The young are the target audience of the provocation in Bucha
By Oleg Karpovich, Pro-Rector of the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Academy
A generational shift is underway among Western politicians.
The Economist, a mouthpiece of radical liberalism, recently published the results of a poll of the views of US citizens on the events in Ukraine. The editorial board was stunned by the outcome: half of Americans under 30 are not interested in who wins the conflict and a mere 47 percent of them still believe the propaganda myth of “the deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces.” Slightly more, 56 percent, sympathise with Ukraine to some extent, but this is still 36 points lower than for respondents over 30. Sociologists have also discovered a strong generational divide in views of the current crisis in France and Britain.
It appears that several months of mass brainwashing of the population in the West with anti-Russia clichés and disinformation failed to produce the desired effect. The most active and passionate segment of society – or, in simple terms, those to whom the future belongs – refuse to see Russia as an outright enemy and an absolute evil. This is surely concerning to the powers that be.
The generational shift in US and European politics may come very quickly. Some figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marion Marechal-Le Pen broke into the political firmament at fairly young age. There is also Sebastian Kurz who became foreign minister at 27 and chancellor at 31. More wunderkinds are on the way. The so-called Millennials are rapidly strengthening positions thanks to their peers’ protest activities, and this trend will only accelerate.
Obviously, young people in the United States and EU countries are tired of hearing old mantras about world affairs from Cold War veterans like Joe Biden. They are much more interested in domestic policy. They are also willing to look at the situation in Ukraine from a different angle, consider opposing points of view and evaluate all aspects of the problem without bias. The time is not far off when a growing constellation of new politicians will arrive in the European and American corridors of power and threaten the EU and NATO’s key principle of decision-making by consensus. The entire system that Washington has been painstakingly building for years will come crashing down.
The Ukraine crisis is a turning point for the Euro-Atlantic elites. If they fail to preserve the status quo and keep Ukraine in the role of anti-Russia, the overhyped unity of the collective West will immediately give way to apathy, dejection, dithering and political egotism. Under the circumstances, the leadership of the anti-Russia coalition does not want to see any shift in the attitudes of the younger generation. In the 1970s, young American non-conformists compelled the White House to enter peace talks with Vietnam, which essentially ended in surrender and the withdrawal of US troops from the Southeast Asian nation. Now that Biden is dragging the United States and its European allies into an “economic Vietnam” with his sanctions war and the enormous upheaval it risks, the protest movement is positioned to play an equally important role in changing the course of US policy. The anti-Russia elites will probably have to acknowledge their moral defeat eventually. That is why they are relying on old schemes to covert those who are susceptible to striking facts and images.
Sadly, what we are seeing outside of Kiev is not surprising. Although some media have already called the events in Bucha “another Srebrenica,” it makes more sense to compare them with what happened in Kosovo, for instance, the episodes in Racak and Lubjenic where Yugoslavian law enforcement was engaged in fierce fighting with Albanian terrorists. After some time had passed, the bodies of “civilians” (militants in disguise) were suddenly discovered there. They were allegedly executed by Serbs. Despite spotty evidence, the doubts of OSCE representatives and ultimately the reputation of the Kosovo Liberation Army that was behind dozens of proven war crimes, the goal of smearing Belgrade and conditioning the public for the bombing of Yugoslavia was complete. The opponents of military intervention in a sovereign state in NATO countries were silenced – propaganda presented any critic of NATO’s aggression as an accomplice in “ethnic cleansing.”
The provocation in Bucha is designed not so much for older people, who already believe passionately in Russia’s evil, as for the younger generation. It is no accident that photos and videos from the scene flooded social media in the first minutes of this information campaign. The goals of the provocation are simple: to take the legs out from under all those who doubt the correctness of the Western “crusade” against Russia, to convince young Americans and Europeans to forget about the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazi, and to bury forever the hopes for constructive dialogue. Nobody will even think about ending the senseless sanctions on our country.
The perpetrators of this incident obviously smelled blood (both figuratively and literally) and are not going to stop. New discoveries and accusations are bound to follow. After all, this is no longer a psychological war against Russia, where over 80 percent of the population support President Vladimir Putin’s course of action and the chances of rocking the boat are close to zero. This is a war for the hearts and minds of people in Western countries. In launching this economic onslaught against Moscow, Washington and Brussels simply forgot to ask their opinion. However elaborate or cynical the next provocations may be, though, they will not change the general dynamics – time is not on the side of Biden and his allies. It is just a pity that the lives and fates of ordinary Ukrainians are again being used as a bargaining chip in this high-stakes game.