Russophobia

Russophobia  (prejudice,  phobia)
Interest of	• 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine • Father Andrew • Patrick Lancaster
Anti-Russian sentiment, commonly referred to as Russophobia, describes prejudice, fear or hatred against Russia, the Russians, and Russian culture.

Russophobia is a the irrational fear of Russia. It has a long history. It enjoyed it most recent peak at the hand of the Institute of Statecraft.

“The complete and unmitigated irrationality of the current epidemic of Russophobia does nothing to reduce its incredible virulence, as it continues to infect the entire political and media class. There is a zero chance that Russia will launch an attack on the UK, yet the entire corporate and state media is leading today with the “need” to spend billions against that most unlikely threat.”
Craig Murray (22 January 2018) 

“RF is not a “normal” country in most senses of the word. Crucially, Russians see life & the world very differently from us. While economics is of course important to them, in the broadest sense Russians are not nearly as driven by economic & financial considerations.”
 (13 January 2015) 

Modern Origins

Stephen Cohen asked in 21st Century Wire on 5 April 2018 Why are Western Leaders & Media Conditioning Their Public to Hate Russia? On 5 November that year, Anonymous leaked documents about the Integrity Initiative which used UK taxpayer funds to create anti-Russian disinformation.

History

A Russophobic cartoon from the 1870s

The Red Scare

• Joe McCarthy

Cold War

Full article: Cold War

The Cold War was a phase of history after the end of World War II, until the 1990s.

Cold War II

Full article: Cold War II

Cold War II is a 21^st century phenomenon, possibly reflecting the desire of the MICC to boost weapons expenditure. Vladimir Putin criticized the painting of Russia as enemy image.

“A superpower is a cold war term. When people today say that Russia aspires to have this status, I interpret it in the following way: they want to undermine trust in Russia, to portray Russia as frightening, and create some kind of image of an enemy. … Russia is in favor of a multipolar world, a democratic world order, strengthening the system of international law, and for developing a legal system in which any small country, even a very small country, can feel itself secure, as if behind a stone wall. … Russia is ready to become part of this multipolar world and guarantee that the international community observes these rules. And not as a superpower with special rights, but rather as an equal among equals.”
Vladimir Putin,  Kremlin (2007) 

 

Examples

Page name	Description
Cold War Then and Now?	A free conference that appears to have been part of a broader campaign by the Institute for Statecraft to promote Cold War 2.0.
National Centre for Information Defence	NCID, another tool in the MI5/MI6 armoury

 

Russophobia victims on Wikispooks

Title	Description
'Restitutor '	An X account with a focus on alternative media
Keir Giles	Russophobic UK deep state operative, member of Integrity Initiative.
Euan Grant	Spooky journalist/propagandist who worked for the Integrity Initiative interested in financial fraud. "His main forte is thinking strategically and has experience working in many countries around the world."
Integrity Initiative	A "military-directed", "extremely shady covert disinformation and anti-democratic deep state outfit" run by Russophobic propagandists. Exposed by a set of 7 caches of documents, posted online. Its website was later deleted.
Martin Kragh	Leader of the Swedish cluster of the Integrity Initiative
Michael McFaul	US Ambassador to Russia 2012-2014
Sofi Oksanen	Finnish FoE YEL 2012 writer and playwright
Bob Seely	English politician who appears to be suffering from Russophobia

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
"Russian Propaganda"	“What's funny about all this is that by constantly warning of the dangers of Russian propaganda, imperial spinmeisters are admitting that they know it's possible to manipulate public thought at mass scale using media. They're just lying about who's doing it to us. In reality, they're not worried about Russian propaganda. "Russian propaganda" is just a spooky story we are told to keep us from noticing that our civilisation is saturated in US propaganda.”	Caitlin Johnstone	31 August 2022
Institute for Statecraft/Purposes	“Putin will be around for the foreseeable future - even if he went, what comes after Putin, wouldn't be much better. We believe we will have to face the Russian challenge for many years to come.”	Integrity Initiative
Mahathir Mohamad	“The conclusions of the Joint Investigation Team that there's a clear link with Russia is hearsay. We as Malaysians are very unhappy because it became a political case from the start just to be able to accuse Russia of wrongdoing.”	Mahathir Mohamad	2019
National Centre for Information Defence	“In recent years we have seen an industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and that of many of our allies. "Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fears. They’ve used bots and fake websites. Falsified newspaper articles. Forged the branding of 28 British organisations – including universities and the BBC. They’ve amplified far right narratives. "And we have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 General Election. "We also know that they have tried to stoke tensions and unrest in the wake of horrific events. The idea that anyone would try to use such things to their advantage is just repulsive – but it is what they do. The Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information. We’re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community – creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair. On top of that we have seen cyber-attacks on our companies and institutions. And we know that A.I. will multiply the threat. "Today I am tasking our security chiefs to begin work on a new National Centre for Information Defence – to detect, attribute and disrupt these kinds of hostile state information attacks. To support and defend our democracy. "And I know this is a shared challenge. So we are going to use our experience in the UK – and the fact that we have already been through this shock – to help other countries. "We have already supported Moldova to protect its elections from Russian interference. "As more elections approach across Europe, more nations are grappling with these issues – some for the first time. So we’re ready to share our understanding of how these actors work, and how we can respond – because this is vital for our collective security and resilience. "To overcome division and instability, we must also find new ways to bring countries together. We know that we are at our strongest when we unite with others – when we reach across borders to solve shared problems.”	Andy Burnham	22 September 2026
PropOrNot	“the following are tropes/slurs primarily used by Russian propaganda: “Neocon”, “neoliberal”, “Zionist”, “corporatist”, “warmonger”, “Rothschild”, “imperialist”, & “establishment”.”		7 January 2019
Tim Sweijs	“The Russian aggression in Crimea has deeper roots. The Russian forces are being transformed from a big group of army conscripts to smaller, agile modern units. Underneath that is also the militarization of society. There are TV-channels that don't broadcast 'The Voice', but competition between tank-divisions on some trail.”	Tim Sweijs	11 June 2015
Mark Urban	“Mark Urban’s piece for Newsnight tonight was simply disgusting; it did not even pretend to be more than a propaganda piece on behalf of the security services, who had told Urban (as he said) that Yulia Skripal's phone “could have been” tapped by the Russians and they “might even” have listened to her conversations through the microphone in her telephone. That was the “new evidence” that the Russians were behind everything. As a former British Ambassador I can tell you with certainty that indeed the Russians might have tapped Yulia, but GCHQ most definitely would have. It is, after all, their job, and billions of our taxes go into it. If tapping of phones is seriously presented as evidence of intent to murder, the British government must be very murderous indeed.”	Craig Murray Mark Urban	5 July 2018

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Myths about Contemporary Russia	article	28 April 2014	Father Andrew	An article that comprehensively refutes the major western demonising myths about Russia
Document:Springtime for Russophobia	article	6 September 2014	Mark Hackard	On the roots of the Russo-phobia of Western Establishments and its burgeoning in the wake of Russia's clear red-line over Ukraine
Document:The Salisbury Festival of Russophobia Opens Today	blog post	14 October 2024	Craig Murray	"The Public Inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, like the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, is designed entirely to conceal the truth and further the official narrative."

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