As if by magic, Moscow is playing a diversionary game

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia –

Sometimes I listen to podcasts about the secrets behind the most famous magic tricks (the three-shell game, mentalism, levitation) and after reading recent news from Russia, I saw an analogy with how Russian propaganda has achieved the seemingly impossible. Contrary to common sense, the Kremlin continues to proclaim with a straight face that its attack on Ukraine was an act of self-defense.

Most magic tricks combine two strategies: one to achieve the desired effect and another to distract the audience from what is actually happening. Russia is doing the same with recent statements clearly aimed at increasing regional tensions surrounding Ukraine. First, the Russian government approved a list of 47 foreign states and territories whose neoliberal attitudes allegedly threaten people with “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.” The states on the list are now officially referred to as “enemy states”. Gone is any pretext for supporting a “multipolar” world. If you do not share Russia’s values, you are the enemy.

Those who appear to share Russia’s values ​​include North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran. What all of these regimes have in common is that they view the European Enlightenment as the ultimate evil. This takes the conflict to a metaphysical-religious level, and whenever religion directly intrudes into politics, the threat of deadly violence is never far away. Beneath all the talk of a new multipolar world lies the eschatological vision of a total war between two opposites, reaching the point of extinction.