. There were historical changes made by Ivan IV or Ivan the Terrible. “The rise of Muscovy consisted of a complex and difficult system of events. However it is clear that the changing ideas of power of the senior princes had an important role in the development of Moscow. Ivan IV ruled a centralized and autocratic state that allowed him to extend his control over all Russian lands.” [2]
At the time, there seemed to be a divergence, or even a conflict, in the political orientation between Kiev and Muscovy. “In 1547, at the age of sixteen, he (Ivan IV) was crowned {Tsar of All Russia} and was the first person to be crowned with that title. This title claimed the legacy of Kievan Rus’ while firmly establishing a new, united Russian state. He also married Anastasia Romanovna, who linked him to the powerful Romanov family.” [3]
The Mirage of Religious Motivation Persisted in the Russian Empire
Here, I would like to mention one of the most important factors that made the Russian Empire able to recruit hundreds of thousands of soldiers and mercenaries during the tens of years of the Russo-Circassian War in order to achieve the goals and dreams of the emperors in controlling the homelands of others. False arguments and justifications were presented, with the help of the Orthodox Church, which was deceived by this fabrication, to claim that the wars waged by the imperial armies were in order to defend the (Orthodox) Christian religion.
The facts however confirm that the colonial wars were not religious, as they ranted, but were with the intention of genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of peoples, for the sake of implementing the goals of the Russian Empire in settling Russians and mercenaries instead of the indigenous citizens, and in order to implement the colonial ambitions to occupy Circassia, the Caucasus and beyond.
It must be disclosed here more that the Circassian nation when the war began in 1763, which lasted 101 years, half of the people embraced at the time the Islamic religion and the other half embraced the (Orthodox) Christianity. The Russian state has declared war on a peaceful nation, only for the occupation of its homeland and finally annex it to the Russian state, not to mention getting rid of the vast majority of the people, whether through extermination or displacement to the unknown.
It becomes clear here that the Russian state at the present time could not hide its ambitions any more. In 2014, it occupied the Crimea, as well as launched hybrid and proxy wars in the Donbass and Luhansk regions (provinces) in eastern Ukraine, supported backed-Russian rebels of Russian origin, and lavished them with light, medium and heavy weapons and ammunition, of various calibers, in order to keep the flames of turmoil and disturbances wafting.
In July 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 (Flight MH17) flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine while flying at 33,000 feet, according to an investigation carried out by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) in October 2015. 283 passengers were onboard the airplane, including 80 children, and 15 crew members. In September 2016, an international team of criminal investigators said that evidence showed that the Buk missile had been brought from Russian soil and launched from a field controlled by Russian-backed separatists. [4]
Ukraine had arrested the rebel who arranged to bring the missile by truck from Russia to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine and put him on trial. [5]
The bright fact remains, which is that the Russian Federation is following the methods of the successive Russian regimes in practicing a particular colonial policy, and it is now practicing these policies against the Slavic state of Ukraine, most of whose population is (Orthodox) Christian, not to mention the war that broke out between the Russian state and the Republic of Georgia in 2008, as Georgia is considered an (Orthodox) Christian country as well.
The obvious logical conclusion is that religion does not count in wars, but simply colonial ambitions.
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References
[1] https://www.history.com/news/ukrainian-famine-stalin
[2] https://wou.edu/history/files/2015/08/Jeffery-Neal.pdf
[3] https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/ivan-the-terrible/
[4] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28357880
[5] https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-ukraine-crisis-mh17-investigation-idUKKCN1UC1S0
