Alexander Rojavin ’20, Law & Public Policy Scholar
Alexander Rojavin is a multilingual intelligence, media, and policy analyst specializing in information warfare. He is currently working on a book on modern Russian cinema as a key battlefield in the Kremlin’s information war. He is also co-chair of the Symposium on Disinformation Studies. In his spare time, he moonlights as a published literary translator (Routledge, Slavica Publishers, forthcoming Academic Studies Press).
Day four of the Russo-Western war has ended. Day five begins.
That is what this is, by the way. Not “Russia’s war in Ukraine.” Not a “Russo-Ukrainian conflict.” Certainly not a—so help me God—“crisis in Ukraine.” This is a war thrust by Russia onto the liberal world. A war between authoritarianism, as represented by the kleptocracy controlling the 5th-largest army in the world, and democracy, the “global West,” as represented by Europe’s largest nation, a nation with the world’s 21st-largest army. A nation now defending the borders of all those whom it warned of the imminent possibility of invasion for eight years. A nation protecting the continent that kept it at arm’s length for three decades. And now, with the West finally waking up to a truth that it should have seen coming from decades away, Ukraine is forced to prove that it is indeed the border guard of democracy—the first line of defense against armed conquest from the east.
This could and should have been avoided. But people’s memories are short, and internalizing the lessons of the 20th century—lessons about the effectiveness of appeasement in the face of irrational, smoldering authoritarianism that has financially integrated itself into a global economy—proved too difficult. So instead, we are helped to a demonstration of what happens when complacency becomes internationally institutionalized.
American audiences should be told what is currently happening on the military side of things. Ukrainian citizens are being blown apart in their homes. Russian soldiers are being slaughtered by the thousands, then cremated in mobile crematoriums whipped out by the Kremlin for the occasion. Russian mothers are calling a special hotline established by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to help worried Russians learn of their sons’ and husbands’ whereabouts. Centuries-old proud cities are being reduced to rubble because their inhabitants dared to yearn for the possibilities of democratic rule. American audiences must understand what is currently happening because of the West’s inability to grasp the history, culture, and mindsets of other peoples. The realities of this war must be relayed in the hopes that maybe this time, some of the lessons will stick.
These realities will be relayed, and I hope to have some hand in that, but at this moment, I will clue this Blog’s readers in to developments in the ongoing information war, which has proven a key battleground in the last four days.
First, a few nice words about two Western measures.
(1) President Biden is the first American leader in thirty years to effectively prosecute an information war. President Bush failed to punish Russia after its invasion of Georgia, and President Obama bears some of the blame for the continued occupation of Crimea and the Assad regime’s survival in Syria. I shouldn’t even have to speak of President Biden’s immediate predecessor. But by preemptively calling out for months the exact plays that Russia would execute, President Biden himself has accomplished multiple objectives. He conditioned Americans and their allies to mentally prepare themselves for this war, thereby legitimizing any uni- or multilateral actions the United States would take. He repeatedly signaled to the adversary that the West is keenly aware of its playbook and is prepared to act swiftly. And he denied the Kremlin any rhetorical room to hide. By dispelling the shroud of legal and moral relativism within which the Kremlin prefers to act, he shined a flashlight under the bed and revealed the monster’s exact contours.
(2) Just because the authoritarian monster can be seen does not mean it isn’t dangerous—but the E.U. has finally demonstrated a decisiveness without which authoritarianism cannot be overcome. Among other measures, the E.U. has outlawed the Kremlin’s international disinformation flagships RT and Sputnik. Warnings of a slippery slope, of the lurking dangers to press freedoms should certainly be acknowledged—and finally dismissed. Eight years of the Kremlin’s disinformation onslaught have provided ample evidence that the freedoms of organizations like RT and press freedoms are two completely non-intersecting concepts.
The U.S. First Amendment exists to ensure a thriving marketplace of ideas. But there is no place in this marketplace for RT or Sputnik. The fourth estate—journalism—is one of the most critical parts of a democracy’s immune system. Plurality of thought and diversity of media ownership must be ensured for the marketplace-immune system to function properly. But if we take this metaphor further, then RT is an autoimmune virus. It would be one thing if RT meant to participate in the marketplace of ideas. But its goal isn’t good-faith participation in the marketplace, but the marketplace’s subversion and destruction—and afterwards, the destruction of all other democratic institutions. RT and Sputnik are autoimmune viruses, and they must be treated as such. The E.U., to its credit, has finally done so.
In my next article, I will explain how Russia has waged its information war for the past few days and how Ukraine has countered it.
In the meantime, Ukraine—and the entire Western world—has survived a fourth night. Day five has begun.