For Central Europeans, especially Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, etc., the behaviour of Western states towards Russia is absurd and at least incomprehensible. We are talking about a country which has been treated specially for decades, if not hundreds of years. The country that in its history has only developed through terror and attacks on its neighbours.
While the terror of Nazi Germany has been condemned and most of its perpetrators punished, the terror of Red Russia has received little stigmatization. The Iron Curtain between East and West served more as a protection against invasion than protection against Russia. When the curtain fell, the West opened up to Russia as a friend. However, it is a complete misunderstanding of what Russia is and what threat it poses to the free world. Neither there are human rights in the Russian conceptual apparatus, nor is there a democracy or a world of values that include respect for any products of our civilisation. Many features show that Russians understand how important these values are to the West, but that understanding does not mean that they are internalized. They are only needed to lull Western civilization. Moscow regards the commitment to the values as a weakness. The West refused to believe in Russia’s attack on Ukraine because the military actions had to violate a number of norms that it took for granted also by the Russians. The Kremlin recognized this and prepared a war that stagger the imagination of ordinary Europeans.
Why didn’t the Poles, the Ukrainians or the Lithuanians fall for it? Because they had Russia firsthand experience. Millions of representatives of these nations died in the genocide operations organised by Moscow. This creates a kind of social superconsciousness. When the threat comes from Moscow, nobody is fooling themselves, but trying to defend themselves and survive. Of course, the word “nobody” can be a bit exaggerated. Moscow successfully installs an influence agency in the countries it considers its own. It leads to an economic and propagandistic diversion. To this day, there are groups in Poland that would not have existed without the support of the Kremlin. This applies to both the right and the left sides.
The vast majority of Poles, however, at least reject direct Russian influence. Even those who believed in Moscow are deluded by Moscow with substitute issues, such as disputes between Poles and Ukrainians or Jews, fear of vaccinations, etc. Moscow must create alternative topics because, with its true face, it will not work here. Unfortunately, it didn’t even have to change in Western Europe. Russian propaganda was believed out of stupidity and laziness. But there, too, the awakening is slowly coming in. I hope they make it before it’s too late.