Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 4 – There was an
old Soviet joke about the definition of socialist internationalism. One of its
numerous ugly versions had it that this was shown when a Russian, a Ukrainian
and an Armenian got together to beat up a Central Asian. But now there is a
real world version of this, one that reflects the latest update of this kind of
“internationalism.”
On the By24.org portal yesterday,
Belarusian journalist Vladimir Chudentsov reports that a group of Belarusians
has discovered that the video game, “Russian Spetsnaz,” is now on sale in the
Ukrainian capital even though it calls on its players to kill Ukrainians and
other non-Russians (by24.org/2015/01/03/russian_children_preparing_to_kill_kazakhs_and_belarusians/).
The Belarusians who discovered this
were surprised not only because at a time when Russians are attacking Ukraine,
such “Russian military propaganda” is freely on sale in Kyiv, but also because
the existence of such games shows to what lengths some Russians are prepared to
go to teach their children to hate other peoples.
The game included the flags of
countries those playing the game could use as enemy forces. Among them in
addition to the Ukrainian flag were those of Kazakhstan, the historic white-red-white
flag of Belarus, the United States, Great Britain, France, Portugal, the
Netherlands, Iraq, and Uzbekistan.
Chudentsov points out that “Russian
Spetsnaz” wasn’t produced in Russia itself That country, he points out, “already
for a long time has not been capable of producing anything except oil, gas, and
military aggression.” Instead, they were produced in China on orders from
Russian businessmen.
Such “internationalism” is
disturbing enough. What is perhaps worse is the language accompanying the games
produced by China’s Play Smart Company. It specifies that “these games give the
child the chance of understanding the world around him,” improving his “intellectual
and physical health, his communications skills and his success in school.”
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