#RussiaIsATerroristState & Ilves on banning visas for Russians
It's time for tougher measures
Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine
The United Nations defined ‘genocide’ under the UN Convention as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
There is absolutely no doubt that the war Russia, its leadership, and the armed forces are waging in Ukraine against Ukrainians and their armed forces is a war of genocide as
it targets all segments of the Ukrainian population—men, women, and children—in a process that requires systemized coordination and a willingness on the part of the perpetrators to inconvenience themselves in pursuit of their heinous goals, such as by chasing victims. Second, genocides seek to destroy a group, not just harshly repress or batter it.
Russia is purposefully targeting the Ukrainian population, and persues a campaign aimed at terrorising it: mass murder and rape of Ukrainian citizens, missile attacks on homes, hospitals, elementary schools, cultural centers, and universities as well as passportisation. Added to the list is mass deportation of the Ukrainian population in the south and east to Russia through what the Russians call, ‘filtration camps’, but may be defined as concentration camps.
“US Deptartment of State estimates from a variety of sources, including the Russian government, indicate that Russian authorities have interrogated, detained, and forcibly deported between 900k and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, from their homes to Russia.”
Please read the full US Department of State report here: Russia’s “Filtration” Operations, Forced Disappearances, and Mass Deportations of Ukrainian Citizens “
Through forced deportation, the Russians seek to replace the Ukrainian population with Russians, as well as North Koreans, according to reports that say Russian ambassador Alexander Matsegora said there were ‘lots of opportunities’ for North Korean workers who could be employed to rebuild the infrastructure in the self-proclaimed people’s republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.
NYT, How the Kremlin Is Forcing Ukrainians to Adopt Russian Life
They have handed out Russian passports, cellphone numbers and set-top boxes for watching Russian television. They have replaced Ukrainian currency with the ruble, rerouted the internet through Russian servers and arrested hundreds who have resisted assimilation.
In ways big and small, the occupying authorities on territory won by Moscow’s forces are using fear and indoctrination to compel Ukrainians to adopt a Russian way of life. “We are one people,” blue-white-and-red billboards say. “We are with Russia.”
Now comes the next act in President Vladimir Putin’s 21st-century version of a war of conquest: the grassroots “referendum.”
Russian media spokespeople and government officials deny any wrong-doing in the massacre of 53 Ukrainian POWs at the Olenivka prison but the OSINT community and analysts have pointed to Russian responsibility for the attrocity.
On August 1st, the Institute for the Study of War published a report in which it said it “assesses that Russian forces were responsible for the killing of 53 Ukrainian POWs in an explosion at a Russian-controlled prison in Olenivka.”
It said:
Satellite and other imagery from the site indicate that the attack only damaged one building, did not collapse the walls of that building, and did not leave any shell craters in the vicinity, very strongly suggesting that the destruction of the prison was the result of either a precision strike or an internally planted incendiary or explosive.
Statement by the Azov regiment- Aug 2
After the public execution of the prisoners of war of the “Azov” regiment in Olenivka, Russia is looking for new excuses and explanations for its war crimes. The Supreme Court of Russia recognised the “Azov” regiment as a “terrorist organisation”.
This pathetic empire, which every day threatens to destroy the civilised world with nuclear weapons, whose president said he will “slay his opponents in their outhouse”, blew up houses with its own citizens, suffocated its own and Syrian women and children with poisonous gas, must be punished once and for all.
We call on the US State Department and authorised bodies of other states that consider themselves civilised to recognise the Russian Federation as a terrorist state!
Russia has been proving this status with its daily actions for many years. Its army and special services commit war crimes every day. Acquiescence to these crimes or silence is complicity!
The whole world must unite once and for all against the terrorist state!
Russian intent is clear
Except for red-brown politicians and aligned media personalities, what is happening to the Ukrainian population cannot be denied: it’s genocide. A network of local NGOs and officials from Ukrainian prosecutor offices are gathering evidence on the ground, working hard to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Viksnins, Russia’s Crimes: Proof Is the Easy Bit
It is now 14 years since Russia’s invasion of Georgia, accompanied as it was by the familiar litany of Kremlin-instituted brutality and war crimes. Earlier this month, the ICC issued warrants for three senior figures in the puppet government of South Ossetia on charges of unlawful confinement, torture and inhuman treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, hostage-taking, and the unlawful transfer of civilians.
What can we do?
The free world has responded to Russia’s war of aggression by sending arms for Ukraine’s defence, financial packages for its economy, sanctions against Russian oligarchs and tech supplies, asset seizures, humanitarian aid, and many states have also curbed their energy dependency on Russia by finding alternative energy supplies.
We can do more. Isolating Russia by deeming it a ‘sponsor of state terrorism’ or ‘a terrorist’ state is one campaign many state leaders are now actively persuing, and the designation would have tremendous legal repercussions for Russia, its leaders and population.
Another step could be to deny Russians visas to the West: why do Russians, who have waged a non-kinetic war in the west to undermine our democratic institutions and governments, and are waging a war of genocide against Ukrainians, still have access to the lifestyle and freedoms we enjoy?
Former Estonian president Ilves weighs in on the ban on visas for Russians
A longer thread on Russian visas, taxes and how we Estonians are:
Ever since independence 31 years ago, the Baltic States and occasionally Poland as well have been continuously threatened by Russia, both officially as well as in the state-controlled media.
We have been threatened with invasion, with nuclear waste; our gas has been repeatedly cut — ever since 1991. Putin has said Russia will regain its “historical borders”, i.e. its borders 110 years ago, which also included Finland.
In Estonia in 2007 a riot of local Russians was organized by the Russian government, its embassy as well as provocateurs — “Nashi”, who got here by getting Finnish visas and coming over from Finland. (for obvious reasons we had temporarily closed the border)
It was obvious that when this awful war started, publics in the front-line states in the EU and NATO — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland — and a Russian media constantly bragging about how Russia would invade us next, would want to seal our vulnerable borders. I.e., stop granting visas to Russian passport holders. As you would expect, this provoked a reaction. “How dare you violate our human rights!” — which once again revealed the Russian understanding of human rights, of what is a "right" and what is not.
Visas are privileges, not rights. You have no right to just enter a country. We shall leave out the Russian joke about tanks not needing visas. It's one of those jokes that only strengthens our resolve. Visas are *granted*, not passed out.
One line of argument re: Russia has been: “you should give Russians visas, they will see what it’s like to live in the West”. Yes, propagandist Margarita Simonyan even spent a year in the US based on this naive belief that living in the West will turn you into a democrat.
As I wrote in response, Estonia is not a social welfare agency for solving Russia’s problems. We have no obligation whatsoever to do that:
More annoying was the advice I got from Russians and others telling me Estonia should take Russian IT experts as they are low-cost and that without low-cost IT labor Estonia's IT sector wouldn't be able to compete.
Kinda funny saying this to a country that invented Skype and today has 10 native unicorns, (or 1 for every 130k inhabitants, higest in the world). We hire talent from Apple, Netflix, Spotify. That is the arrogance of ignorance, which we often run into in the West as well.
In the particular case, however, we do have let in one of these model IT immigrants we are urged to take. Unfortunately and contrary to the idea that instead of depriving Russia of IT talent, all we did was import lawlessness, and Estonia- and Ukrainophobia.
A certain Ms X, whining about high Estonian taxes and how she didn’t want her money to go to help Ukrainian refugees Estonia, boasted and described on Twitter how she flouts Estonian tax law.
Mind you, this is an immigrant who enjoys Estonia's considerable modern services.
Now what you need to understand is that in Estonia we are, believe it or not, actually proud to pay our taxes. It's what has put us ahead. We boast who gets their taxes done first and how fast we do it (virtually all personal taxes are done on line for over 20 years).
This is part of Estonia’s transformation from a corrupt and lawless ex-commie dump, to where today we share with Ireland 10th place in the world in rankings of rule of law.
Russia is 101, behind Tanzania but just ahead of the Philippines.
So to sum up, our reluctance to take Russians in at this time is based on:
1. Estonia's history of mass deportations, brutal occupation and russification during 50 years, experiencing what Ukrainians in Russian occupied areas suffer today: killings, rapes, torture, looting 15/n
2. A 30+ year experience with Russia threatening to invade us, to "show us who's boss" cutting off gas supplies, kidnapping our people and using “tourists” to foment a riot.
3. A deep skepticism about transforming Russians who come here into non-imperialist democrats.
4. Experience with being taken advantage of by people like the rude Ms X who flout our laws and flaunt it. Thereby showing complete disrespect to our way of life.
5. Local Russian ukrainophobia/ hostility directed at people Estonians very much support, admire and feel for.
In short, give it a break. Leave us alone, we've had enough of our neighbor's behavior, here and in Ukraine.
And end visas (tourist, work, etc.) for Russian passport holders to come to the European Union and exploit our good will.
