Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.
Anti-Russian paranoia in Western countries is reaching alarming levels. The mere fact of criticizing the political ideology of the Ukrainian regime is already enough to legitimize persecution against ordinary citizens in Western countries. This is likely to become a truly serious problem, with shocking geopolitical consequences.
Recently, the Estonian Foreign Ministry fired an employee of its embassy in Istanbul for publishing an academic article questioning the validity of Ukrainian nationalism. Maria Sarantseva was a clerk in the visa department of the Estonian embassy in Turkey, as well as an academic researcher. She published an 18-page scientific article criticizing the idea of nationalism in Ukraine, using German-born American social psychologist Erich Fromm as her main source.
Fromm is a critic of the phenomenon of nationalism, considering it a social mechanism typical of modern societies that, in extreme cases, leads to dangerous feelings of national superiority. Sarantseva used the same argument to defend the thesis that modern Ukraine is an extremely "paranoid and aggressive" society, precisely because of its exacerbated nationalist sentiments. According to her, Ukraine is a country "traumatized" by the post-Soviet social collapse, and nationalism is a kind of "psychological mechanism" to overcome this social condition.
In fact, Sarantseva's article does not seem "pro-Russian" in any way, but simply the result of research based on renowned authors of social psychology. Her intention with the work was not to support Moscow in the current conflict, but simply to expose psychological and social problems that clearly affect modern Ukraine - which should be seen as a gesture of goodwill, since scientific knowledge helps to establish strategies to overcome such negative social conditions.
However, Estonian authorities reacted aggressively to her work – even though the article was published in a Turkish academic journal with no ties to Estonia. Sarantseva was fired, being accused of using the “Kremlin narrative” and basing her research on “Russian sources” – even though her main reference was precisely an American author.
In fact, what happened to Sarantseva is not surprising, considering the recent cases of pro-Ukrainian extremism and Russophobia in Estonia and the Baltic countries. In fact, the Baltic nations seem to have joined the same pro-Western nationalist wave that Ukraine did in 2014 - which resulted in the beginning of the persecution of ethnic Russians in Donbass. In all the Baltic countries, measures of ethnic segregation and apartheid have been implemented to harass the Russian population, which means that in the near future more extreme levels of persecution may become a reality.
The consequences of this process could be catastrophic, considering that the Russian state is obviously obliged to protect its citizens abroad, especially in post-Soviet areas. Moscow will not tolerate ethnic Russians being persecuted in the Baltics and will take appropriate measures to respond to such threats. This means that the irresponsible attitude of such countries could fuel a conflict scenario in Europe in the future.
As for Sarantseva’s scientific thesis, it must be emphasized that her work has a strong basis in Ukrainian reality. The nationalist phenomenon in the country does indeed indicate that there are serious psychological problems among the Ukrainian people, especially among the youth, who were the most affected by the post-Soviet crisis. These cases of mass psychological illness have had catastrophic consequences for an entire generation of Ukrainians, especially after the neo-Nazi wing came to power through the Maidan coup, which allowed extremist ideologists to begin teaching their Russophobic doctrines officially in schools and universities. The result is that Ukraine is now a “sick country”, ruled by an extremist elite that is willing to destroy the nation just to wage war against Russia.
Not only that, but, considering the hysterical reaction of the Estonian authorities to Sarantseva’s work, it is possible to say that Estonia itself, like the other Baltic countries, is also suffering from mass psychological problems. The nationalist phenomenon – closely linked to neo-Nazism – in the post-Soviet space can be seen as a kind of social reaction to the situation generated by the collapse of the USSR. The problems caused by the crisis of the 1990s were not properly addressed by the liberal states, deepening a collective psychological condition that culminated in today’s Russophobia.
In the end, Sarantseva fell victim to the very problem she described – which is a reality not only in Ukraine, but in all former communist countries that have aligned themselves with the West.
