{"id":1117,"date":"2021-02-10T15:50:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T13:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rusojuz.lv\/en\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2021-02-10T15:50:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T13:50:56","slug":"russophobia-on-the-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rusojuz.lv\/en\/russophobia-on-the-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Russophobia on the move"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Tatjana Zdanoka*<\/em><\/p>\n

On November 3 last year, the European Parliament adopted report \u201cOn the foreign policy consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak\u201d (https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/doceo\/document\/A-9-2020-0204_EN.html<\/a>) saying that\u00a0\u201c<\/em>COVID-19 has confirmed the need for a stronger and more effective EU foreign and security policy\u201d.\u00a0<\/em>Four foreign states were separately mentioned in this context: United States, China, India and Russia.<\/p>\n

How did the majority of my fellow-parliamentarians (not myself) see the \u201cmore effective policy<\/em>\u201d towards Russia? They declare without any doubt that the European Parliament \u201cis concerned about the effectiveness and safety of the new Russian vaccine now in use; recalls that the quality of medical products delivered by Russia in some cases was very low and hence ineffective\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Three months later, the European Union\u2019s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell during a visit to Moscow said the Sputnik V vaccine developed by Russia is\u00a0\u201cgood news for the whole of mankind\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and expressed hopes that it will soon be used across the EU. This statement was made after the highly respected British medical journal\u00a0The Lancet<\/em>\u00a0published research saying that \u201cthe Sputnik V vaccine appears safe and effective against COVID-19\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not so naive as to wait for the public excuses of those politicians who wrote and supported the above mentioned EP report. I simply want to use this example to show how the widely spread illness called Russophobia damages the vital interests of the European public. To my regret, the viruses of this illness come from political circles of certain former USSR republics.<\/p>\n

In my previous publications for this portal (see\u00a0https:\/\/www.defenddemocracy.press\/help-latvian-journalists-defend-the-right-to-information-and-expression-stop-europes-descent-into-dystopia\/<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/www.defenddemocracy.press\/the-non-citizens-of-the-baltic-states-%ce%b1-european-scandal-nobody-speaks-about\/<\/a>) the case of my own country, Latvia, where the campaigns of harassment against Russian-speaking minority activists has turned to a large scale, was discussed.<\/p>\n

Here I would like to present readers with one recent publication showing that the very same illness is deeply rooted in another part of Europe, in Georgia \u2013 the South-Caucasus country associated with the EU.<\/p>\n

The study entitled\u00a0\u201cThe hostility to Russia \u2013 democratic institutions against democracy in Georgia\u201d<\/em>\u00a0is published in German here:\u00a0https:\/\/diskriminierung-in-georgien.blogspot.com\/2020\/12\/die-russlandfeindlichkeit-demokratische.html<\/a>. The author is Dr.phil. Gulbaat Rzchiladse, a Georgian political analyst.<\/p>\n

The main findings presented by the author are the following.<\/p>\n

Gulbaat Rzchiladse acknowledges that\u00a0\u201ct<\/em>he image of Russia in Georgia has deteriorated against the background of the hostilities in South Ossetia in August 2008. The then political leadership of Georgia has accused Russia of aggression and occupation. This statement remains officially in force to this day\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the author insists that \u201cin the meantime it has become clear that the Georgian people are not absolutely united behind the official position of their own government on Russia. Various surveys show that a significant number of Georgians do not describe Russia as an enemy and also plead for a political dialogue with their larger neighbours. In the Georgian population there was no xenophobic attitude towards the Russians, Russian citizens; not even during the war in August 2008 and immediately afterwards, especially later. This is evidenced, among other things, by numerous Russian tourists whose number from year to year between 2013 (the year when Mikheil Saakashvili\u2019s radical government was replaced by the new, relatively moderate government) and 2020 (the \u201cCorona\u201d year) impressively increases. The Georgian government, on the other hand, is forced to take into account the fact that Georgia is economically heavily dependent on Russia. In addition, hundreds of thousands of Georgians live in Russia, are employed there and enjoy the full scope of rights\u2026 The official leadership of the Georgian state and the political elite as a whole are therefore not interested in stirring up anti-Russian sentiments\u2026 However, there are many serious problems in this regard. The political situation creates dangerous tendencies in Georgia that are incompatible with a modern democratic system\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The author of the study gives \u201csome (of the many)<\/em>\u00a0facts that testify to a systematically anchored hostility towards Russia\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0He describes them as follows:<\/p>\n