Thread by @FranHirsch

The RIA-Novosti article--a horrifying treatise for #genocide--is a ramped-up and developed version of a "plan" for "deukrainization" advocated by the Russian economist and publicist Mikhail Khazin back in 2016.

Chilling to re-read Khazin's "vision" for a divided Ukraine. He had called for the transformation of Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy into "agricultural hinterland stripped of industry and armed forces" with "excess population" deported to Russia's Far East.

Khazin had suggested that there would likely be "several million" Ukrainians who "cannot be reformed" and who would "need to be partly terminated, and partly expelled."

There were a bunch of articles about this at the time in the Western press--including a brilliant one by Alexander Motyl asking "Is Russia Planning a Major Land War against Ukraine."

atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainea…

Of course, that brutal war is now in progress.

RIA-Novosti is a state-run media outlet.

Today's article calling for deukrainization--calling for genocide--must be taken seriously as a signal of Russia's plans and policies.

This call for "deukrainization" should make it clear that Russian atrocities in Bucha and other regions are not isolated incidents.

Russia's war on Ukraine must be understood as a war with genocidal intentions.

The international response must include robust and decisive measures for genocide prevention.

#RIANovosti
#Bucha
#StopGenocide

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