The decisions by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland to ban Russian citizens with tourist visas from entering their countries have provoked indignant responses from many prominent “good Russians.” This indignation is telling and deserves a closer look. 🧵
As Putin opponents and Ukraine war critics, they are furious about Russia’s neighbors’ reluctance to open their borders. Their response reveals an important “blind spot” in the way that even the most outspoken and liberal Russians see themselves.
Predictably, they usually insist on referring to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine as Putin’s war rather than Russia’s war. This conveniently absolves regular Russians of responsibility for the horrific attack perpetrated against a sovereign nation. But there is more to it.
Their outraged reaction is prima facie evidence of unexamined imperial mindset. Or, to borrow @BotakozKassymb1 and @EricaMarat elegant formulation, “imperial innocence.” ponarseurasia.org/time-to-questi…
The genuine inability to see why Russia’s neighbors are weary of allowing in a large number of Russians lays bare the fact that even the so called “good Russians” routinely fail to see their own country as their neighbors see it. As a ruthless and genocidal colonial power.
The fact that even the most outspoken opponents of Putin’s regime fail on this count demonstrates the continuing potency of the imperial mindset in Russian society. That the idea of Russian exceptionalism is deeply internalized even by Russia’s liberals is telling.
In the depressingly ubiquitous narrative, colonialism is something that only the old European powers were guilty of, never Russia. And even among Putin’s most prominent critics, reckoning with #RussianColonialism is typically nowhere to be found.
A brilliant 🧵 by @MuKappa lays out how Russia is seen by its neighbors today. Until and unless this reckoning happens among the Russian population, Russia’s neighbors are right to be weary whether or not Putin remains in the Kremlin.
https://twitter.com/mukappa/status/1574051110654189569
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