Safest way to deal with russians
In one of my previous articles I explained what the best way is to deal with russia – through its total isolation and demilitarization, including taking away weapons of mass destruction.
This time let us figure out what to do with russians, in particular how to distinguish "the bad guys" from "the good guys". This subject is especially relevant in the light of the common argument by Western politicians that, regardless of the results of the war, russia and russians will always be there, so we need to accommodate them somehow anyways.
To resolve this dilemma, it would be useful to recall a soviet fugitive of 1970s and a former KGB expert in subversive activities Yuri Bezmenov. In his lectures for Western audiences, he explained the standard methodology of the USSR to ruin and capture a nation – through consecutive phases of demoralization, destabilization, crisis and ultimate "normalization" by the occupying power. Thereby the aggressor would skillfully use democratic principles to subvert the victim, to paralyze it in its doubt, procrastinating deliberations and ingrained desire to seek peace and compromise at any cost. When the attacked society fails to recognize the insidious threat right away and tries instead to meet it with an offer of goodwill and cooperation, its demise will be inevitable.
Europeans and Americans have become hostages of their own political mindset and human rights ideology. They apply their standard civilized reasoning to problem-solving and then wonder why their expectations about russia always turn out to be wrong. They erroneously believe that if they punish the culprit, they somehow betray their democratic values, and the eventual pangs of remorse deter them from decisive actions. By falling into this sophistic trap, which is nurtured by the aggressor, democracies precipitate their own destruction, even without a single bullet being fired. This is a true art of war.
Adjacent to this psychological fallacy is the deep conviction that each person must be judged individually, and we may never judge the entire nation. Well, it is true that international criminal law does not recognize collective guilt of citizenry. However, the notion of collective responsibility is certainly valid and recognized in politics and ethics. Nobody proposes that all citizens of the russian federation ought to be killed or thrown into jail. But at least over 80% of them, who openly support the war against Ukraine, abet, incite or condone aggression, definitely bear collective political, moral and – ultimately – financial responsibility (by paying future reparations from their taxed income).
There are probably a few million ethnic russians scattered around the world. Many of them still keep their russian passports or have dual citizenship. A lot of them enjoy the fruits of democracy where they live, yet at the same time they often manifest hatred or disdain for democratic values. Russians do not integrate well into local communities abroad. Their emigrants usually stick to themselves creating local ghettos, and then, at some propitious point in time, they claim that this is the russian territory, because they happen to live there.
The recipient countries have been tolerating this behavior of russians for decades. Western governments assume by default that all those people are "the good russians": (so called) political dissidents, (allegedly) journalists, (disguised) humanitarian refugees, (double-playing) peace-loving war mobilization escapists, (arrogant imperial)artists, (shady) businessmen etc. By initially embracing everyone, the recipient authorities are then compelled to seek out and run after "the bad russians": the above-mentioned categories suddenly revealed as spies, criminals, terrorists, subverters, corruptionists, propagandists etc. Russian embassies are a special case: diplomatic pouch can contain anything you wish: firearms, drugs, poison, laundered money, smuggled hitmen etc.
Is the West willing to tolerate all of that, because sorting out this perpetual russian mess is "undemocratic" and might hurt somebody’s feelings? Well, then you are screwed. At the right moment, those "sleeping agents" alongside their helpers among your own citizens or even some of your political parties will become "the fifth column", blowing up your infrastructure in real and welcoming russian tanks with flowers.
To me, a much simpler solution is quite obvious, as explained in the following metaphor: Imagine a huge barrel filled with crap wherein a few very beautiful and tasty berries float around. These contents are just about to be poured all over your head. Would you care to pause to pick out the berries? Wouldn’t it be much safer to kick out all the russians from your country - including their so-called diplomats – and then to let them try to re-enter individually after a very stringent security background check? By adopting this approach you will not violate democratic values: those russians who openly condemn russia’s war against Ukraine, who had never committed any crimes, who are real human rights activists, who are willing to integrate culturally into the recipient societies as law-abiding citizens, are welcome to come back in. We shall let those few "berries" in, but firmly shut out the rest.
By allowing russians to spread around, we increase the very real risk of their wrongdoing everywhere they go. By containing russians inside russia, we increase the chance of implosion and regime change; not through genuine popular revolt, but at least in a "spider eats spider" scenario.
Russia has always been an empire, and the overwhelming majority of the russians carry the seed of imperialism in their hearts, words and actions, even if they portray themselves as critics of their current rulers. The russian empire in its current territorial and political form is unreformable. Its preservation will never change its imperial essence and, hence, its permanent danger to democracies. And the break-up of the russian empire will be incomplete without killing the seed of imperialism in each and every russian person.
We are not obliged to accommodate us to them. It’s ok not to apply democratic standards to people who vehemently hate and deliberately undermine those standards. It’s not a betrayal of democracy to deny such people access to good lives inside democracies; we bear no obligation to let them in; it’s a privilege to be earned. The russians will need to go through a very long and deep personal and collective catharsis to deserve the right to be reintegrated into the civilized world.
When we are ready to accept them.
