In his latest book "Our War. Crime and Oblivion" international commentator, academic scholar, political science teacher, philosopher and writer Nikola Tanzer analyzes the political risks for Europe of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. Emi Baruch talks to him.
You have been to Ukraine many times, researching the processes in situ. You write that this is not a territorial war, but a war of destruction, a war between good and evil. You compare what is happening there with the Nazi era of Germany...
The comparison, of course, takes into account the differences. But when a Russian soldier sees a Ukrainian - be it a woman, a child, a man - and kills or tortures him with the same cruelty with which the Nazis once killed, I can't help but make this comparison. I know this handwriting - my mother was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp…
The Nazis said that the Jews were the bearers of evil, of the contagion, of all the misfortunes of the world, and pointed to them as a race to be exterminated. Putin does the same. But he twisted the concepts. He called Ukrainians Nazis. And the Nazi is the figure of the absolute enemy. He cannot be negotiated with. He must be destroyed.
If Putin could destroy the entire Ukrainian people, he would not hesitate.
You say that it is impossible to negotiate with the figure of absolute evil. However, there are Western leaders who are ready to sit down at the negotiating table with Putin.
We must be absolutely clear: when the four crimes for which there is no statute of limitations are committed: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, aggression - as is the case with Russia, negotiating with this power means leaving the criminal unpunished.
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For me, this is completely unacceptable. This means that international law no longer has any value, that it is totally buried. That Putin, Russia and the Russians - I deliberately mention all three categories - can kill hundreds of thousands of people with impunity. And in Ukraine, and before that - in Syria, in Chechnya, in Georgia… And they continue to kill in North Africa with the formations of the Wagner group and what remained after Wagner in the form of the African military corps of Nazi Germany… It is not possible to negotiate with the authors of crimes of this scale, committed in a planned, cold-blooded, systematic manner.
The Kremlin's terms for ending the war include seizing Ukrainian territories claimed by Russia. What would be the consequences if negotiations do happen?
First, Putin will resume the war several years later - time he needs to rebuild his strength. This would be a kind of reprieve, after which the clash would become even more fierce.
Secondly, it would send a signal to all the dictatorships in the world that Westerners are weak, that democracies make big, beautiful speeches about values but are unable to take the risk to defend them.
And a third thing that I really care about is that it would give Putin an official license to kill in the territories still occupied by Russia. Every time Russia has occupied even the smallest piece of Ukrainian land, it has led to the deportation of children, which is a crime under the convention of December 9, 1948, to torture, to summary executions of individuals.
Giving someone a license to kill is unacceptable. If we are ready to negotiate for peace today, that would indirectly mean supporting the Putin regime. He is the only one who will emerge victorious, not the democratic leaders.
Putin was the same before the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine. How do you explain the silence of democratic leaders after the repeated evidence of his imperial ambitions?
I am extremely critical of them. I write about this in my latest book. I think they wished they didn't know. We don't want to look, we don't want to see. They shook hands with Putin, even though his hand was covered in blood. To me, it's a form of guilt. Some indifference to crimes that have no statute of limitations. As if international law did not specify the principles that should be valid for everyone, in every democratic society.
This is partly the result of the influence of powerful networks that suggested to presidents, to prime ministers, to rulers that they could not stand up to Russia. That this is too great a danger. That it is better not to talk about Russia's war crimes out loud.
I will not forget some statements at the United Nations during the mass massacres in Syria - both by officials of the organization and by a number of Western ministers. The speakers were calling on Russia to influence Mr. Assad to stop the carnage, calling on the same Russia that was committing the same crimes in Syria at the same time. It was total hypocrisy.
You don't mention Western leaders' fear of nuclear conflict, a theme Putin returns to periodically.
For a long time, Russia bombarded Western leaders with the possibility of World War III or nuclear conflict. These suggestions were crowned with success. Western leaders were scared.
Even if the threat was fabricated, of course we should not rule out such a hypothesis. Zero risk does not exist. But it is good to realize that the risk is small.
First of all, because it implies that Putin himself will die physically. And Putin does not want to die. You remember his behavior during the Covid crisis and that terrible fear of his…
Also - how will his command staff work? What will happen along the chain? Will the Chief of Staff, the Secretary of Defense follow orders? I can't imagine it.
And more - when we see the state of the Russian army and their damaged systems, we can't help but ask ourselves if and how their nuclear weapons are functioning? All this is monitored very carefully.
We should not forget another external factor - countries relatively close to Putin, such as China and India, would do everything to stop Russia in this direction.
You talk about the powerful influence of the Russian propaganda machine. In Bulgaria it is very tangible. What, in your opinion, is the antidote?
I think there is one thing that everyone should do - journalists, leaders, activists, NGOs, politicians: show the scale and brutality of the crimes. To show them physically. Lifeless faces, broken bodies. Show and talk about it every day. To make this continuity between Nazi and Russian handwriting visible.
Secondly, it is necessary to show what the consequences of a non-victory would be for Ukraine. I deliberately do not use the word defeat. What would this mean for our European model, for our principles, for our values?
A Russian victory means more and more corruption entering the social body of Europe. Putin wants to completely tear Europe apart, tear it apart from within. If Europe breaks up, there will be no more European funds. Neither in Bulgaria, nor in other countries - here is something quite specific for most people.
Third, it would mean that we are accepting to play Putin's game - that Putin who does not lose the war... In fact, it would mean eternal war.
Do we want to live in this world or do we prefer to live in a world that adheres to democratic principles, to the values of freedom? There is only one answer to this question.