Russophobia is a manipulative defensive line, often used by Russian propaganda to reduce any criticism of the Russian state to an irrational intolerance towards the Russian people. (Euromaidan Press).
‘[Russophobia] is a powerful weapon in the current Kremlin’s rhetorical arsenal – deployed mainly to obscure criticism of Vladimir Putin’s regime by smearing, stigmatizing, and discrediting the messenger’ (Brian Whitmore, RFE/RL).
‘Russophobia is a label to deflect criticism from the Kremlin.’ (Hannes Adomeit, Raamop Rusland).
I could find more, but I’m sure you get the point. There’s no such thing as Russophobia. It’s just an invention of the Kremlin. As Brian Whitmore notes, ‘Moscow has attempted to portray valid critiques of things Russia’s rulers are doing – things that many reasonable people can easily find objectionable – as chauvinistic assaults on all Russians.’ The idea that quite often criticisms of Russia are indeed ‘chauvinistic assaults on all Russians’ is thus dismissed as a fantasy.
I wonder, then, what Whitmore would have to say about Mike Luckovich, the award winning cartoonist of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Luckovich has received not just one, but two Pulitzer prizes, and in 2005 was winner of the National Cartoonists Society’s top award, the Reuben. Today, he produced this gem. It takes the breath away:
‘Russophobia is a label to deflect criticism from the Kremlin’? Really???
IRRUSSIANALITY 
“Russophobia is a label to deflect criticism from the Kremlin” … ‘and the Russians are so inferior that they are fooled by it’, he forgot to add.
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Anti-Russian and (when applicable) anti-Russian bigotry are IMO better terms.
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their rebuttal to the idea of russophobia defies logic.. i suppose that’s to be considered normal, given all else they state which also defies logic..
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unrelated, but here is a pdf link to a book by douglas tottle called fraud, famine and fascism that some here might be interested in..
Click to access fraud-famine-and-fascism.pdf
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Wow, what a shocking, SHOCKING, I say, absolutely “new” and “unprecedented” development in the otherwise very tolerant Western Media sphere, totally devoted to the principles of diversity and respectable representation, while espousing universal values of liberalism and human equality!..
…NOT!
The idea of equating “Russians” with the racists and Nazis is nothing new for the Western media – as I’ve pointed out here on this blog months ago, while mentioning uber liberast NYT claiming:
“As [Tulsi Gabbard] injects chaos into the 2020 Democratic primary by accusing her own party of “rigging” the election, an array of alt-right internet stars, white nationalists and Russians have praised her”
Reaction of the “people of goodwill” at this instance of Russophobia back then? A deafening silence.
So, why this (semi-forced) outrage now? Is this because “Russian” in this cartoon is wearing Charlie Brown’s shirt, and good racially superior Westerners feel themselves violated, at the perfidy of the Russich schwein-hund daring to violate the sacredness of their sweet childhood’s memories about all-Murikan “Peanuts” comic strips? Or are you outraged, because the medium chosen makes it easier for Russia’s counter-propaganda to illustrate your own side’s rabid Russophobia?
[Btw, I think this cartoon, and chosen words from the Western muckity-mucks of importance absolutely MUST be disseminated and brought to awareness of the maximum number of the Russians. The people must know!]
Besides – and what have the shy and conscientious former “Russophiles” of the West done to combat these expressions of Russophobia? Why, in this very blogpost our good Professor doesn’t even dare to say, that Russophobia (in any of its forms) is just plainly bad and should never be! Sure, suuuuure – “you mean it”, “it’s so obvious”, yadda-yadda-yadda. But if anything goes pear-shaped in the not so distant future, you have a (very formal) way to cover your… bases.
But if you think that Russophobia is bad and unacceptable, who do you combating it in your wonderful liberal and democratic Free world? With individual blogposts, comments and (re-)tweets? Hmm, sure this helps you appear individually opposed to that and also has the bonus of getting the outrage out of your system. Cool, cool.
Does it work, though?
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“Typso of hppaen”, as they say:
– “who do you combating” – “how are you combating”
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Lytt, I am not a fan of Facebook and/or Mark Zuckerberg, but I realize that for a lot of friends it’s the main tool to keep in contact. Since I don’t want to completely loose sight of one or the other of them I thus have a by now anonymized Facebook account, which allows me to e.g. occasionally check the latest photos of a friend in Seattle Washington.
The rather annoying at least for me side affect of all these tools is that I often receive automatic or real invitations to become a friend or a friend of friends. thus a “friend request”.
With that in mind, I read the cartoon completely different then you do.
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“With that in mind, I read the cartoon completely different then you do.”
For the record. Can you provide us with short yes/no answer, whether you consider this particular political cartoon to be Russophobic or not?
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This cartoon is disgusting and reminds me of the signs in the UK “ No blacks, No dogs, No Irish”
Which English people legally displayed Until outlawed in the 1970s.
I agree with Lyttenburgh, this cartoon should be seen by as many people as possible. This type of overt racism, has become so embedded in the culture. It is why it was easy to put Maria Butina in prison and call her a prostitute.
It is why war is not far fetched – the hatred is already there.
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NYT sports journalist Juliet Macur stated two distinctive categories of “clean athletes” and “Russians”.
Yours truly, was the lone voice busting on this overt bigotry by noting the hypocritical, but notwithstanding correct outrage over a hypothetical distinction between “law abiding citizens” and “Blacks”, with the followup that these stated categories are (somehow) okay on account of crime statistics.
Travis Tygart of the USADA is a bigot for seeking a collective ban of all Russian athletes from the Olympics. So much for RT’s annual rating of top Russophobes. Related:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/24102018-rt-russophobe-rating-challenged-oped/
No small wonder why the coverage continues to lack.
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Regarding the hack work on Butina and the matter of anti-Russian bigotry:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/12/us-mass-media-government-ties-remain-strong-on-russia-bashing/
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