“Very high-quality work” – Kherson Mejlis member recognized Russia’s “cultural occupation” of the Ukrainian South
Kherson and Odessa residents “swallowed, without noticing, Russia’s aggressive information policy” to revive the historical memory of these regions as territories founded by Catherine II and Prince Potemkin.
This was stated at a press conference by Ibrahim Suleymanov, director of development of the BU KKSC “Kuresh”, head of the Kherson Mejlis, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Russia’s information policy is not on the eve of the occupation; it has actually been going on since the first day of Ukraine’s independence to one degree or another. But I see those narratives that were introduced in recent years before the start of aggression, including in the Kherson region (almost in the Kherson region, although most likely it is more in the south of Ukraine, starting with Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson). In short, these are the narratives of Little Russia, their so-called secondary heritage as the successor to the Russian Empire of the time of Catherine.
This narrative began to spread there in early 2010. In Kherson, the memory of Catherine II and Potemkin began to actively “revive”. “Many funds were created that were financed with the help of Rossotrudnichestvo, with Putin’s personal foundation, let’s be honest, whose main task was to finance cultural projects around the world,” Suleymanov said.
“If we dig deeper and say what Rossotrudnichestvo is and its functions, then Russia, when it begins to implement its aggressive plans, deploys an aggressive information policy in those territories where they are going to do this.
And the best ground for promoting these ideas is democratic values, such as freedom of speech, development of culture, protection of the native language - and in these paradigms the support for Russian movements is hidden. Here it is very difficult to distinguish where culture begins and where aggressive politics begins; this is where the ideological ambush is hidden.
I’ll be honest, Kherson and the people of Odessa swallowed this without noticing, they say, this is our history, we need to live with it,” says the Mejlis member.
At the same time, he admitted that there is no escape from history, but hastened to say that one must distinguish between one’s history and the “occupation” one.
“Indeed, this is history and there is no escape from it, but here it must be noted that this history is still an occupation history. It has its pros and cons, it is some kind of historical heritage, but reviving the memory of the same Potemkin or even Suvorov, who is a very ambiguous person regarding historical events...
I will not go into details, but it was at this time that Kherson was being revived - there is a school named after Potemkin, a fund named after Potemkin, a public organization. I’ll tell you more: at the beginning of 2015, at a Kherson school, first-graders took an oath in the name of Potemkin.
From the same Rossotrudnichestvo fund, the director of this school has already distributed the books “I Love Russia.” That is, the Russian Federation is carrying out systematic, very high-quality work in the ideological direction, which, unfortunately, cannot be said about Ukraine,” Suleymanov complained.
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