Russia is a state that uses the argument of force instead of the force of argument, a state that wants to achieve its goals using nuclear blackmail, expert Igor Boţan stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to him, the phenomenon of deportations is a common one for the Kremlin since the period of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, a phenomenon that has been widely used by Russia in relation to different peoples and different ethnic groups.
Igor Boţan explained the phenomenon of forced displacement of Ukrainian children by Russia with the intention of Vladimir Putin and his entourage to destroy the Ukrainian people. According to the expert, the war in Ukraine was preceded by various statements by the Kremlin leader, who promoted the theory of the non-existence of the Ukrainian state.
"Russia is a state in which the force of argument is replaced by the argument of force. If Russia doesn't like something, the Russian authorities and propaganda talk about the possibility of using nuclear weapons. Half a year before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin was talking about Ukraine being anti-Russia. This is where the problems come from. If we look at the goals that Putin set for himself, we see that it is not Ukraine that needs to be "denazified", but Russia itself. Among Russia's objectives is the restoration of the world order, which Russia wants to achieve through nuclear blackmail," said Igor Boţan.
According to official data presented by the Ukrainian authorities, since the beginning of the war, 9,546 cases of deportation or forced displacement of Ukrainian children have been documented. Igor Boţan says that the phenomenon of deportations is a common one for Russia and the goal is to destroy a people's identity.
"We have known about the deportations of Russians since the period when Bessarabia became part of the Russian Empire. This practice was common in the Russian Empire and in the USSR, and the Russian Federation only took over these practices. In February 2022, three days after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the state agency RIA Novosti published an article openly saying that Russia's goal is to destroy Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We have Russian propaganda that daily talks about the need to use nuclear weapons in order for Russia to achieve its goals. We hope that international institutions will be able to influence Russia's actions. The repeated use of nuclear rhetoric points to the fact that this danger is quite real, and the international community for the time being does not find the right instruments to protect international law," said the permanent expert of IPN’s project.
The public debate entitled "What is the fate of Ukrainian children deported to Russia following the Hague Tribunal’s decision?" is part of the project "Developing political culture through public debates", which is implemented with support from the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.
