Though Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was nothing more than your basic landgrab, Putin felt obliged to tart up his justification with a noble purpose. First, he cited the plight of the people living in Donbas without bothering to mention that their plight is a direct outcome of Putin’s policy of violating Ukrainian sovereignty by setting up two feeble, bullsh** “republics” whose sole purpose was to create a perpetual casus belli with Ukraine. Then he brought up the necessity for denazifying and demilitarizing Ukraine and bringing the perpetrators of “genocide” in Donbas to account.

To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.

The term “nazi” has a very particular meaning in Putin’s Russia. Putin crony Sergey Karaganov says nazism isn’t about antisemitism, “[i]t is about hating and suppressing all other nationalities.” In Russian parlance, “all other nationalities” is a set of one: Russia. Russia doesn’t seem all that concerned about the presence of actual fans of the Third Reich so long as they are singing Putin’s song.

Let’s not forget the founder of the Wagner Group, the Frankenstein’s monster-looking GRU agent Dmitry Valerievich Utkin has received four Orders of Courage from Putin.

He also has Nazi tattoos and is one of Putin’s trusted men.

Denazification of the Kremlin when? pic.twitter.com/HRUtTdxNcN

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 7, 2022

Putin is using Nazi's to "de-nazify" Ukraine.

Who knew?

Photos: Putin's Wagner Group in east Ukraine. Neo-Nazi founder of Wagner Group, Utkin showing SS tattoos, & pictured with Putin. pic.twitter.com/rTpihWdDZH

— KT "Special Activities Operation" (@KremlinTrolls) April 7, 2022

🇺🇦 🇷🇺
Captured Russian soldier with nazi tattoos all over him. #Ukraine #Russia #war #putin #WarCrimes #StandWithUkraine #WARINUKRAINE #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/FiUrUva4TA

— War News (@war_news247) April 9, 2022

In an event which is beyond parody the Russian puppet Denis Pushilin has awarded a man wearing Nazi imagery an award for destroying “Nazis”. Yes, the people “denazifing” Ukraine are awarding Nazis with medals. pic.twitter.com/PwvpycP8u9

— Woofers (@NotWoofers) April 4, 2022

For Russia, May 9 is a huge thing. That is the day they take credit for single-handedly defeating Nazi Germany. In their mythos, Normandy, North Africa, and Italy didn’t happen. There was no strategic air campaign. No convoys made the Murmansk Run carrying untold thousands of Studebaker trucks, P-40 fighters, and millions of pounds of Spam. It was just Stalin fighting the forces of evil while FDR and Churchill played tiddlywinks. The millions of dead Russian soldiers owe much more of their fate to their leadership’s tactical and operational stupidity and political commissars directing NKVD murder squads than to some German gefreiter in a bunker.

In the Baltic States, which have a substantial Russian population transplanted to colonize and “Russify” those countries after Stalin’s deportations and purges, Russia uses May 9 festivities to increase cultural awareness and a sense of separateness from the legal government of those countries. Last Thursday, Latvia took steps to squash pro-Putin pomp.

On Thursday, 8 April, Latvia’s Saeima passed in the final reading the Law on the Day of Commemoration of Victims Who Died in Ukraine, providing that 9 May becomes a day of mourning.

…

In addition, the parliament also decided to pass the proposal from Mārtiņš Šteins to prohibit sales of fireworks on 9th and 10th of May 2022.

The goal of this law is turning Latvian residents’ attention towards Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine and demonstrating solidarity with Ukrainian people in the fight for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. With this law 9 May in the entirety of Latvia becomes a day of commemoration of victims in Ukraine, honouring the civilians and armed forces personnel who died as a result of Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine.

During this day of commemoration it will be required to hoist the flag of Ukraine next to Latvia’s flag at all public buildings, buildings owned by private legal persons and associations, as well as apartment homes, Riga Castle, the State President’s Residence, Saeima and Cabinet of Ministers buildings.

Law does not allow the organisation of any public festivities and celebrations and for municipal administrations to not issue permits for public events.

The law also provides for municipal administrations to annul permits issued for this year’s 9 May events if they were issued before the law has come to force.
This law will lose its power on 11 May 2022.

Latvia prohibited the ribbon of St. George.
In Russia, the ribbon is considered a symbol of memory of the WWII, as well as a symbol of military glory. But Ukraine & Latvia banned them while shying of arresting of those who honour WWII Nazi collaborators & displaying Nazi symbols pic.twitter.com/iJKyUhWiBb

— Elena Evdokimova (@elenaevdokimov7) September 24, 2021

Russia, as you might well imagine, shat itself. Part of the so-called “Putin doctrine” is that Russia is the guarantor of security for Russian communities abroad. A quarter of Latvia is ethnic Russian, down from over 40% when the nation regained its independence in 1991. Estonia, recognizing the danger of a large and unassimilated Russian population that looks to Moscow for inspiration, requires Estonian to be used for instruction in public and private schools, and anyone whose family arrived in Estonia after 1940 had to take a citizenship test and show proficiency in Estonian to hold any government and many professional positions. In addition, since the invasion of Ukraine began, Estonia has blocked Russian television and other media influences. The policies in Estonia guarantee that within a generation, the Russian ethnic minority in Estonia will be like the Italian, Irish, and other ethnic minorities in the United States. They will be Estonian while retaining some Russian cultural influences. It is pretty much like how America operated before our “melting pot” became “a bowl of salmonella, listeria, and e. coli infected mixed salad.”

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova went on an epic rant.

According to Kremlin-backed media, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the decision ‘an attempt to humiliate the Russian-speaking community living in Latvia, which cherishes the memory of the exploits of anti-fascist heroes’.

She added: ‘The blasphemous decision of the Latvian parliamentarians is subject to strong condemnation by all sensible forces not only in Russia, but throughout the world.

‘At the same time, this legislative act is not surprising, since the ruling regime in Latvia has long been well known for its neo-Nazi preferences and attempts to whitewash the atrocities of Nazi Germany ‘s henchmen.

‘Just as Riga in every possible way covers the crimes of the Kiev regime against civilians in Ukraine and Donbas. We are convinced that that history will put everything in its place.’

Latvia knows the danger posed by the rapacious regime in Moscow. It was conquered and colonized once, and doesn’t want it to happen again. It had to look at the first Russian invasion of Ukraine when Crimea was annexed, and an insurgency created the “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk with foreboding because a disloyal Russian-speaking population demanded to be separate and Russian troops arrived to back up the demand. Back in 2014, I wrote about the danger that Russia’s behavior posed not only to the Baltic States but to NATO by American weakness (Obama’s Tallinn speech probably guarantees peace in our time and How Putin Dismembers NATO Without Firing A Shot. A Scenario From the Cold War).

The silver lining to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is that he has done what was previously thought impossible, expand NATO to Finland and Sweden and wean part of Europe from cheap Russian gas. He has also convinced countries that were once afraid of Moscow to take positive actions for their own security because everyone now knows Moscow’s demands are non-negotiable.