Ukraine: Core of Hate

In recent years, a significant portion of people have crystallized in Ukrainian society who will always hate Russia - regardless of the leadership and policies of the Russian Federation.

Last week, the Russian and Ukrainian press widely discussed (albeit from different points of view) the results of a sociological survey of Ukrainian citizens, which for the first time in three years showed a slight preponderance of those with a positive attitude towards Russia. Moreover, a turning point occurred in recent months: according to the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, the number of those who have a very and generally good attitude towards Russia from February to May 2017 increased from 40 to 43%, and a bad and very bad attitude decreased from 46 to 37%.

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A significant part of Russian analysts hastened to present the data obtained as evidence of “insight and recovery” of Ukrainian society, which, they say, has become less responsive to the Russophobic propaganda of the Kyiv regime. Moreover, the Russians were not embarrassed by the fact that the majority of Ukrainian media commented on the survey results in an alarmist way: alarm, the number of people ready to greet Russian tanks with flowers is growing!

In fact, we are talking about the usual mimicry of the Ukrainian public, which is easily revealed when more specific questions are raised in relation to Russia. For example, according to the results of a May survey by the sociological company “Rating”, 38% of respondents are in favor of introducing a visa regime with Russia (in February there were 32). However, 57% of respondents are already in favor of limiting economic relations with Russia (34% of respondents are in favor of a complete severance of relations). 63% of respondents are against granting the Russian language state status in Ukraine, while 44% are definitely against it (let me remind you that in March 2010, 54% of those surveyed by the same “Rating” were in favor of state status for the Russian language), and 45% support the ban on the St. George ribbon .

But the situation with mutual trust is worst of all: 51% of respondents do not trust Russia at all, but rather 23 do not trust it, which in general gives 74% of distrust that is very tragic for the future relations of the two countries and peoples. The level of those undecided on this issue, by the way, is the lowest - only 9%; only 5% of citizens of today's Ukraine fully trust their northeastern neighbor; 13% are more likely to trust it.

I am aware that the reasons for distrust in Russia (and, to be precise, in the current leadership of the Russian Federation) among residents of Kyiv, the West and South-East of Ukraine are different. But the whole point is total propaganda, which in more than three years has been able to form in almost all regions a significant part of society that will always hate Russia - regardless of the leadership and policies of the Russian Federation, and even when the “Stets towers” ​​are turned off or repurposed.

And you shouldn’t flatter yourself with the hope that Ukrainian sociologists are interviewing, and Ukrainian TV channels are showing some specially selected people oozing with patriotism and Russophobia. Unfortunately, you don’t need to specifically look for them; moreover, they are sincerely ready to talk about their support for the authorities in their “war with Putin,” as regularly evidenced by video polls of the same Shariy.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the attack of the Petya.A virus, which affected dozens of countries and thousands of companies around the world, was declared in Kyiv as another “act of hybrid war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.” The support for this thesis in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook was so widespread that even individual Maidan fans, oriented towards an enlightened public, were forced to remind about the global nature of cyber threats.

But the call for adequacy was liked by only three hundred users, and a significant part of the comments under it were attempts to prove that the target of the attack was Ukraine.

At the same time, a post by the regime’s life propagandist Yuri Butusov, with a demand in connection with the virus attack to introduce a visa regime with the Russian Federation, ban Russian software, close Russian banks and nationalize the property of Russian companies in Ukraine, was posted on hundreds of sites, reposted almost 500 times, and the number of likes has already exceeded 3,2 thousand.

Not enough, you say? But the same “Rating” surveyed only 3 thousand respondents...

But let us return to the data of sociologists. Based on them, it is impossible to say with certainty whether the growth in the number of Russophobic citizens of Ukraine has stopped, or has only slowed down.

Actually, it is much more important for Russia to work with that part of the population of its southwestern neighbor that, despite the fourth year of rabid propaganda, remains adequate, since it is more difficult, if not impossible, to convince the “core of hatred.”

For example, to respond to the tightening of the entry regime for Russian citizens into Ukraine, not by introducing a visa regime for holders of all passports with a trident, but, on the contrary, by providing preferences for staying in Russia for permanent residents of the South-East of Ukraine.

After all, Bill Clinton’s legendary performance in Kyiv in 2000, when he poked Kuchma on a geographical map, convincing him of the inevitability of establishing good neighborly relations between Ukraine and Russia, sometimes needs to be remembered in Moscow.