Russia’s brutal war of aggression in Ukraine is leaving its mark on families in Norway who are Russian. Or in families with ties to areas of Ukraine that Russia occupies. Some completely cut off contact with family in Russia, due to differing views on the war. Anush Khudaieva came to Norway from the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula in 2015. She was born in Armenia. She herself is strongly against Russia’s war of aggression. But the father has other opinions, and this makes things difficult in the family. – My father sees Russia as a kind of big brother for Ukraine. We share the same culture, almost the same language, he says. So we must not let the West take Ukraine. If Russia doesn’t take Ukraine, the West will. And it is the West that now controls the war, and if they are not stopped they will continue into Russia. This is how my father and other parts of the family think, says Anush. – I cannot refuse to talk to my family. She says her father is influenced by Russian propaganda, especially on state Russian TV, and that he has no other sources of news. That is why he has these attitudes, she says. – It is very sad and difficult for me. I have no experience with it before. We have had several strong discussions, but I cannot refuse to talk to my family, says Anush. She calls her father in Crimea, so that news can hear this directly from him. The father, whose name is Felix, confirms that he believes the West and NATO are behind the war, that Ukraine allows itself to be used, and that the West also ultimately wants to have control over Russia. And that all this is the real reason for the war. At the same time, he emphasizes that he believes both countries – Russia and Ukraine – are responsible for the war. Anush Khudaieva talks to her father on the phone from Crimea. – They live in an information bubble Dmitrii Bondarenko Griffin nods in recognition when he hears the story of Anush Khudaieva. He himself came to Norway in 2012, from Murmansk in Russia. He is a board member of SmåRådina, an organization for Russians in Norway who fight for democracy in their homeland and who protest against the war of aggression. – There are very many families who are unable to maintain communication, because it is simply destructive and very harmful for both parties when you look at the war so differently, he says. – But some families have decided not to talk about the war at all, just about everyday things, to maintain contact, says Griffin. Dmitrii Bondarenko Griffin is a board member of SmåRådina, an organization for Russians in Norway who fight for democracy in their homeland and who protest against the war of aggression. Photo: Tormod Strand / news He himself believes that Russian propaganda is largely to blame for the fact that many in Russia and in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine still support Vladimir Putin and the war. – They live in an information bubble. When they open a browser, they only get very filtered news. Alternative news sources are difficult to find, he believes. Researcher: Russia’s war, not Putin’s British Russia and Ukraine expert Jade McGlynn tells news that she does not fully agree that the whole explanation for many Russians still supporting the war is propaganda, that they are brainwashed. – It is a bit more complicated than that, she says. We’ll get back to that. Jade McGlynn is a researcher and expert on Russia and Ukraine. She has recently published the book “Russia’s War”. She is employed at Kings College in London. Photo: private But first: How big is the support for the war in Russia, and why do many Russians support the most extensive war of aggression in Europe since World War II? For more than 10 years, McGlynn has researched Russian affairs, where the topic has been propaganda, memory politics, and how opinion formation takes place in Russia. This spring she published the book “Russia’s War”. It could not be called “Putin’s War”, she says, because she believes it is a cover to say that this war has a large degree of acceptance in Russian society. Based on her own research and other people’s polls, she says that it is the extremes on both sides that get the most attention, but they are not representative of public opinion. Her estimate is that the extremes on both sides are roughly equal, with 10–15 percent enthusiastic about the war, and the same proportion vehemently opposed. She believes more focus should be on the large group in the middle, around 75 per cent of the population. In practice, it acts as supporters because they do not resist. She again divides this large middle group into three: One group is the apathetic, who say “I can’t do anything about the war anyway”, they distance themselves from the war and just want to live their own lives. Then you move a bit towards the middle towards those who have a more offensive attitude, where those I call the “loyal neutrals” belong. They say “I don’t know, maybe it was right maybe it was wrong” to go to war. But “I’m Russian and my country is at war, I’m going to stand with my country” and therefore, in a sense, will support the war out of a sense of patriotic duty. Then you have the group that largely supports the war and this is probably the ideal group for the Kremlin in many ways. I call them ritual supporters, in the sense that they agree with all the arguments for the war. But they don’t want to fight in the war themselves, and if Putin opened peace talks tomorrow they would support it, says McGlynn. She says it is this large group in the middle that is the most interesting, not the extremes. – Putin does not need “true believers”, they can be a bit unruly. What he needs are people who accept, or at least keep their heads down, so that Putin can carry out the war, she says. McGlynn believes the Wagner group’s threats against Moscow on Saturday do not change Russians’ attitudes to the war in Ukraine that much. – What happened on Saturday was a glimpse into a future without Putin, where war criminals are celebrated as heroes and where the average Russian remains passive. And where the main criticism of the war is not that it is a criminal act against Ukraine, but that the war is not conducted in a competent manner so that Russia wins, says Jade McGlynn to news. Professor Jardar Østbø at the Department of Defense Studies agrees with Jade McGlynn’s assessments. – These are very important nuances that are often lost when reference is made to opinion poll figures that show the allegedly widespread support for the war, he says. The Russian polling institute Levda also measures support for the war at 75 percent. – The idea that Ukraine is a second-class culture So to the question of why Putin has this support in Russia, and also to a certain extent in parts of the Russian-occupied territories. McGlynn says the usual explanation is the harsh Russian propaganda, especially on state-controlled television. She believes this explanation is popular because it is simple. It’s brainwashing, period. – Yes, propaganda works. But for it to work, you need a resonant base, the propaganda must resonate in something in yourself, says McGlynn. – That’s not how propaganda works, that you can just tell people that, listen, the grass is actually colored purple, and people start to believe it. “Russia’s War” by Jade McGlynn. Photo: the publisher She believes that there are several myths and attitudes that Russian propaganda plays on, which already exist as attitudes of many Russians and which make the propaganda so effective. – One of them is a sense of humiliation that many Russians felt in the 1990s, and which the Kremlin has been good at playing on. A feeling of personal humiliation after losing their savings, not being paid in money but in cucumbers or ironing boards or whatever the factory they worked for made. – Putin has been very good at taking that feeling and combining it with a feeling of national humiliation in the 1990s and that Russia is also humiliated by NATO, says McGlynn. She also believes that what she calls “Ukrainophobia” exists among many Russians. – This is the idea that Ukraine is a second-class culture, that Ukraine is really not a proper country and that you have the good Ukrainians who essentially understand that they are Russia’s little brothers, and then you have the bad Ukrainians who are traitors. This is of course a very imperialist idea, says McGlynn. In his book, McGlynn writes about the different narratives served in the Russian media about the war in Ukraine. Many of them compete with each other, but she summarizes what she believes are common features in the Russian media’s storytelling about Ukraine. It is about a West in decline, which is determined to destroy Russia. Russia is fighting against nationalist Ukrainians to save Ukraine from extreme forces directed from the West. Russian moral righteousness will bring success, against the hypocrisy of the West. Russia has carried out a defensive operation to get ahead of the West, and eastern and southern Ukraine are actually part of Russia. And the Russian military operation is helping to create a fairer international order. Jardar Østbø believes it is correct to call this Putin’s war, not Russia’s war, as Jade McGlynn does. – There are plenty of post-imperial complexes and traumas to play on for Putin, but starting the war was his and not the people’s choice. Although he has drawn the whole of Russia into the tragedy, he started the war without the support of the population. After all, he doesn’t even want the people’s active support, just the absence of opposition. Putin is completely dependent on information control, propaganda and brutal repression, Østbø believes. Propaganda must have a basis of complaint, says Jade McGlynn. The mother hangs up Daria Wagner is a sharp critic of Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. She now lives in Denmark. She says she has almost cut off all contact with her 66-year-old mother in Moscow, because of the war. – The only thing left now are formal New Year greetings and birthday greetings. Otherwise, all contact is broken. Because we have views on the war that are simply not compatible, says Daria Wagner. She says that her mother hangs up when she asks how Ukraine specifically threatens Russia. – My mother believes it is a fact throughout history that someone wants to take over Russia because they want our territory, our resources. And then we have to fight like now, Wagner says of his mother. Daria Wagner is a sharp critic of Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. She says her mother thinks the West is behind Ukraine, and we are all Russophobes here in the West, myself included, says Daria. – So this is complete madness. I mean, it’s not worth the effort. Because people who try to maintain dialogue with their families back in Russia, they just give up, says Daria Wagner. Wagner also believes that Russian propaganda is partly to blame. – Everything they say on Russian TV, my mother repeats. And it breaks my heart to see what it does to a person who is basically a good person. She has a good education. She has been a good mother. news asks Daria Wagner to call the mother, so that news can speak directly to the mother about her daughter’s allegations. Daria talks to her mother, who according to Daria does not want to talk to news. – They have limited contact with Norwegian society Dmitrii Bondarenko Griffin believes it is what he calls the propaganda poison that just spreads, which is the main explanation. The Russians are bombarded every single day with this poison, that is the explanation, he says. – Many are beginning to believe that Ukraine is not a separate country, not an independent state. What attitudes Russians or people connected to Russia have in Norway, he thinks it is difficult to say anything for certain. In the association SmåRådina there are several hundred members and supporters. – But of course there are many in Norway of Russian background or background from the Baltic states who support the war. Most of them have failed to integrate in Norway, they only watch Russian TV channels, he says. They have limited contact with Norwegian society, only through work and a trip to the shop, Griffin believes. There are currently 24,790 Russians or Norwegian-born with Russian parents living in Norway, according to Statistics Norway. news met Anush Khudaieva in the center of Oslo, at Akershus fortress. Anush is very worried about her parents, who she believes believe that Crimea may soon be recaptured by Ukraine, and that it is not certain that Russian forces will be able to protect them. – For me, it is as if they are sitting in the sinking Titanic. And I can’t do anything. I cannot influence them, because they believe everything that is said on Russian TV, says Anush Khuadaieva.
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The war creates conflict in Norwegian-Russian families – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
