[ad_1]
Deciphering Russian propaganda is Peter Pomerantsev’s specialty. Born in kyiv and now a British citizen, this former television producer, researcher at Johns-Hopkins University, is the author of two reference books on the subject, including Nothing is true, everything is possible. Adventures in modern Russia (Saint Simon, 2015).
How did you, who were born in kyiv, feel when the war broke out in Ukraine?
Helplessness and guilt, like many Ukrainian friends who have since joined the army. I just received a photo of one of them, a journalist in a very hipster magazine; he took up arms. Same thing for a sociologist with whom I often work. Both are aware of not being good soldiers, but they want to make themselves useful. I try to be, too, by continuing my research on living conditions in Russia, talking to independent media and potential donors. And then I work on war crimes committed in Ukraine within “The Reckoning Project Ukraine: Evidence and Testimony from Ukraine”, a project led by my colleague Janine di Giovanni, with the ambition of obtaining justice in the courts, but also [d’informer] public opinion.
A month before the invasion, you wrote in an op-ed published in “Time” that Moscow’s foreign policy cannot be reduced to rational interests and that it also concerns “the intimacy of family dynamics”. That’s to say ?
I was referring to how Russia speaks to Ukraine, like an elder to a younger brother. kyiv is deified as “mother of Russian cities”, then relegated to the rank of prostitute sold to the West, or victim of “indispensable” rape [par la Russie]. It’s language infused with family references – in a very unhappy family. The most unfortunate ever! We can go further by studying the definition given of the Russian sphere of influence, which does not refer to rational national interests, but expresses the accumulation of frustrations and humiliations. The territory that Russia deserves changes all the time: one day it is a neutral Ukraine; the next day, it’s the entire Russian-speaking area. It is a fluctuating desire, which cannot be extinguished. Russia is like a child who misunderstands his own limits.
We often hear, in Moscow, references to sexual violence, when it comes to Ukraine…
These references are above all scatological. In 1999, Vladimir Putin was already promising to “kill the terrorists [tchétchènes] down to the toilets”. Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian cultural historian [1895-1975] has written extensively on “carnival language,” which is the language of private parts and feces. This is partly a classic populist strategy, aimed at indicating that one belongs to the people. Donald Trump and [le président brésilien] Jair Bolsonaro also use it. Russia, more than sex, has a particular fixation on defecation. It’s a matter of control. We also notice it in the permanent use of the verb shit (” take a dump “). The Russian ambassador to Sweden used it when referring to Western sanctions. There is something odd in these recurrences.
You have 67.17% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
[ad_2]