Timothy D. Snyder on "russophobia", in the UN.

My first point is that harm to Russians, and harm to Russian culture, is primarily a result of the policies of the Russian Federation. If we are concerned about harm to Russians and Russian culture, then we should be concerned with the policies of the Russian state.

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The Russian representative has helped us by exemplifying the behavior I was trying to describe. As I have been trying to say, dismissing someone else's history, or calling it a disease, is a colonial attitude with genocidal implications. The empire does not have the right to say that a neighboring country has no history. The claim that a country has no past is genocidal hate speech. In helping us to make the connection between Russian words and deeds, this session has been useful. Thank you.