The tragedy of Russia’s war on Ukraine in the Donbas has always been mixed with absurdity: There are nonsense Kremlin denials that it sends its regular troops into Ukraine to fight; there are bizarre claims by Russia’s proxies that squads of female Polish snipers, or drugged-up Ukrainian super soldiers, or African-American mercenaries are being thrown into battle against them; and there are continuing preposterous lies from the Kremlin and its Donbas proxies that Ukraine was taken over by neo-Nazis in a coup.
This ludicrous list was added to on July 18, when Oleksandr Zakharchenko, the leader of the Russian proxy forces in Donetsk, proclaimed the existence of a new country called “Malorossiya.”
This new state, he said, would have its capital in Donetsk, while Kyiv would become a “cultural capital.” This state would replace Ukraine, (which he absurdly described as a failed state, on the point of economic collapse), and would include all of Ukraine’s current territory, apart from the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea.
And Malorossiyans would, of course, inherit Ukrainians’ rights to visa-free travel in the Schengen Area.
Zakharchenko’s proclamation sounds even more risible to those who know a bit about the history of Ukraine. “Malorossiya” or “Little Russia” is an old term long used by Russian nationalists and imperialists to undermine the idea of Ukrainian statehood and identity. As such, it is offensive to most modern Ukrainians. The idea is a complete non-starter.
Yet as soon as Zakharchenko made his proclamation, Ukraine- and Russia-watchers started to speculate online about what the implications of this development were, and where this inane and half-baked idea might have come from.
Could it be another dark scheme out of Moscow, presumably hatched by the sinister Kremlin mandarin Vladislav Surkov, to sidestep the Minsk peace agreement? Or worse: could it presage another military onslaught on Ukraine by Russia’s proxy forces?
Well, no. For one thing, the Kremlin’s other proxy statelet, centered on the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk and in control of about a third of the territory of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast, said it had known nothing of Zakharchenko’s attempt to proclaim “Malorossiya” into existence. They even said they would stick to the Minsk process, and refuted Zakharchenko’s claim that a delegation from Luhansk had been at the meeting in Donetsk to summon a long-dead state from the grave.
Had “Malorossiya,” (like its predecessor “Novorossiya”) been a Kremlin project, the Russians presumably would have told their other proxy statelet in Ukraine about it. The Luhansk statelet, was, after all, supposed to have been part of it.
Then Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman of Russian President Vladimir Putin, refused to comment on the proposal, saying more time was needed to study it, adding that the Kremlin remains committed to the Minsk peace process, which Zakharchenko’s new state flatly contradicts.
Moreover, a few hours after Zakharchenko’s proclamation, the probable source of this nonsense came to light.
Aric Toler of the Bellingcat open-source investigations outfit uncovered an interview published that day by Komsomolskaya Pravda with Zakhar Prilepin, a Russian writer and nationalist who heads a battalion of Russian proxy fighters in Donetsk.
In the interview, Prilepin says he and unnamed associates came up with the idea of “Malorossiya” in order to “surprise” Moscow, Washington, and Kyiv. He then said, falsely, that his idea is in accord with the Minsk process – something other nationalist Russian politicians in Moscow would not even assert.
And in the interview, Prilepin sketches out other foolish ideas that Zakharchenko included in his proclamation. Toler concluded, and we agree, that Prilepin, not the Kremlin, was the one who thought up this harebrained scheme.
This silly episode illustrates one thing clearly, however. While Zakharchenko and his counterpart in Luhansk Ihor Poltnitsky were installed by the Kremlin, they are not, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says, mere puppets of the Putin regime. They are perfectly capable of coming up with really dumb political initiatives all by themselves. Zakharchenko also appears delusional about the true state of affairs in Ukraine, Moreover, the rift between the proxy statelets of Donetsk and Luhansk is obvious.
These are weaknesses that Kyiv could, with smart diplomacy, exploit.
