FoRB Podcast: The Russian World Narrative and the Russian Aggression in Ukraine

In Episode 3 of The FoRB Podcast, Dmytro Vovk and Merilin Kiviorg invite Catherine Wanner and Thomas Bremer to discuss the Russian world (Russky mir)-a narrative utilized by the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church to justify Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine and to portray Russia as an “anti-Western civilization.” They touch on the ideological origins and content of the Russia world, the Russian Church’s involvement in the war, political and legal responses to the Russky mir narrative by Russia’s neighboring states (Ukraine and Estonia), and debates over these issue in the United States and Europe.
Timeline:
2:55 The Russian world as a concept: anti-Westernism and the Russian language
7:00 Brodsky’s belonging to the Russian language
9:14 Conservative communitarianism of the Russian world
14:55 The Russian world is more a narrative than an ideology
19:20 Politics of the Russian world
21:10 “The Russian world has become married to the concept of victimhood”
25:25 The Estonian response to the Russian world
28:56 American debates over the Russian world and Ukraine
37:19 Little attention to the Russian world in German politics
41:27 Is the Russia-Ukraine war going over the Russian world and its values?
44:58 Traditional values and Ukrainians’ choice in favor of the European Union
52:42 The Russian world is something bigger than the personalities of Putin and Kirill