
Lucas Leiroz, research fellow in international law at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
The so-called "cancel culture" has become commonplace in the West. It is a very totalitarian way of reacting to political stimuli, simply trying to "ignore" the existence of people, movements and organizations with ideas that do not share the hegemonic liberal discourse. In the international arena, this culture is beginning to emerge on the part of the West against non-aligned states. This is the current case of the crisis in Ukraine. Western states have adhered to a "state cancel culture", through which it is planned to simply ignore the existence of the Russian Federation.
Exclusion from the financial system, flights ban, eliminations from cultural and sporting events and even boycotting trademarks. Apparently, Russia has been "cancelled" from the globalized world because of its special operation in Ukraine. While sanctions against Moscow were expected, trying to “imagine” that Russia does not exist seems a truly exaggerated and surprising move. And this reveals an extremely authoritarian facet of the liberal West.
Not only the governments are implementing abusive sanctions on Russia, but also private companies continue to announce the progressive cancellation of the country. The shipping corporations Maersk and MSC Cargo, for example, have indefinitely suspended the transport of goods to or from Russia. YouTube has blocked channels linked to the Russia Today TV network and the Sputnik portal. Apple also removed Russian apps from the App Store and stopped selling its products in the country. Oil companies BP, Shell and Norway's Equinor have cut ties with their Russian partners. Multinational car manufacturing companies have stopped production in Russia. Boeing and Airbus also stopped operations. And even in the cultural arena there are sanctions, like Warner canceling the release of the new Batman movie there.
In the sports scenario, the punishments also have been severe. Russian clubs are banned from European competitions and the Russian national team excluded from the next World Cup. The International Olympic Committee is also banning Russian athletes from its upcoming events. In addition, the international judo and taekwondo federations revoked Vladimir Putin's black belt in both martial arts.
Indeed, there seem to be "bans" everywhere. American stores are banning Russian products. An Italian university canceled an academic event about Dostoevsky simply because he was a Russian author. At an international pet beauty event, cats with Russian owners were excluded. And several other maneuvers have been reported in different parts of the world. The objective seems very clear: to ignore the existence of Russia.
This has even happened within the UN itself, where speeches by Russian officials have been ignored in recent days, with listeners withdrawing from auditoriums during the pronouncements. More serious than that, recently, spokespersons from Washington and London have started talking about the possibility of eliminating Russia's permanent seat at the Security Council, which sounds like an absurd coup attempt at the heart of the organization.
These maneuvers reveal a very serious problem in contemporary Western society, which is the impossibility of rational dialogue between opposing ideas. Western governments are not willing to listen to the reasons why Russia decided to carry out the operation in Ukraine. Russian arguments and data about Kiev's genocidal practices in the Donbass are ignored and Russia is treated as a "global enemy". As a war between nuclear powers is virtually impossible to occur without generating the end of humanity, the West's bet is to launch a kind of "non-military total war", acting in the economic and cultural arena, and excluding Moscow from the Washington-led globalization.
Fortunately, however, globalization is no longer an American "property", being operated by several non-aligned agents in a process of gradual economic and geopolitical multipolarization. Russia and China are strengthening their ties more and more, guaranteeing from Beijing to Moscow a material support capable of filling much of the void left by the Western "cancellation". The same tends to happen with Belarus and all Moscow-allied countries that suffer from Western sanctions.
From a realistic perspective, it is more likely that the Western attempt to cancel Russia will generate as a side effect a major motivation in the construction of a multipolar world, as it will further force Moscow to strengthen ties with Beijing and seek to consolidate alternative plans of international cooperation. The West is putting an end to its own "Western globalization" and driving new globalizing processes in which Washington's influence will be null.
The Western media claims that Russia is “alone”, but ties to China show that this is not true. No country that has the world's second-largest economy as an ally is truly "alone" - even more so considering the BRI’s global route. China's partners tend to become Russian partners as well, and this prevents any form of "isolation" as planned by the West.
In fact, cancel culture is wrong in itself and must be fought. This culture is reprehensible when applied to individuals and organizations, and even more so when converted into state policy. It is not ethically acceptable for Western powers to try to create a kind of simulated reality in which the biggest country in the world does not exist. This type of measure, in addition to being totalitarian and extremist, is ineffective in its aims and tends only to failure – and the West will understand this soon.