No more Russia for the rest of the 21st century?

Juris Kaža
5 min readApr 13, 2022

A civilized Europe must prepare for decades, if not a century ‘without Russia’. Not literally, as it would be if, with hugely devastating global side effects, Moscow triggered an exchange of nuclear strikes and left a “glass desert” — melted sand — instead of Moscow. This, hopefully, will not happen.

Rather, Russia will be associated for a long time with a “rogue state” and also with a degraded, psychologically and socially crippled to the point of blind ignorant aggression warped Russian nation — Ruskiy Mir. If not already, it will soon produce the same sense of disgust as “Das grosse deutsche Volk” — as at one time trumpeted from Goebbels’ throat.

Similarities multiply every day: civilians shot in the streets of Ukraine in a “modern” manner with their hands tied with plastic loops, rumors that mobile crematoriums were brought to Mariupol and possibly elsewhere to hide such massacres, and unmistakable similarities to Auschwitz ovens if these rumors prove true. Hitler can sit up in his grave.

Thousands of people were allegedly collected and deported to Russia in Mariupol. In that sense, Stalin would also have something to tremble with delight about. Latvians and Balts and in a wider sense, people throughout Eastern Europe, are not surprised by such things. In the countries of the old European Union (EU), they are SURPRISED (and like us, are horrified and frightened). Good morning!

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Juris Kaža

A freelance journalist based in Riga, Latvia who has covered the country and region for 20 years. Speak native Latvian and English, fluent Swedish and German.