UK intelligence explains why Russian authorities exploit history as weapon

The Russian leadership has been increasingly using history as a weapon to instil anti-Western sentiment among Russians and intimidate Russia’s western neighbours.

Source: UK Defence Intelligence review on Twitter dated 11 November, as reported by European Pravda

Details: UK analysts have noted that Russia’s Federal Archive Agency has released a collection of documents entitled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians”.

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It begins with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s article on the topic, released in July 2021, and is directly followed by his address on the situation in Ukraine, delivered on 21 February 2022, on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The book presents 242 documents, dating from the 11th century to the 20th century, that are used to justify the Kremlin’s ongoing policies and supposedly support the claim that foreign subversion has turned Ukraine into an “anti-Russian” state. Putin’s explanatory comments accompany the documents.

As UK analysts pointed out, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev authored an article on the history of Russian-Polish relations last week.

Medvedev accused Poland of pursuing an aggressive revisionist “Russophobic” policy, warning that this might lead to an end to Polish statehood and claiming that Russia and Belarus are capable of providing an effective military response if necessary.

UK Defence Intelligence concluded that the Russian leadership is increasingly using history as a weapon to instil anti-Western sentiment in the Russian population and intimidate Russia’s immediate Western neighbours.

Previously: Earlier, the European Commission accused Russia of falsifying history and spreading conspiracy theories to poison EU democracies with malicious disinformation.

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