Thread by @JackHua61612601

Today during the new phase of #UkraineRussiaWar, I'll talk about why Nordic, Eastern Europeans and Central Asians want #Russia to be disintegrated, and how pro-Russian supporters seek to undermine these narratives. Thread. 🧵

The map of Russia is very big. Including the Kaliningrad exclave, Russia borders 13 countries on land and one country at the sea. However, Tsarist and Soviet conquests also led to Russia having some sort of influence beyond the border.

Being an inland empire, Russia expanded via land, a different compared to typical Western maritime empires. And Russia has, for a long time, treated its colonies in a brutal, repressive manner.

Russia was not afraid of using brute force, as long as it could guarantee Russia's integrity. The violent nature of the Russians was so integrated that Vladimir Lenin, the communist revolutioner, even stated Russia as a "prison of peoples".en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_of…

Lenin's quote was subsequently used by people of neighbouring nations to describe Russia, a quote that remains true to even today.

Unsurprisingly, people living under Russian rule sought to free themselves from Moscow as soon as possible. Rebellions in #Poland and the #Caucasus, circumvention of censorship in #Lithuania and #Ukraine, had been the act of defiance by oppressed people under Russian colonialism.

At the same time, Russia's aggressive behaviour and expansionist attitude also brought calamities. Given Russia sees itself as a "special nation", it's not afraid of delivering destruction even at the extent of the livelihood of others.

Best examples are the "special military operations" against #Hungary and #Czechoslovakia in 1956 and 1968. All were to quash reforms in these countries and permanent Soviet military stationing.

Russia also sought to colonise other nations outside its original realm, such as #Iran, #Turkey and #Afghanistan often led to incursions and bloodshed.

The collapse of #USSR in 1991 was hoped to bring sense of reforms. It disappeared when #Putin became President in 2000. Since then, he launched savage wars against #Chechnya, #Georgia, #Syria and currently #Ukraine.

Russia has used the same playbook for more than 500 years and it has not changed ever since - only ruthlessness, destruction and conquest can serve the Russians a sense of glory. Ruthless emperors in charge of Russia ensure Russia's path to barbarism and zenith of evil.

Given the bitterness of living with a monstrous neighbour, it is not a secret why so many nations surrounding Russia join the #EU and #NATO or at least seeking some forms of security guarantees from elsewhere.

The recent Russian invasion of Ukraine only confirmed their open disdain toward Russia. #Finland and #Sweden, victims of Russian invasions in the past, bidded to join NATO, ending their neutrality for good.

Poland, #Albania, #Czechia, #Slovakia, #Romania, #Bulgaria and #Greece have been steadfast in supporting Ukrainian struggle for freedom, being the first to offer Ukrainian refugees home, given they were Russian/Soviet colonies at some points of history.

#Armenia made a stunning defiance by rejecting Putin's #CSTO, accusing the Russian despot of undermining Armenia's sovereignty for Russian imperialist project.eurasianet.org/armenia-refuse…

Even when Turkey is run by a paranoid #Erdogan who plays both sides, the majority of Turkish people overwhelmingly reject Russia and sympathise with Ukraine. They have seen what Russia did to Turkic and Muslim people.dawnmena.org/turkish-suppor…

Other Turkic nations: #Azerbaijan, #Kazakhstan, #Uzbekistan, #Turkmenistan and #Kyrgyzstan also seek to escape from the Russian claws.carnegieendowment.org/politika/88698

Russian invasion of Ukraine also allow #Japan and #SouthKorea to rebuild their relations and strengthen tie with the West, mainly the #USA, as Russian imperialists, its master #China and puppets #DPRK are aiming to seize lands in both countries.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/202…

In just a short amount of time since Russia's invasion, calls to dismantle Russia as an institutional state rose for the first time. And the first countries to urge for such disintegration all from neighbouring countries of Moscow.politico.eu/article/opinio…

The fear of a state collapse was so huge that Putin considered the war in Ukraine a battle for the existence of Russia in his New Year speech.en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…

Outside the fear of a state collapse, Putin and his criminal gang are certainly aware the ones that wanted to see Russia's disintegration, and thus this led to Putin seeking for his supporters from across the world to penetrate and make propaganda undermining these efforts.

That leads us to a massive propaganda campaign by Russian supporters from abroad, with the aim to rewrite the history and to promote Russia in some forms of a "peacekeeper", as well as degrading history of Russia's neighbours.

I'll take some examples. My trip began in #India, which is politically neutral among all the affairs, but past good ties with Moscow meant Indians have always been prone to Russian disinformation.

During the time of making extensive searches among Indians, including internet users, a common pattern among pro-Russian portions there are to evoke the Russo-Indian friendship, framing the West for wars and to deny Russian colonial atrocities.straitstimes.com/world/europe/r…

Over 30% of Indian comments on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook explicitly support the Russian invaders and they denounced Eastern Europeans or Central Asians of Russophobia.economist.com/graphic-detail…

Forms of comments among these pro-Russian Indians include denial of history, glorification of Russia to disregard of previous ties between India and Eastern Europe, framing it as a Western war attempt.news9live.com/india/students…

India's most notable media outlet, Hindustan Times, have its YouTube section increasingly aligned to Russia's disinformation campaign, promoting Russian views whereas blaming Ukraine or Eastern Europe for all matter, despite being highly unreliable.

These pro-Russians for over a year, also engaged in a systemic campaign of abuse toward Eastern European or Central Asian users who condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This is an example. A comment assaulting a Central Asian user after he talked about how Russian colonialism destroyed his country. And more, show how these pro-Moscow users threaten people of Eastern Europe and Central Asia just for one crime: opposing Russia.

Luckily, not all Indians fall to these lies, but combating it will prove not easy. A huge challenge lies ahead for Indian people toward the Russian disinformation campaign.

My next trip landed to #Vietnam, where we go to understand another complex network of pro-Russian disinformation campaign. Unlike India however, Vietnam's pro-Russian disinformation campaign has a more fertile ground.

The difference between pro-Russian Indians and Vietnamese is unlike India, a democracy by its own, Vietnam is a dictatorship with a Communist Party in charge. And the Communist Party has long seen Russia as its patron.

This patronage was rooted from Ho Chi Minh and strengthened during the Vietnam War, and maintained to today, despite Russia's subsequent failure to help Vietnam against #China in 1979 and 1988.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opi…

Thanks to this patronage system, pro-Russian disinformation campaign can flow to Vietnam easier than in India. The Communist Party did favour by censoring news that is not pro-commie or pro-Russian.accessnow.org/vietnams-socia…

This bred pro-Russian disinformation on YouTube, on Twitter and Facebook, as well as other forms in Vietnam. Many take place as educational channels, even in reality, it is to promote Russia's distorted history.

We can look at how Vietnamese reacted to protests in Czechia in support for Ukraine against Russian imperialism. While most Vietnamese are apathetic, pro-Russian elements also come to the party. Note that Czechia has the largest Vietnamese population in Eastern Europe.

These Putinists were openly scornful of the protests, some even went as far as viewing them American stooge. This was made possible by the fact Communist leaders in Vietnam censored info of Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

And even when this was mentioned on various YouTube channels in Vietnamese language, it is still not rare to see out pro-Russian trolls justifying the invasion by Moscow.

This is also the same whenever Vietnamese users come to talk about Russia's barbarity. Some radical YouTubers with official ratification like Vietnam Defence even promotes Russian disinformation. A notable example of his video is how he depicted Finland's NATO bid.

The scornful sentiment, disdain attitude against Finland and the whole Western world for giving the blessing for Finland without understanding the reason why Finnish people hate Russia is another example of Russian propagandists in action.

Because Vietnam is authoritarian, it is very likely that pro-Russian people are tolerated to spread out Russia's distorted history. Overall, VCP and Russia have a patronage relationship.

However, like in India, not all Vietnamese follow Russian disinformation campaign. In fact, since Russia's invasion, a growing portion of Vietnamese have shown their defiance against Russia and highlighted their desire for alternative sources.fulcrum.sg/vietnams-media…

Various Vietnamese Facebook pages and even individual websites have highlighted Russian terrorism, oppression and aggression to warn Vietnamese not to believe anything on Russia.

Even Vietnamese positivity toward Russia has also deteriorated (though negative view stands just 10%). In 2014, 71% Vietnamese have favourable views on Russia. Eight years later, this has fallen to 34%.

Still, like in India, it is not easy for Vietnamese to reconcile with Eastern Europeans or Central Asians due to their messy pro-Russian sentiment.

But while India and Vietnam are seeing hopes, this is far more difficult in #Africa. The long, nail-bitting memories of Western imperialism have made Russia a saviour. This, in turn, affected how people in there think about Eastern European or Central Asian narratives.

This is particularly strong in Sub-Saharan Africa, due to their geographical and cultural isolation compared to North Africa and the Middle East.

So while the North Africans still have their Arab and Muslim brethren in the Middle East and South Asia, the Sub-Saharan people are more prone to Russian disinformation.

Russia weaponised them since 2010s as the mean to deflect criticism on the West and to undermine Eastern European attempt to mend ties. And pro-Russian supporters in there follow a similar trend.

Although the pro-Russian fanatics mainly attack Western European nations and the USA, it is not rare to see Sub-Saharan Africans openly denounce Eastern European or at least Caucasian nations for their anti-Putin stance.

This is due to the negligence of Eastern European and Central Asian countries. Previously forced to be part of the Soviet sphere, these nations had built common relations with Africa in the 20th century. However, after winning independence from Moscow, they ignored it.

It's only now, though, that these countries began to pivot back to Africa. Although none of these countries colonised Africa, however, they share a burden for aligning with the West.washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Concrete attempts to rebuild this link have started with Poland's Andrzej Duda kickstarted it, who travelled to Africa back in 2017 with the aim to boost ties and to challenge the growing Russian influence there.archiwum.thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul/3…

Various Sub-Saharan African figures like Kenyan UN ambassador have recently condemned Russia for invading Ukraine, which is another good sign.npr.org/2022/02/22/108…

Yet it is still very difficult because of the effect of Russian propaganda. By far, the majority of Sub-Saharan Africans still perceive Russia as an ally and believe the Eastern Europeans have betrayed their honour by selling themselves to the West.

These Sub-Saharan Africans mainly believe that Eastern European nations chose to be the "b**ch" of USA and EU for survival, to blaming Eastern Europeans for racism, totally forgetting how previous conflicts influenced how Eastern Europeans view Russia.

I take three examples of how pro-Russian trolls trying to discredit Eastern European/Central Asian/Caucasian people's experiences with Russia. Although different in some ways, they share some similarities:

1) They share a strong love for Putin and Russia.
2) They accuse Eastern Europeans or Central Asians of hyping about Russian threat.
3) There is no education about these Eastern European/Central Asian/Caucasian countries' different histories, they are all grouped "Western world".

4) They believe after 1991, these countries sold themselves as slaves to the West and only Russia didn't.
5) They trust 100% Russian hypocrisies about anti-imperialist notions, which is, in reality, not practised by Russia.blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpol…

6) These pro-Russian fanatics believe that Russia is not racist, Russia is peaceful - which is also very different from reality.
7) They blame the West for everything but silent when Russia comes with the same intent of stealing or even backstabbing them.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/…

Again, this comes to the same story of my own Tweet a few months ago, explicitly explaining how pro-Russian supporters are their own contradiction.

https://twitter.com/JackHua61612601/status/1595672041390153729

Given this contradicting nature of pro-Russian supporters, countries that are previously colonised/attacked by Russia like Czechia, Finland, Poland, Kazakhstan, #Georgia and Turkey should provide a major role in combating Russian disinformation.

Instead of the leading Western nations like the USA, #Britain, #France or #Belgium, which are likely to be played into the propaganda of Putin, countries that previously suffered Russian invasions and oppressions have more credibility to speak about Russian imperialism.

The Russian invasion may have opened an unlikely opportunity to speak about Russian colonialism in the Nordic, Caucasus, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and maybe East Asia. Given Russia oppresses everyone regardless of religion, it's also a golden chance to condemn Russia for good.

Be a Chechen, Turkish or Kazakh Muslim, to a Polish Catholic, Czech or Finnish Protestant, to Greek, Romanian or Georgian Orthodox, to Kalmyk, Mongol or Korean Buddhist, they share a uniquely similar history of suffering from Russian terrorism, so their words are very valuable.

Putin feared them the most. More than the "West". Pro-Russian trolls may not know much, but Putin knows who. That's because they represent the truth of Russian colonial empire.

Not a surprise why the voices of the people in former Russian colonies will be likely to be decisive. Pro-Russian trolls may likely to follow what Putin instructed them, but the people who can bring down Putin's empire, will be the ones who know the truth.

I will take Chechen Ichkeria Interior Ministry, Akhmed Gisaev's words, to end my thread: "we have only one enemy — this is Russia". I will also share my similar opinion.oc-media.org/features/we-ha…