Inside modern Russia, some terms are used very differently from the rest of the world. It helps Russia to obscure its actions and to sell their narratives to the Western audience. In modern Russian, "Nazi" (or "fascist" for the internal usage) means "those who are against the Russian world" (actively or passively). "Nationalism" is widely understood as another word for Nazism. "Fascism" means Nazism rather than fascism as the rest of the world understands it. The "Russian world" means Russian empire plus its zones of influence, i. e. the Soviet Union at the beginning of 1950-s but without those socialist things and playing into the "union of republics" — just a mere Russian dominance. So, when the Russian media write about Ukrainian nationalism or Nazism, they don"t really mean there is any discrimination of the Russian-speaking population (there is no such discrimination; you can live quite a comfortable life in Ukraine even if you speak Russian only — in fact, much more comfortable than if you speak Ukrainian only, and Russia is aware of that). They mean that by giving more visibility to Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian language Ukraine makes a leap away from the Russian world. Trying to escape the "Russian world" by its "legitimate victim" is seen as "anti-Russian", therefore "nazistic".
Please! Western friends, when you ask to end the war in Ukraine, please, remember that if Ukraine falls there will be millions of victims — not brutally killed in warfare but peacefully executed in a well-organized manner. The claimed aim of the Russian assault is so-called "denazification" of Ukraine. As "nazi" or "nationalist" in modern Russian translates as "person who does not what to be the part of the Russian world", it means they are going to exterminate all those who has ever demonstrated an open unloyalty to the idea of the Russian world. That means millions of Ukrainians of any ethnic origin, preferred language, age, or gender. Any unloyalty will count, from open support of Ukraine and/or Ukrainian culture to posts in social media, writing in Ukrainian, possessing books in Ukrainian etc. It is not an exaggeration, it is what really happens in Donetsk and Luhansk (Russia-controlled territories of Ukraine). Stalin, who"s rule is seen as the golden age in modern Russia, used this method with the uttermost cruelty and on a wide scale. It is not the war that is the main threat to our lives, it is what may come with the Russian "peace".
(текст писав не я, але я з ним згоден)
