Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 20 – Many Russians
date Russophobia to the Cold War while others say it emerged at the time of the
Crimean conflict a century earlier, but Vzglyad commentator Vladimir
Veretennikov says it has been around for far longer than that as have sanctions
based on that idea. He dates both to 1480 and blames the Germans for inventing both.
Moreover, according to this
commentator, those responsible – the leader of the Teutonic knights Bernhard
von dem Borch for the former and the Hanseatic League for the latter – used
these tactics not because Russia constituted a real threat but rather to solve
their own problems (vz.ru/world/2020/1/20/1018748.html).
According to
Veretennikov, von dem Borch used a supposed Russian threat to build up his own
authority via “a good little war” against representatives of Sweden and the Vatican
and the Hanseatic League used sanctions against Russia to gain market share in the
trading of
key commodities.
On
the one hand, this article is simply a curiosity. But on the other, it is important
because of the three messages it sends: Russophobia and sanctions against Russia
are much older than many think. Neither is abut Russia but is about the nature of
the West. And both are rooted in religion and economics rather than
ethnicity.
More
than that, this article highlights something that is often lost sight of. The
Putin regime does not have the ramified ideological structures that the Soviet
state did, but when Putin sends a message, many in the Russian media are more
than ready to follow his lead and even extend his words int new areas as well.
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