Russophobia, the ’good’ racism in Norway. Part 1.

Good, why, how? In short because norwegians are being educated against racism and other forms of discrimination, but not against russophobia.

Russophobia is, for certain reasons, a non-topic in Norways media and among Norways politicians. A tabue. Russophobia does not exist, they say. It is not Russophobia to criticize Putin and/or Russia, they also say. They are right about the latter. But the fact that we are so prone to think badly of Russia is due to Russophobia.

Let’s start with state-funded Antirasistisk Senter (The Anti-Racist Center) https://antirasistisk.no/ and Human-Etisk Forbund (the Human-Ethical Association). https://www.human.no/ They are extremely sensitive to tendencies towards racism, searching, so to speak, with flashlights and magnifying glasses for signs of, for example, anti-Semitism. But they ignore russophobia, as a number of other ’anti-racists’ in Norway, probably inspired by the state-funded ones. They thrive on pointing ’racist’ at people. That makes them feel good.

Those organisations and individuals have labeled thousands as racists only for being critical of Islam and/or accepting too many refugees. They have of course also labeled critics of Israel as antisemites. But they never accuse anyone of being russophobic. I have challenged Antirasistisk Senter on this repeatedly. But they ignore me too.

The lack of answers from state-funded organisations that should be watchdogs of ALL kinds of racism prove that Russophobia is a form of racism that has been made acceptable by the Norwegian state. That fear is necessary to keep Norway in NATO. For many years I was maybe just as brainwashed or Russophobic as the politicians and journalists/editors in Norway. Yes, I would argue that they are more Russophobic than the rest of the population, as their careers depend on it.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.”

Elie Wiesel was in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during World War II. Later on, when he said this, he was referring to the fact that the outside world, at first, would not take reports of the extermination of Jews seriously and that this indifference was part of anti-Semitism or Jew-hatred.

Russia’s complaints against the West cannot, of course, be equated with the extermination of Jews. But the indifference to Russia’s concerns is the same. For since the 1990s, the West has ignored Russia’s, and others’, warnings regarding NATO expansion, interference in Russia’s internal affairs, and interference in countries such as Yugoslavia, Syria, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus.

So, if the indifference to reports of the extermination of Jews during World War II was a sign of anti-Semitism, one could also argue that the West’s indifference to Russia’s grievances is a sign of Russophobia, which is “the dislike or fear of Russia, Russian people, or Russian culture” (Wikipedia).

The similarity between anti-Semitism and Russophobia has been pointed out by many. George Chabert, a professor at the Department of Modern Social History in Norway, put it this way:

“The parallels between Russophobia and anti-Semitism are striking. It is not directed at specific historical events. Russophobia transforms characteristics such as barbarism and despotism into inherently Russian qualities, which then justify stigmatization of Russia. Like anti-Semitism, Russophobia can sometimes go dormant as if it did not exist, only to flare up with new intensity, awakened by the first and best event, whether of a local or geopolitical nature. Like anti-Semitism, Russophobia has a religious foundation that cannot be limited to a specific era. This explains why Russophobia is a Western phenomenon, more precisely a Northern Catholic and Protestant phenomenon».

What other effects do Russophobia have? Øystein Bogen (TV 2, norwegian state-broadcaster), who is anything but pro-Russian, said in his book Putin and me that he had noticed arrogant and condescending attitudes towards Russians among official representatives from Norway in Russia in the 1990s. Why should we believe that this has changed when one considers that a Norwegian diplomat in 2022 said «I hate Russians!» https://x.com/jaccocharite/status/1553314210179858432?

With such a mentality comes a tendency to believe the worst about Russia at all times (similar to how prejudice or bias works in other cases), that Russia always deserves negative coverage, that positive coverage must be Russian propaganda and that those who say something positive about Russia must be ’Putinists’ or worse.

Take the sabotage of Nord Stream (NS) the 26^th of september 2022. The US had previously threatened to stop NS2 several times, "by all means" (Donald Trump in his first period). Joe Biden also said so at least as late as January 2022. The US had also explained the reason, that they want to sell their gas to Europe. There is also a less stated motive on the US side: to prevent good relations between Russia and Europe.

But what happened in the hours and days after the sabotage? No politician, no journalist, no editor in Norway dared to accuse anyone other than Russia. They believed, or wanted others to believe, that only Russia could have destroyed gas pipelines in which Russia had invested a total of 15 to 20 billion dollars, and which could have been opened almost any day if Germany decided to do so (NS1 had been in operation since 2011, NS2 was completed, but lacked approval from Germany after US-pressure, and there was a debate about opening it when the sabotage took place).

The same happened after the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine was destroyed on June 6 2023. It took no more than a few hours before Jens Stoltenberg (then NATOs general secretary, Norways prime minister 2005-2013), Anniken Huitfeldt (Norways foreign minister), Kari Skeie (NRK, norwegian state-broadcaster) and others ‘knew’ that Russia had destroyed it.

What causes such prejudgment, if not Russophobia? And what about previous cases such as the poisonings of Alexei Navalnyj and Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia? Even then, Norwegian politicians ‘knew’ immediately that it was Russia that did it, without a shred of evidence.

The russophobic conspiracy theory/lie about Russiagate, that was nurtured by nearly every western media from 2016 (and still) was especially hostile and dangerous. So it can be argued that Russophobia is one of the causes of the war in Ukraine, as I claim in the subtitle of my book War, as ordered? https://bokelskere.no/bok/krig-som-bestilt-nato-ukraina-russland-russofobi-og-andre-aarsaker-til-krig/624400/

The next part of this series will come in a few days. In it I will point to personal experiences regarding russophobia in Norway.