Marian ZHYTARYUK, PhD^
Victoria ZHYTARYUK^

Modern Russia, that is, Moscow, is frequently positioning itself as the Russian Empire, which understood only the language of force, weapons, violence, not partnership, negotiations and justice. Modern Moscow has recovered long ago from the USSR’s break-up in 1991, which the current and perhaps eternal and posthumous leader Vladimir Putin considers to be the “greatest geopolitical mistake” of the twentieth century. In this context, it is impossible to expect from the Kremlin nothing more than aggression, intimidation, blood and the horrors of domination.

If you go back into the history, it is easy to recall the March 8, 1169, when a military coalition of North-Russian principalities led by Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrej Bogolyubsky began the robbery of Kiev, which lasted for five days and led to the city’s decline as ”the capital of ancient state”¹ (https://www.jnsm.com.ua/h/0308N/), including the mass rape, slavery and murder of Kyiv women, mostly young². It is also easy to recall the Mongol-Tatar burden (Golden Horde, 1237-1242), which, in fact, continued to realize the power of Moscow burden – both for the Slavic peoples and for others, mainly Tatars. There is also in native memory the destruction of Zaporizhzhya Sich (1775) as the Cossack state in general, and the seizure of a large part of the Caucasus and Crimea (1774), and Moscow’s approval on the northern Black Sea coast. The seizure of Bessarabia in 1812 was only the beginning of Moscow fable which was lasted for tens and hundreds times and which is still valid, about that it is the Russian tsar (ruler) who alone defends the interests of the Orthodox and protects Christians. There-fore, it is necessary to be afraid of Russian language, Russian Orthodoxy and Russian birch trees, because these symbols are capable to actualize the possible “defenses” of Moscovites in foreign lands, such as in Transnistria (last 25 years), in the Republic of Ichkeria (the end of XX – the beginning of XXI century), in Georgia (2008), in the Ukrainian Crimea (2014), in Donbass (from 2014 until now), in Syria (in recent years)…