Banning Russian-language Media will Safeguard Ukraine

Ukraine has been taken to task internally and externally by Ukrainian, Russian, non-Russian and global organizations for attempting to limit access of Russian-language programming, news and other media to audiences in Ukraine.

The rationale behind this effort by its proponents has been the need to cleanse the Ukrainian nation of the negative effects of centuries-long russification, which was codified in the infamous Ems Ukaz of 1876 that banned the use of the Ukrainian language in the Russian empire, including subjugated eastern Ukraine. Furthermore, by giving the people the opportunity to promote their native Ukrainian language, culture and heritage, the advocates of this campaign are indeed safeguarding the existence of an independent, sovereign Ukraine. After all, in addition to hating the country of Ukraine, there are many examples of Moscow also detesting the Ukrainian language and its speakers.

Yes, for Ukrainians, it’s a matter of national preservation.

The national discrimination and hatred felt by Ukrainians at the hands of Russian colonizers and dictators were also experienced by the other then captive nations that achieved their freedom only in the early 1990s. Today, they are still endeavoring to preserve their national languages, cultures and heritages in the face of continued Russian pressure, among them Lithuanians come to mind.

Vilnius has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine in the latest Russian act of aggression, condemning Moscow’s belligerent actions against all of the now former captive nations. While Lithuania is not engaged in a hot war with Russia, the Kremlin is attacking the Baltic state on the linguistic and cultural fronts with barrages after barrages of Russian-language programming and popular events.

Euronews reported this week that Rimvydas Valatka, a Lithuanian political analyst and signatory of the act that secured Lithuania’s independence in 1991, discovered that a new cable TV package featured in addition to the usual news, sports and sitcoms at least six stations that broadcast in Russian. Furthermore, Valatka discovered that Russia TV, Moscow’s ubiquitous television network and primary Russian-language offender, has an annual budget of about $275 million, a little less than a third of his country’s entire defense budget for 2019. Apparently, russification for Moscow continues to be as significant a weapon of colonization and domination in its arsenal as tanks and nuclear weapons – perhaps more so.

Valatka said that figure amounts to a lot of muscle for the Kremlin in Lithuania, which officially banned RT in September 2020. However, he added, it’s not been effective, according to the Euronews story.

“Although [RT] has been banned by Lithuania for the dissemination of propaganda and enmity, it is still omnipresent on the cable TV channels and on the internet,” Valatka told Euronews.

Lithuania’s State Security Department (VSD) pointed out that RT is just one of a number of soft power weapons that Moscow uses to get its dangerous narrative across in the Baltic state. More broadly, the media is a prime vessel for promoting Russia’s language, culture and history in Lithuania – the first steps in establishing a beachhead for further conquest.

Russian infiltration of Lithuania is also conducted through other popular venues. Euronews said it is of little surprise that since 2014 Russian influence in Lithuania has taken the form of so-called “soft power” rather than a barefaced attempt to actively interfere in politics in the country – as Russia does in other countries or by military invasion as it does in Ukraine. Simultaneously with the growth of Russian-language media, the battle for influence between east and west has recently manifested itself in basketball in a spat over whether Baltic teams should take part in Russia’s professional basketball league, the VTB. Valatka observed that if the club had accepted the offer it would have become, “perhaps unbeknownst to it itself, part of the Russia propaganda machine.”

Ukraine, Lithuania and the other former captive nations, who know firsthand Russian repression, are correct to seal their borders to any form of Russian influence.