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Konstantin Kosachev 

In Western capitals, as well as in the EU and NATO, they have already hastened to declare that they,  under no circumstances will recognize the results of referendums on the accession of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions to Russia.

All these opinions, which no one asked about, of course, will not affect anything, but in some respects they are very remarkable, and not only in the sense that their authors seem to be quite aware of the position of the majority of people in the liberated territories, as it was known to them back in 2014 in relation to the Crimea. 

Then almost anyone, even the most pro-Ukrainian Western politician on the sidelines could well admit that the results of the referendum reflected the position of the population of the peninsula, but out loud he was resolutely opposed to the right of Crimeans to determine their own fate.

It’s also about something else. The fury with which Western “democracies” pounce on the democratic will of people confirms a very important fact: it is not the territorial integrity of Ukraine that is under threat, but the fundamental principle of the unipolar world, according to which the legitimacy of any processes anywhere in the world was arbitrarily determined from one centre.

By the beginning of the millennium, this had acquired some perverse and grotesque forms, when Western countries no longer simply did not recognize any elections in which “wrong” forces won (and this has already become a standard approach: the result determined the procedure – if a non—Western candidate won, then the vote itself is automatically considered illegal). But it has already come to the non-recognition of elected presidents in other countries and the “appointment” of their own, more convenient ones.

This is not even the notorious “rules-based order”, which is established by one group of states. But this is an “order without rules”, in which everything is decided by one sovereign: where is the right to self—determination, and where is territorial integrity; where is a popular uprising, and where is a coup d’etat; who has the right to education in their native language, and who does not; who is a dictator, and who is a profitable partner, who is forgiven sins against democracy etc.

And so the upcoming referendums in the liberated territories deal a crushing blow to this claim of the world dictator to usurp the will of the world community, to this whole feudal-serf world order, where everything is based on the principle of loyalty to the “master”.

The results of the referendums “will be invalid and will not be recognized by the EU and its member states,” said EU chief diplomat Josep Borrel. 

That is, if we did not recognise it, then it is invalid. That’s the whole logic of the “liberal world order”, which is not based on the liberal sanctions inquisition and military “humanitarian operations” against dissenters.

However, the head of the European Diplomacy goes further: he publicly announces that everyone involved in the referendums “will be held accountable.” 

But we are not talking about EU members, and no one has appointed Brussels itself as a judicial instance in solving the problems of other states and peoples. But this does not bother the representative of the “democratic community”, who strongly opposes the basic right of citizens to direct democracy in the form of a referendum.

The Kiev authorities, who were invited to the European Union for their “merits in the development of democracy”, generally threatened citizens with real criminal terms … for participating in the plebiscite! That is, even those who, for example, would like to speak out against the stay of their region as part of Russia, because this right is fully guaranteed to them.

The Declaration of Independence of the United States spoke of a situation when “the course of events leads to the fact that one of the nations is forced to break the political ties that bind it to another people and take an independent and equal place among the powers of the world.” This was considered fair when the States were freed from the rule of the British crown, but it is denied to those who do not want to live under the repressive nationalism of the Kiev regime.

In this context, Russia’s special military operation is, among other things, a guarantee of the realization of democratic rights of citizens, and in conditions free from Western pressure, which has become a familiar factor in elections in any corner of the world, from Latin America to Central Asia and the Middle East.

And a few more words about the partial mobilization announced by the President of Russia. Of course, it should contribute to the implementation of the tasks set by the country’s leadership, which consist not in the occupation of foreign territories, but in providing the residents of these territories with freedom of expression of their will, which they have been deprived of for years.

But I would note another point: in addition to partial mobilization affecting military professionals (no one will send untrained guys to the firing line), a full-fledged moral mobilization of society is no less important to us. Historically, we have always been able to do this in the face of existential danger. I’m sure we can do it today. “Thanks” for this, including to Western politicians who have stopped hiding their goals, which have not changed, as it turns out, since the days of the “dog knights”. The riches of the East have attracted Napoleon, Hitler and all other Western interventionists for centuries. This turned out to be quite relevant in relation to the “community of liberal values” and all its “defensive alliances”.

But there is a fundamental point concerning the aforementioned mobilization of Russian society. I am deeply and sincerely convinced that this should not happen on the principles on which Ukrainians tried to rally long before 02/24/2022 — on hatred, on the superiority of the newly-born “true Europeans” over “Asians” and “horde”, on the denial of foreign culture, language and the rights of national minorities.

Our strength lies precisely in promoting the principles of justice and truth. In no case should we be like those with whom the Russians are fighting today together with the forces of the DPR and the LPR.

Marcus Aurelius said: “The real way to take revenge on the enemy is not to be like him.” Our enemy is not the Ukrainian nation, but those who have consistently led it to a coup, a civil war, and now to becoming cannon fodder for the sake of other people’s interests. However, it is even more the enemy of the Ukrainians themselves. And the residents of Zaporozhye and Kherson have every right to decide whether they want to live in a country where such forces rule.