'In and of itself, a policy of canceling Russia is anti-cultural, neocolonial, and racist'
Russian President Vladimir Putin

'Now, cancel culture has become a buzzword. So, everything that has been happening is the culture of canceling common history as part of aggressive containment of Russia'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

CANCEL
CULTURE

a mechanism of neocolonial political pressure to maintain a unipolar world order

'In and of itself, a policy of canceling Russia is anti-cultural, neocolonial, and racist'
Russian President Vladimir Putin

'Now, cancel culture has become a buzzword. So, everything that has been happening is the culture of canceling common history as part of aggressive containment of Russia'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Foreword

This paper is a continuation of and reflection exercise on the report Modern russophobia: 'Cancel Culture' as a Totalitarian Cult, presented at the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation in September 2023.

With the participation of the Russian Foreign Ministry the first paper examined the origins of modern russophobia, its connection to 'cancel culture', as well as numerous facts of prohibition and oppression by Western civilization that our country, its citizens and Russian culture in general face. Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov and Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria V. Zakharova expressed solidarity with the ideas of the report

Upon a series of consultations with representatives of the academic community and our foreign colleagues, the second part of the report was prepared, reflecting more fully the roots and background causes of 'cancel culture' and russophobia as its particular case.

'Cancel culture' is an instrument of ideological and political capture, an extra-institutional form of control that Western civilization uses to suppress any manifestation of otherness that goes against its ideological guidelines. Thus any nation and any state that does not meet the ideology-based criteria of being civilized and shows signs of barbarism, from the Western point of view, can be subjected to canceling and delegitimization. In turn, the ruling Western elites appoint candidates for the role of barbarians depending on their immediate political interests.

Contrary to the objective tendencies of the world development, Western civilization strives to preserve its political, economic and cultural hegemony at all cost. To this end, the West systematically conducts cultural intervention in independent states, implanting the values of the 'civilized' world among the population, which in reality are aimed at eradicating traditional living principles, introducing a relativistic model of worldview, forming consumerist society and promoting Westernization in general.

The policy pursued by the West is a new form of colonialism, i. e. neocolonialism. Without abandoning its old goals (pumping out resources, exploiting cheap labor, marketing of goods abroad, etc.), the West uses new tools to spread and maintain its influence. One of the mechanisms for maintaining hegemony has taken the form of 'cancel culture' applied to countries and peoples who disagree with the neocolonial system and defend their sovereignty on the global stage.

It is possible to stop the spread of the Western civilization hegemony of only in the course of the general reframing of the world on the basis of multipolarity, traditional values, mutual respect for sovereignty by participants in international relations. In such a model there will be no place for imposed ideologies and 'cancel culture'. National and, in particular, cultural sovereignty will be a universally recognized value and the right of each country. Russia advocates the formation of a multipolar model of international politics and calls on global society to unite under the aegis of mutual respect and cooperation.

1. 'NEW ETHICS' AND 'CANCEL CULTURE' AS IDEOLOGICAL WEAPON OF THE WEST

1.1. 'CANCEL CULTURE' AS A GLOBAL PROBLEM OF MODERNITY

The current spread of 'cancel culture', i. e. the West’s well-targeted exclusion of a certain phenomenon from the social sphere on a large and sometimes planetary scale, is becoming an increasingly acute problem for global society. It affects social reality at all levels: individual, group, community, state, nation, etc.

'Cancel culture' relies on tools such as defamation, discrimination and cultural genocide. In particular, it manifests itself in the so-called cultural boycott of a certain social object, its stigmatization, restricted access to benefits and, in some cases, direct persecution.

At the same time, 'cancel culture' is not a natural social response. It cannot be compared, for example, with the spontaneous collective unconscious condemnation that arises when fundamental moral laws are violated. 'Cancel culture' is instrument of ideological and political capture and control which purposefully suppressed all manifestations of otherness that run counter to specific ideological attitudes.

The basis of these ideological attitudes lies in the so-called social justice. This system of ideas nominally serves the cause of social justice in its classical meaning, but in reality it is nothing but an embodiment of critical theories — queer theory, feminism, gender studies, etc. Wokeism, is the collective name of such movements for social justice.

'New ethics' nominally serves the cause of social justice in its classical meaning

For the purposes of this paper, the term 'new ethics' will be used to describe this ideology in order to emphasize an essentially different model of worldview and morality that it designs. In its turn, the worldview model it creates will be labeled as 'pseudo-normality' because the 'new ethics' dwarfs the value of family, friendship, and mutual assistance and replaces them with artificially constructed, imposed values: tolerance, political correctness, and flexible identity.

The 'new ethics' targets the basis of the human psyche, where the whole structure of human interaction with society, perception of oneself and assessment of the truth or falsity of the behavior of others is formed. Thus it turns out to be the most effective, and in some cases the only way of thinking, which helps to avoid experiencing inevitable problems of moral nature when trying to destroy everything different. Moreover, what is to be considered other or different is quickly construed to suit a specific objective.

This state of affairs has become possible through the implementation of the theoretical basis of the 'new ethics' — the so-called critical theories: queer theory, racial theory, feminism, gender studies, and others.

The essence of critical theories is reduced to radical skepticism about the possibility of obtaining objective knowledge and the idea that society consists of power structures and hierarchies that determine through language how and what is appropriate to know.. Representatives of critical theories call for deconstructing culture and narratives imposed by authorities and, as a consequence, getting rid of the very notions of norm, tradition, etc. in favor of flexible identity politics.

The history of the formation of critical theories dates back to the second half of the 20th century. It was the time when postmodernist philosophy began to actively spread in the academic environment, reflexively describing the decadent state of modern Western consumerist society.

The theories of this area, supported by a specific postmodernist methodology (relativism, social constructivism, etc.), considered the flaws of social life from different angles. However, it is important to emphasize that they did not suggest ways of overcoming them.

Walter Truett Anderson, writing in 1996, described the four pillars of postmodernism:

  • The social construction of the concept of the self: Identity is constructed by many cultural forces and is not given to a person by tradition;
  • Relativism of moral and ethical discourse: Morality is not found but made. That is, morality is not based on cultural or religious tradition, nor is it the mandate of Heaven, but is constructed by dialogue and choice. This is relativism, not in the sense of being nonjudgmental, but in a sense of believing that all forms of morality are socially constructed cultural worldviews;
  • Deconstruction in art and culture: The focus is on endless playful improvisation and variations on themes and a mixing of 'high' and 'low' cultures;
  • Globalization: People see borders of all kinds as social and immediate constructions that can be crossed and reconstructed and are inclined to take their tribal norms less seriously.
Reality for postmodernism becomes a product of socialization and life experience

Postmodernism has genetically been particularly skeptical of science and other conventional ways of legitimizing statements, as well as a massive comprehensive discourse that supports them, as truth. This is what postmodernism calls metanarratives7 — a variation of cultural myths, typical consequence of human short-sightedness and arrogance. Deep skepticism should be understood as cynicism about the whole history of human progress.

In 1979, the philosopher, sociologist, and literary critic Jean-François Lyotard characterized the postmodern condition as a profound incredulity about any possibility of existence of a pronounced meaning-making structure underpinning human life.

This approach is antagonistic to the entire previous perception of life. According to the ideas of the Enlightenment, man has more or less reliable methods of cognizing objective reality. The information obtained through the scientific method has led to the formation of the modern world and encourages further progress. By contrast, reality for postmodernism becomes a product of socialization and life experience, designed solely by language systems. In other words, reality itself is seen as designable.

According to Michel Foucault, 'In any given culture and at any given moment, there is always only one 'episteme' [a dominant set of ideas and values] that defines the conditions of possibility of all knowledge, whether expressed in a theory or silently invested in practice.' . It is sociopolitical power, rather than correspondence to reality that becomes a decisive factor in determining truth. In The Order of Things Foucault proposes to think in terms of 'regimes of truth', which change depending on the episteme inherent in a particular culture and a certain period of time. As a result, Foucault comes to the thesis that there are no fundamental principles of cognition of truth; any knowledge is local to the knower. Consequently, the concept of truth within postmodernity is absent in principle.

The absence of any practical, all the more constructive, conclusion from quasi-logical constructs is a distinct quality of postmodernism. Few postmodernist philosophers advocated any specific policies, most of them preferring deconstruction or nihilistic despair. The first postmodernists doubted the possibility of meaningful change because of the inherent meaninglessness of the world and the culturally relativistic nature of morality.

As Lyotard wrote, postmodern perception has no practical value: It 'should not be accorded predictive value in relation to reality, but strategic value in relation to the question raised.'

However, the concept of deconstruction explicitly implies the need to challenge, exaggerate internal problems (or find them), and reject any modes of thinking that support what falls into repressive categories in the postmodern understanding, i. e. formal and informal power structures and the related language. Accordingly, preference is given to marginalized groups and the meanings associated with them.

Another significant point is that the process of struggle in postmodernism has no predetermined limits. As Foucault described the situation: 'My point is not that everything is bad, but that everything is dangerous, which is not exactly the same as bad. If everything is dangerous, then we always have something to do. So my position leads not to apathy but to hyper — and pessimistic — activism. I think that the ethical-political choice we have to make every day is to determine which is the main danger.'

To respond the general mood of decadence and helplessness, the current critical theories have been forged and the woke movements based on them have taken a step towards practical implementation of a number of propositions of postmodernity.

Thus, queer theory, conceived after the publication of the first volume of Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality in English in 1985, highlights the role of historical and social constructs in shaping what we deem to be sexual nature.

Queer theory undermines not only the meaning of homosexuality as a signifier for certain groups of men or women who consider themselves homosexual. It disrupts the stability and authenticity of heterosexuality by equating these states and directly encouraging the metamorphosis of heterosexuality into homosexuality..

Some activists go even beyond this. For example, Judith Butler, feminist, LGBT researcher and activist, argues in her most famous work, Gender Trouble, that 'woman' is not a class, but a performance constructing a 'gendered' reality.

This creates a clear continuity with the postmodernist fundamentals and forms the theoretical basis for the concept that is currently most popular in the West: the notions of 'man' and 'woman' have nothing to do with biology, but depend only on the person’s behavior — and how much those around him or her tend to get engaged in this game.

The most popular concept of today in the West is that the notions of 'man' and 'woman' have nothing to do with biology, but depend only on the person’s behavior

This is why the West practices a policy of absolute tolerance towards any gender models and constructs: a man’s desire to behave like a woman and vice versa will quickly be reduced to an individual performance of little significance for society as a whole without an appropriate environment.

With the notion of gender performativity, which implies that gender is made real through behavior and speech, Butler has managed to combine a profoundly postmodern approach that deconstructs and rejects the understanding of stable essentialities and objective truths about sex, gender, and sexuality with a politically active stance. The very notion of queer becomes a process, rather than a fact, an expansion into the territory of the male and the female, masculine and feminine, heterosexual and homosexual.

Within postmodernism and queer theory, activists need to disrupt and dismantle these notions. In Butlerian theory, 'queer' can be used as a verb ('to queer' as well as 'queering'), denoting theprocess of deconstructing categories and destroying norms or accepted truths.

The struggle against 'repressive institutions' here is on par with the confrontation with objective truth of any kind. Postmodernists regard the situation of 'oppression' not necessarily as a result of conscious and concerted conspiracy of patriarchal and heteronormative views, nor of the idea of 'white supremacy'. They believe it is an inevitable consequence of self-sustaining systems that privilege some groups over others — an unconscious conspiracy inherent in the structures associated with any power.

'Cancel culture' proponents identify specific objects of 'cancelling' — they construct the enemy: adherents of ideologies or viewpoints against which the protest is directed. As a rule, although the latter are numerous, a group of activists concentrates on 'cancelling' a few most prominent representatives of the enemy — actions against them attract public attention, thus contributing to the transformation of social norms. The impact on the targeted person is exercises through all available mechanisms: demands to leave the office, refusal to use the intellectual property of the canceled person, including books, songs and movies, calls to deprive him/her of copyright. Tension is building up around such a person pushing him or her into certain actions: resignation, presenting apologies, etc. At the same time, this presents a lesson of public sentiment to all those who share the ideology that has been canceled. The results feed the confidence of the protest group in its rightness and existence of massive social support. As a reaction, people or companies become canceled more often even for less significant reasons, which creates an atmosphere of censorship and self-censorship, increasingly transforming the limits of what is acceptable and attracting new followers into the protest group.

The said above may bring us to an important conclusion: deconstruction is always not sufficient; it lacks an achievable final goal. It is not the result, but the process that matters. It is constantly evolving towards still greater deconstruction, even to the point that if bits and pieces of concepts and phenomena deconstructed at a previous stage somehow form a new system, postmodernism regards it as repressive, either.

It is not surprising, therefore, that postmodernity degenerates into a denial of its own denial, and its adherents increasingly complain against the founding fathers of the theory. Gloria Watkins, an influential feminist of the late 1980s, who went by the assumed name 'bell hooks' — spelled exactly with lowercase letters, 'so that people would pay more attention to her ideas than to her identity' — felt it necessary to modify postmodernism. The African-American activist had serious complaints about postmodernism because it was created by, associated with, and popularized by the white male intellectual elite.

'The postmodern critique of 'identity', though relevant for renewed black liberation struggle, is often posed in ways that are problematic. Given a pervasive politic of white supremacy which seeks to prevent the formation of radical black subjectivity, we cannot cavalierly dismiss a concern with identity politics,' hooks writes.

Deconstruction tends to develop extensively, expanding not only its scope, but also its depth. The legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term 'intersectionality' to explain forms of discrimination in which someone falls under the intersection of oppressed identities, e. g. 'African-American woman'. Crenshaw notes that when an organization employs many black men and white women but almost no black women, it may well be a legitimized form of discrimination against the latter. Crenshaw went on to deconstruct, for example, the distinction between a 'black person' and 'a person born black'..

Unsurprisingly, any category of political activism rooted in postmodernity — feminism, for instance — is prone to endless fragmentation. Thus, there is black feminism (where subtle aspects associated with race are seen as important from the point of deconstruction), fat feminism (overweight), etc. In some areas, deconstructionists came to the point of denial of the very subject matter of what they were fighting for. Mary Poovey, a representative of materialist feminism focused on how patriarchal and capitalist assumptions trap women in socially constructed gender roles, had confronted socially constructed gender stereotypes until she came to the conclusion that deconstruction in its true form flatly denies the existence of the category 'woman'..

Nevertheless, deconstruction — within the concepts now dominant in the West — is an unquestionable good from the point of a significant and, importantly, influential category of the population. The form in which its appeal is emphasized is also remarkable. An acclaimed article of 2016 in the scholarly journal Géneros: Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal of Gender Studies, kindly compared feminist studies to HIV/AIDS and Ebola, arguing that it spreads its version of feminism like an immune-suppressing virus, using students who become activists as vectors.

'Cancel culture' is an instrument of reprisal against those who disagree with the 'new ethics'. Not only people, but also states can be 'canceled'

Today we see how the West, based on its 'new ethics', cancels those who disagree with its ideological guidelines The writer Joanne Rowling is an illustrious example. In public space, statements are allowed only in the paradigm of political correctness; other opinions are taboo. The control of the movie industry, manifested in the criteria for receiving an Oscar19 is indicative. Mickey Rourke won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA as the best actor of the year for his internationally recognized performance in The Wrestler. The Academy nominated Rourke for the Oscar, but eventually gave the award to Sean Penn, who played the first openly gay politician in U.S. history in the biopic Harvey Milk. The ambiguous decision of the Academy members caused a lot of controversy and condemnation, analysts and film scholars accused them of prejudiced attitude. Even before the ceremony, Rourke himself was convinced that it was Penn who would win.in the criteria for receiving an Oscar is indicative. Mickey Rourke won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA as the best actor of the year for his internationally recognized performance in The Wrestler. The Academy nominated Rourke for the Oscar, but eventually gave the award to Sean Penn, who played the first openly gay politician in U.S. history in the biopic Harvey Milk. The ambiguous decision of the Academy members caused a lot of controversy and condemnation, analysts and film scholars accused them of prejudiced attitude. Even before the ceremony, Rourke himself was convinced that it was Penn who would win.

Requirements to conform to pseudo-normality are imposed not only on people and cultural objects, but on entire states which can be canceled for failing to meet the criteria of being civilized, in other words, for manifesting barbarity. It noteworthy that canceling a state for barbarity essentially means canceling specific individuals and groups because of their homophobia, sexism, racism, etc. Along with that, 'candidates to the role of barbarians are pinpointed at the drop of a hat, depending on the immediate political interests of the ruling elites'.

1.2. DECONSTRUCTION AS A TOOL OF NEOCOLONIALISM

The West does not limit itself to 'cancel culture' in its crusade against those countries who disagree with its ideological principles or are simply inconvenient. It has another weapon in its pocket: dissemination of the 'new ethics' ideas beyond the Western civilization, i. e. to the states of the Middle East, Asia and South America. This ideology actively contributes to the decline of national culture there, its norms and traditions. Local culture becomes westernized, which eventually leads to cultural and then political and economic dependence of the country on the Western hegemon. The state loses its sovereignty and becomes a colony of the West in the modern interpretation of this term.

The main danger of the 'new ethics' lies not so much in its immorality from the point of traditional values, but in the core of these ideas

The 'new ethics' spreads through external indoctrination of young people and part of non-science elites, becoming the 'only true' ideological doctrine in 'open-minded' circles. To this end, the West employs various tools: mass media, digital diplomacy, cultural and entertainment content (movies, TV series, bloggers' creativity, etc.), NGOs networking, etc. The information space is thoroughly imbued with the ideology of the 'new ethics' , elevating social justice to the status of a new normality, thus constructing a pseudo-normality.

The main danger of the 'new ethics' lies not so much in its immorality from the point of traditional values, but in the core of these ideas. It is about deconstruction of everything and anything, relativism, rejection of objectivity and the value of knowledge, morality, tradition, etc. It is these attitudes, dresses up in the garb of liberalism, globalization and democracy, that are used by the West as a tool for cultural genocide, undermining sovereignty and neo-colonialism.

First of all, the deconstruction of normality is directed at traditional values: on the one hand, they are the basis of human civilization (the value of family, goodness, peer support, etc. is shared by all religious denominations and is present in all cultures); and on the other hand, they are the foundation of identity and sovereignty of culture, which, in turn, serve as pillars of the multipolarity of the global architecture.

The spread of the core idea of the 'new ethics' in a country — deconstruction of normality and relativism — leads to its cultural and then political and economic dependence on the metropolis, the West. The state loses its cultural, economic and then political sovereignty.

Germination of the ideas of social constructivism and relativism leads to the loss of national identity: faith in traditions, established norms, etc. fades away. The traditional values of family, friendship, religion, shared by the world majority, fall into the background. People become global citizens, cosmopolitans, and begin to adhere to civilized values, that is, those imposed by the West: radical individualism, identity politics, total competition, the supremacy of the material over the spiritual, to name but a few. Such individuals, by analogy with colonists, begin to regard everything that is not Western-like as backward: from political systems to consumer goods. This, in turn, leads to political and economic orientation of the population of the country, which has fallen under the pressure of the 'new ethics' , towards the West. They are more willing to share Western political values, advocating various democratic reforms within their country, and favor Western goods. In the short term, such orientation may be beneficial to the State (inflow of foreign investments, membership in international organizations, etc.), but eventually it leads the country to total dependence on the metropolis..

With the loss of faith in traditional values, the State and society lose their sovereignty. However, when they try to regain it, they face the policy of canceling, sanctions that undermine the national economy, public protests that bloom into color revolutions and civil wars.

Western civilization’s desire to spread its ideology is prompted by its claim to world supremacy. In pursuit of hegemony, the West, under the pretext of globalization, is destroying cultural diversity, disregarding the very essence of the concept of 'nation'. In fact, we have faced a global cultural genocide.

Russophobia is nothing but the most pronounced attempt of the West to undermine the country’s cultural identity. Any nation can become canceled

In this context, russophobia is nothing but the most pronounced attempt to undermine the country’s cultural identity, its norms and traditions. The imposition of identity politics norms — LGBT movements, feminism, etc. — is another form of this phenomenon. In essence, russophobia and international promotion of the LGBT community are two side of one coin.

2. 'Cancel culture': global threat to the non-Western world

2.1 'CANCELLATION' OF RUSSIA AS A POSSIBLE SCENARIO FOR THE 'CANCELLATION' OF ANY STATE

The above said brings us to the conclusion: any nation and any country that hinders the achievement of the goals set by the Western civilization can become canceled. Today it is Russia and Russian person who are nominated enemy and barbarian.

Russia is exposed to 'cancel culture' is three ways:

  • economic sanctions;
  • political exclusion;
  • russophobia.

Any country can face such policy of canceling. In this regard, the case of exaggerated rejection of Russia is a vivid scenario of what can happen if somebody goes against the interests of the United States and Western Europe. The current Western elites are no longer able to cope with the growing problems in their countries — shrinking middle class, growing inequality, etc. That is why they triggered the search for an external enemy. Here it is worth recalling the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, saying that the world surrounding Europe is a 'jungle'.

The Russian Federation did not welcome the forcing of the 'new ethics' values on its territory, thus outbalancing the effect of the tools promoted for taking the State and its resources under the control by Western political elites. Neither did it put up with the attempts to further expand NATO and create an anti-Russian platform led by neo-Nazis near its borders.

As a result, there were at least 637 incidents of canceling Russia between February 2022 and December 2023 alone.

Xenophobia is directed not at individual officials or the State as a whole, but at the people as a social and historical phenomenon

Interestingly, ideological xenophobia is directed not at individual officials or the State as a whole, but at the people as a social and historical phenomenon. Indicative is the post published in Twitter (blocked in Russia; belongs to Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) (now — X) by former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul on March 2, 2022, and deleted later: 'There are no more 'innocent' or 'neutral' Russians'. McFaul is an excellent exponent of the leftist Western university milieu, which in many ways validated and strengthened the modern 'cancel culture'.

Unprecedented economic sanctions have been imposed not so much against the country, but against its population, with the aim to inflame the domestic political situation, cause a rift in society and trick people into street protests.

To implement this plan, the West is ready 'to consider instruments that are distinctly contrary to any humanitarian norms. The entrenching of 'cancel culture' in the West is clearly seen through the fact that this policy is supported even by persons that are not directly part of the political establishment.

For example, Gabriel Felbermayr, head of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research, said that Western countries should extend sanctions against Russia to essential goods, including medicines.

'There remain many sectors that could probably put quite a lot of pressure on Russia. I am referring, for example, to the pharmaceutical industry. One could certainly argue, on humanitarian grounds, that such an exemption for medical devices is right. But the political pressure on the Kremlin would have been different had Russian citizens really lacked essential items for their households,' Felbermayr noted.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed 'export controls' on medical equipment and medical devices shipped to Russia and Belarus. The list includes 1,224 industrial items, including alpha, gamma, and beta X-ray-based devices used for medical purposes, ultrasound machines, CT and MRI scanners, scintigraphic equipment, electrocardiographs, hearing aids, orthopedic products, pacemakers, massage devices, dental appliances, general purpose surgical consumables, and components for medical equipment.

The Cabinet of Japan also banned the supply of medical and pharmaceutical products to Russia. Organisms, toxins, subunits, mixtures and medical devices, including diagnostic kits and control materials used as product for vaccines, fell under the direct ban. The list also includes a long list of equipment: electron microscopes, cryogenic refrigerators, X-ray and other equipment..

As a consequence, this led to a local shortage of about 100 medicines, including a number of essential drugs: iodine, ibuprofen, acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), lidocaine, paracetamol, fentanyl, phenobarbital (the main component of Valocordin and Corvalol), etc. in Russia in late 2022 — early 2023.

The displacement of everything Russian in such spheres as culture, sports, science, history, etc., as well as exclusion from international organizations is used by Western elites as an element of politics. The policy of rejection has affected theater, music, Russian literature, museum cooperation, sports and religion.

Russian representatives were suspended from Eurovision, Cannes Film Festival; cooperation of the Bolshoi Theater with major foreign theaters was put on hold; contracts with the most famous Russian conductors were terminated;there were cases of ultimatum demands to artists to publicly condemn Russia’s foreign policy.. Works by Russian composers were canceled or completely excluded from the repertoire. Censorship also affected Russian writers of the nineteenth century, whose works were to be excluded from the curriculum.

Russia was challenged by the rules of the international sports movement being re-written.

After February 24, 2022, we can confidently talk about the almost complete isolation of Russian sports from international competitions. Although it would be more correct to consider the current situation as the culmination of earlier processes launched in 2014.

Allegations of systematic doping in Russian sport have resulted in more than two hundred Russian athletes have been 'caught' doping at the Olympic Games since 2015 and stripped of 47 Olympic medals. Prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the IOC scrutinized Russian candidates and denied Olympic status to 111 athletes, leaving only 282 who competed for Russia. In 2017, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (hereinafter referred to as the ROC) from the Games. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the IOC ruled that Russian athletes could not compete under the Russian flag and were obliged to replace it with a white-colored Olympic flag, indicating that the athletes were neutral.

The events of 2018 repeated what had been realized in 2016: the IOC reviewed the nominated athletes (starting with about 500), excluded 111 and, after further scrutiny, allowed only 168 to participate in the Games. The ROC was reinstated prior to the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Russian athletes were informed that they could not compete under the Russian flag as yet, however, they could compete under the ROC banner and would be designated as ROC athletes at the events, in which 335 athletes were allowed.

Athletes could have 'Russia' inscribed on their uniforms and were also allowed to use Russian national colors on their uniforms. At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the same competition conditions were imposed on Russia as in 2021. In total, the IOC allowed211 athletes from Russia to compete.

Cases with the works of art from the collections of the Hermitage, Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and museum-reserves detained at the Finnish-Russian border are illustrative from the point of 'cancel' policy in culture.

Along with the illegal squeezing of Russia from concert venues and slashing opportunities to hold international competitions abroad, the practice of renaming cultural objects and erasing the 'Russian trace' from the world cultural heritage has spread. The Metropolitan Museum of Art changing the citizenship of three Russian artists — Arkhip Kuindzhi, Ilya Repin and Ivan Aivazovsky — naming them 'Ukrainian artists'. Edgar Degas’s Russian Dancers, painted by the artist impressed by the performance of dancers of the Imperial Russian Ballet, became Ukrainian Dancers in the National Gallery in London.

The famous film director Ridley Scott failed to obtain permission to build large-scale sets in Westminster Cathedral to make the building resemble the Moscow Kremlin, while he was shooting the historical drama Napoleon. British representatives withdrew their consent because they were afraid of decorating the cathedral 'to look like something Russian'.

Along with that, the West is waging a sweeping ideological campaign aimed at distorting the history of Russia. Consciously and intentionally Poland and the Baltic States are destroying evidence that they were saved from Hitler’s army and preserved their independence and identity thanks to the Soviet soldiers-liberators. The unprecedented contribution of the Red Army to the victory over fascism is belittled by the thesis that it would have been defeated but for the help of the Western allies. Allegations are made that the USSR and Hitler’s Germany bear equally responsible for unleashing World War II. And that after the victory, the Soviet Union established 'its own regime' in Eastern Europe, against the will of the peoples of the region. Hollywood praises the exploits of US troops and belittles the heroism of the Red Army despite the fact that America’s official casualties amounted to about 400 thousand people, whereas those of the USSR — about 27 million people. In 2023, the campaign on rewriting Russian history came to another climax: on May 9, White House press secretary Catherine Jean-Pierre said that they were celebrating 'the anniversary of the end of World War II and the victory of the United States and the Allies over fascism'.

Allegations are made that the USSR and Hitler’s Germany bear equally responsible for unleashing World War II

The West often applies its falsification approach also to Russia’s relations with various countries, including former Soviet republics, the facts about the formation of Russian statehood, and Russian national policy.

The political ends of such activities are an open secret. Ch. Walker and J. Ludwig suggested using maximum pressure tactics against the 'authoritarian states' that use the 'soft power' of their culture or art not to 'win hearts and minds' but to 'skillfully manipulate the target audience by distorting facts and formation of falsified content of the information flow', calling them countries that use 'sharp power' (among those who use 'sharp power', they mentioned Russia too).. The main goal of canceling Russia is to delegitimize the country in the international field.

The process is to be strengthened by one-sided presentation of information. Along with the fact that Russian cultural figures were denied access to foreign venues, Ukrainian politicians were, on the contrary, granted access in a number of cases: for example, V. Zelensky was given the opportunity to convey the Ukrainian vision of current events at the opening ceremonies of the Cannes Festival and the Grammy Award in Las Vegas, at the Circus Arts Festival in Monte Carlo and the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Anti-Russian ideas are embedded not only in the current economic and political aspects of 'cancel culture', they also show themselves in another, specific sphere — at the level of micro- interactions of individuals and groups. Hatred of Russia and everything Russian is woven into the normality of the Western person, forming the idea of Russia as a barbarian in the mass consciousness.

In summer — fall 2023, the EU practice of seizing personal property of Russians — including those not on any sanctions list — crossing European borders came into force. The EU clarified that under the current sanctions, Russians cannot import personal cars registered in the Russian Federation into the community or any personal belongings either: leather and fur products, toilet paper, shampoos, toothpastes, trailers and semi-trailers for cargo transportation, and cameras are subject to confiscation. Cosmetics, suitcases, laptops, and cell phones are at risk.

In general, the intensity of 'cancelling' Russia — often in some paradoxical forms — has increased dramatically since the beginning of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine. For example, the University of Florida (U.S.) renamed the Karl Marx classroom. Fourteen classrooms had been earlier named after internationally famous figures in various fields, as evidenced by the door-plates, one of them reading 'Karl Marx Group Study Room'. The exact link between Karl Marx and Russia’s special operation was not specified, but the university administration must have regarded Marx to be a representative of Russia. The Riga Puppet Theater reported that the play Gena the Crocodile and Cheburashka would be removed from the repertoire 'due to the unacceptable use of favorite children’s characters in Russian military propaganda'.

In 2022, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Russian House in Paris. Harassment of Russian-speaking children in schools — both by classmates and teachers — became widespread in Germany. A private clinic refused to serve citizens of Russia and Belarus in Munich. On February 25, 2022, addressing the press after a meeting of the Austrian Security Council, Federal Chancellor K. Nehammer stated the need to restrict the freedom of movement and private property of Russian businessmen. Austrian banks, including such major institutions as Erste Bank and Raiffeisenbank, blocked the accounts of Russians living in the country without any warning and refused to open new ones.

The governments of certain regions of Belgium also take discriminatory actions against Russian citizens. For example, such a decision was taken by the government of Flanders, which closed the opportunity for Russians to participate in the Mastermind student exchange program. Leaflets with the slogan 'GOOD Russian = DEAD Russian' have become widespread among owners of public places in Great Britain. On April 3, 2022, a group of motor rally participants 'For Peace! For Russia! For Greece!' was attacked in Athens, with a seven-year- old girl, a Russian citizen, injured as a result. Russian-language chat rooms in Spain began to receive messages about the fight against 'propagandists of Russian peace' with a call to collect information and private data of Russians on a specially created website. In Italy, a 19-year-old Russian student at the University of Bologna, who turned to a doctor for a certificate of hearing disability, was kicked out of the office by the specialist for the reason that she [the doctor] 'did not like' the Russian President. Russian residents of Latvia have faced mass intimidation, insults and threats at the domestic level.

Leaflets with the slogan 'GOOD Russian = DEAD Russian' have become widespread among owners of public places in Great Britain

Czech Education Minister Petr Gazdik called the Belarusian and Russian students studying in Czech universities 'a threat to the national security'.

An incident in Tartu, where an exhibition of Israeli artists Tenno Penta Sooster and Sergei Bunkov was canceled, is a striking example of the expanding range of persons and phenomena to be rejected. The exhibition was canceled as the artists were considered Russian, probably because of the Russian sounding surname of one of them. 'Regrettably, we have to inform the public that the current international environment does not allow us to organize exhibitions with individuals who define themselves as Russian artists, regardless of their nationality. Such cooperation is forbidden by our state,' reads the message sent by the Estonian side.

As a sign of protest against Russia, the West is trying to boycott food that is at least somehow associated with our country. The word 'Moscow' is removed from the name of the Moscow Mule cocktail, the Russian salad is now called 'Ukrainian', and the Canadian Poutine is being taken out of the names of restaurants. Maison de la Poutine restaurants operating in Paris and Toulouse have complained that they received threats. Le Roy Jucep, considered the birthplace of the dish, said it would remove the word Poutine from its trademark.

Russia’s excommunication from borscht is particularly telling. The official UNESCO press release on inscribing the 'culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking' on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage emphasizes that 'the armed conflict has threatened the viability of this element. The displacement of people and bearers threatens the element, as people are unable not only to cook or grow local vegetables for borscht, but also to come together to practice the element, which undermines the social and cultural well-being of communities.'

Russophobia also embraces the language. In September 2023, the Seimas of Latvia approved a national security concept, according to which a ban on Russian-language media broadcasting will come into effect in the country on January 1, 2026. Estonia closed a number of Russian-language schools despite people’s protests.

2.2 FACTS OF 'CANCELING' OTHER PEOPLES AND STATES

Russia is not the only victim of the West led 'cancel culture'.Attempts to disregard a country or a people abound. The proof of this is found in the colonial past of Western countries, which sought to wipe off the local cultures of their colonies under the pretext of them being barbarian. The genocide of indigenous peoples was accompanied by cultural genocide.

The modern world witnesses many facts of 'cancelling' nations, too. Today, in addition to Russia, India, African countries, China and Palestine are subjected to this phenomenon.

British imperialism formed a central colonialist discourse based on the idea of civilizing mission to 'enlighten the nations', which was also denoted by the term 'white man’s burden'.

This term has become nominative though Rudyard Kipling’s creative work. His poem The White Man’s Burden was first published in The Times on February 4, 1899 and in the New York Sun on February 5, 1899. On February 7, 1899, during a Senate debate on whether the United States should retain control of the Philippine Islands and the ten million Filipinos wrested from the Spanish Empire, Senator Benjamin Tillman read aloud the first, fourth, and fifth stanzas of Kipling’s poem as arguments against ratifying the agreement.

'As though coming at the most opportune time possible, you might say just before the treaty reached the Senate, or about the time it was sent to us, there appeared in one of our magazines a poem by Rudyard Kipling, the greatest poet of England at this time. This poem, unique, and in some places too deep for me, is a prophecy. I do not imagine that in the history of human events any poet has ever felt inspired so clearly to portray our danger and our duty. It is called 'The White Man’s Burden'. With the permission of the Senators I will read a stanza, and I beg Senators to listen to it, for it is well worth their attention,' Tillmanreported.

Here is the first stanza as a reminder, with the words 'White Man' capitalized in the original:

Take up the White Man’s burden —
Send forth the best ye breed —
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild —
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

This discourse incorporated the messianism of the Enlightenment, understood as the need to civilize 'savages' regardless of their will. It was assumed that the domination of European powers, external governance, and intervention in the colonies ultimately fulfilled a beneficial, civilizing, enlightenment role. Although the result was usually quite to the contrary.

This approach has been practiced since the time of Columbus. Historian David Stannard compares the events of colonization in the Americas to the definition of genocide in the 1948 UN convention, and he writes that 'In light of the language of the U.N. — even putting aside some of its looser constructions — it is impossible to know what transpired in the Americas during the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries and not conclude that it was genocide'. By 1900, the indigenous population of North and South America had been reduced by more than 80 percent and in some areas by 98 percent.By 1900, the indigenous population of North and South America had been reduced by more than 80 percent and in some areas by 98 percent.

British colonization was the most radical example of the destruction of entire cultures — along with their bearers

British colonization was the most radical example of the destruction of entire cultures — along with their bearers. The Australian aboriginal population shrunk by 84 percent, the Maori population of New Zealand went down by 57 percent, and the indigenous population was reduced by 75 percent in Canada. The surviving indigenous peoples continued to suffer severe racial discrimination at the hands of the newly formed colonial communities.

2.2.1 INDIA

'Отмена' культурного наследия Индии

John Stuart Mill and his like-minded utilitarians did not accept the fact that India had any civilizational achievements. According to the British ideologists, the causes of degradation were both external (invasion of 'barbarians') and internal: 'overpowering' Brahmins, caste system, 'Asiatic despotism', as well as, of particular importance, 'femininity' of Indians, understood as weakness, inertia and dreaminess. Hegel generally accused them of a 'schizophrenic inability' to separate reality and 'reverie'. Indians were attributed cowardice, mass depravity, lack of patriotism, and civic feeling.

Researchers have long noticed the gender aspect of colonial discourse It attributed feminine traits to India — since the early Orientalists, Indians have been described as feminine, submissive, weak, pampered and pacificatory. Whereas the English embodied the masculine ideal of bravery, valor, courage and energy. The man was supposed to win a woman with strength and courage, and the woman, in her turn, always needed a protector and leader. That is why the colonizers saw its subjugation to strong and energetic outsiders, especially the white, as the only impetus for India’s development.

The British Orientalists’ fascination with the Aryans, positioning them as a highly developed, courageous and moral people, had an uncomplicated explanation: the Aryans, according to this concept, were white skinned people, and it was they who brought civilization to India, just as their direct descendants, the English, did centuries later, saving their 'down and out relatives' from chaos and degradation. W. Jones' concept of a unified Indo-European language group, which was extended to the ethno-cultural and social aspects of Indian civilization, was supplemented with a racial component. The Aryans were recognized not only as carriers of the most ancient Indo-European language (with the group itself being more and more often called Indo-Aryan languages), but also as ethno-racial ancestors of all Europeans, the best of all peoples of the Earth.

The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great was the second event that British Orientalists placed on a pedestal as a turning point in the history of the country. Admiring Alexander’s 'genius' and 'progressive mind' like all European authors of that era, Orientalists saw his main merit in bringing Europeans to India and thus giving impetus to the development of culture, arts and literature in the subcontinent.

Virtually all the achievements of ancient India were attributed to Greek influence. The fact that the epic Ramayana climaxed in the abduction of the hero’s wife, testified, according to Orientalists, to the direct influence of the Iliad.. Greek science 'fertilized' Indian mathematics, medicine and other sciences. The famous cave temples of Ajanta and Elephanta Island were created by 'Greeks, Romans or Phoenicians'.

Moreover, ever since the time of Jones and Dow, one of the first British Indologists, the term nation has been used to describe Hindu and Muslim communities. The concept itself, borrowed from European political discourse and introduced into colonial natives, still has no adequate translation in Indian languages. However, the term was firmly anchored in denominational terms: it became popular to speak of 'Hindu' and 'Muslim' nations on the territory of India from a certain moment, which encouraged the split of the subcontinent into India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

Historical texts from the precolonial time, especially in regional languages, were discarded as 'unreliable and incorrect history'

These concepts were actively introduced into Indian society, which was one of the first instances of the 'deconstruction of the past', the correct version of which had to be accepted by Indians who aspired to build a career. Careers and social status were impossible without a British educational certificate, which was based on textbooks and studies that treated India’s past as a centuries-old saga of degradation. Historical texts from the pre-colonial time, especially in regional languages, were discarded as 'unreliable and incorrect history'. The only link between the Anglicized Indian elites and the historical facts and thoughts of common people and the national culture was ensured by household servants who were the bearers of folk ballads and religious tales, all of which were declared myths.

'One thing we are indoctrinated with is that we were stupid and uncivilized', summarized the famous Hindi poet M. Gupta in 1912, while his older contemporary, the Urdu poetry classic Akbar Illahabadi, reduced all English education in India to the slogan 'Throw away your literature, forget your history!'

In 2023, India said it was preparing a campaign to return valuables and artefacts that were taken out of the country to Britain during the colonial period from 1858 to 1947. We are talking about thousands of museum pieces. The artefacts that the country wants to reclaim include the legendary Koh-i-Noor diamond that is in the crown of British monarchs, dozens of thousands of sculptures and murals, Tipu Sultan’s treasures, the peacock throne of the Sikh Emperor, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Amaravati collection of Buddhist sculptures and bas-reliefs, and many more items. Perhaps, like in the story of the Oxus treasure that Tajikistan sought to return, London will return only copies.

Canceling of India’s cultural heritage, like in the other examples discussed, goes hand in hand with genocide and falsification of historical truth about the phenomena described. During British colonial rule, between 1850 and 1899 alone, India suffered 24 major famines which killed 15 million people.. Famine was a constant and powerful enough phenomenon to have a significant impact on the long-term population growth of the country in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Bengal Famine of 1770, the Chalisa Famine, the Dodgy Bara Famine, the Great Famine of 1876– 1878, and the Bengal Famine of 1943 are well known, although the list is not exhaustive.

Голод в Индии

Today, globalists want India to abandon the Hindutva ideology promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is based on achieving full cultural and economic sovereignty. The country’s achievements are once again being canceled: for example, in December 2023, the US announced that it was recalling 'substandard' Indian medicines, triggering a wave of doubts about product safety. The aim of the campaign is undoubtedly to discredit India and its contribution to public health.

Discrediting India’s sovereign policy, Western media accuse the Prime Minister and his supporters of fascism: 'Members of Modi’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are uncompromising Hindu nationalists. <...> The government has weaponized education in the manner fascist regimes such as Russia'.

2.2.2 AFRICA

'Отмена' культурного наследия Африки

The implementation of 'cancel' policy in Africa followed a similar pattern synchronized with the general background of the historical process: from genocide and physical destruction to cognitive and psychological extermination.

Indicative are the stories of the decline and degradation of the Nuba tribes, Mali, where mosques, libraries and a university had been built by the 15th century, the Incas, Mayas and other civilizations of Mesoamerica, and a virtually extinct stratum of North American Indian culture.

George Taubman Goldie, a representative of the British theorists of New Imperialism and former governor of Nigeria, was a vivid follower of the policy of 'cancel culture' for lack of necessity'. Africa’s task, in his understanding, was reduced to becoming — through the effort of British companies — 'a region where people of color will work to buy our goods.'

Another British theorist, Arthur White, wrote: '...the real mission of Europe in Africa is to turn that continent to profitable account, for the benefit, not of the natives, but of their taskmasters. The natives lead a self-indulgent, idle, and dissolute life; it does not seem fair, in the economy of Nature, that they should be are allowed to enjoy luxurious idleness, whilst we Westerns, with a higher civilization, have to toil and moil for our daily bread'. The expansion and enslavement of the African population, according to White, had a clear racial character, implicit in Britain’s unquestioned qualitative superiority over black people. 'Our civilization demands that the subject and inferior races should be treated with justice and leniency, and it is in our interest that they should be taught the gospel of labor and of brotherly love. The crux of the whole problem is, however, that the native African infinitely prefers his own indolent life to the Sturm und Drang of Western civilization, even in their attenuated forms in the Tropics'.

Even after the formal 'parade of sovereignties' of African countries having withdrawn from the colonial orbit of the UK, London did not give up control over Africa — it has only taken on other forms though.

The book by the French researcher A. Rouvez. provides a rather comprehensive description of how Britain intervened with its military forces in the affairs of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in the era when many of them began to move towards independence. He distinguishes the following types of British military operations in SSA: actions immediately before or immediately after the independence of African countries (e.g., military mutinies in the countries of East Africa — Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, the so-called East African mutinies, in 1964); an attempt to impose sanctions on Southern Rhodesia after its unilateral declaration of independence (Unilateral Declaration of Independence, UDI) in 1965, Britain made several efforts to intervene in the situation (e.g., British warships patrolled the port of Beira, the so-called Beira Patrol in 1966–1975).

Cases of intervention include the civil war of 1967–1970 in Nigeria, where Britain supported the federal government, Uganda (1980-1983), Botswana (1986-1988), the military coup d’état in the Gambia, and the 1981 Seychelles riots when the coup d’état was orchestrated by South African military intelligence. In 1982, 1986, and 1987 there were also failed attempts to overthrow the president of the Seychelles.

Successive British governments supported the apartheid regime created by the white minority in South Africa, which was almost universally condemned

There are dozens of examples of Britain interfering in the internal affairs of African states. British historian W. Podmore, in his book British Foreign Policy since 1870, points out that Britain still had global military intervention capabilities until 1968 and that between 1948 and 1968 British governments sent more military personnel to Africa, Asia and the Middle East, excluding Korea and Vietnam, than the United States. Among other things, Britain vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Southern Rhodesia, presenting the main demand of 'no independence before majority rule'.

Successive British governments supported the apartheid regime created by the white minority in South Africa, which was almost universally condemned and opposed, especially by the British Commonwealth countries. Britain violated sanctions imposed by the UN that prohibited the supply of oil and arms to the apartheid regime. In October 1974, Britain, France and the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution which proposed to expel South Africa from the UN. Britain sought to deflect criticism from South Africa for its illegal attacks on Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia.

Colonial policy in Africa and its destructive forms were inherent in the West as a whole, although Great Britain, of course, was the most systematic initiator of many processes of 'cancelling' others. France also followed the vector of 'cancelling' indigenous features of Africa and arranged state structures alien in form to the national mentality and traditions. Almost all former French colonies adopted constitutions inspired in one way or another by the constitution of the Fifth Republic in France, which established strong presidential power. Meanwhile, the fragile inter-ethnic and inter-tribal equilibrium called for a parliamentary form of government, more suitable for balancing act. This contradiction contributed to the emergence of authoritarian regimes, frequent coups d’état, and clashes between different forces, which, in some cases, escalated into civil wars.

In the history of France’s relations with these states, French researchers lay emphasize on the 1960 to 1974 period, when, by the will of Presidents de Gaulle and Pompidou, African policy was largely predetermined, if not determined, by the famous Gaullist J. Foccart, often referred to as the gray eminence due to his keeping a low profile. His status was also reflected in his political nickname 'Mr. Africa'. With the support of de Gaulle, J. Foccart created a system of relations with the former African 46 colonies — la Françafrique, a neologism that reflected the nature and depth of French influence in these countries.

Following his understanding of French interests, J. Foccart was instrumental to some coups d’état in Africa and, on the contrary, opposed others — in other words, the development of statehood in African countries, even after the formal disappearance of colonialism, continued strictly within the Western vector, conformity to which is ensured by various color revolutions or direct military interventions.

François Mitterrand was one of the first to sense that French influence was beginning to wane as new generations of Africans, unconnected to the colonial past, began to step into the fore. In his famous speech at the Franco-African conference at La Baule- Escoublac in June 1990, he called on African leaders to begin the process of democratizing their countries. In most cases, however, the process was reduced to the formal legitimization of power through properly organized elections. Such ostensible democratization only contributed to popular discontent and increased the frequency of conflicts and civil wars.

Neoliberal globalization, which accelerated after the USSR had ceased to exist, exacerbated the already acute problems of poverty and inequality in the region. New information technologies have created a multiplier effect of accumulating discontent, which was already developing in the logic of deconstruction. As the former Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, J.-P. Ngupandé, observed, social contrasts 'were increasingly highlighted by another aspect of globalization, namely the widespread use of television, cell phones, and specifically the Internet. This has made it possible to see the prosperity of some and the poverty of the others on a daily basis'. Africa has suffered a cumulative civilizational blow — first its identity was eradicated by the West, and now it faces secondary, but equally destructive processes.

Africa, like India, has also witnessed similar processes of looting of its cultural heritage. In just 100 years, from 1879 to 1971, colonial Europe stole about 193,000 African works of art, of which 150,000 are in museums in France. In the new times, the twentieth century, the process of exporting cultural valuables from Africa continued. In the 1960s, hundreds of works from southern and eastern Africa were stolen. Later they were found in museums in the United States and Europe.

Разграбления культурного наследия Африки

In the case of Africa, 'cancelling' meant, among other things, obstructing preconditions for development British researcher Jack Woddis, in his book Africa. The Root of Revolt cites figures compiled by UNESCO for 1955 showing that Africa was one of the world’s most backward regions in terms of literacy: 'Between 95 and 99 percent of all African adults are illiterate in British Somaliland, French Equatorial Africa, French Somaliland, and French West Africa.'

Woddis emphasized that 'the present imperialist policy of limiting education in Africa to the most elementary forms of the three 'Rs' cannot but hamper the development of the African people. <...> This lack of educational facilities is a natural consequence of regarding Africans as the hewers wood and the drawers of water'.

Laurence Ndong, Vice-President of the 'Pour le Gabon' think tank and international human rights activist, speaking at the Russia-Africa economic forum on the margins of the second summit, described the consequences of colonization as follows: 'African countries have experienced the colonial yoke in full. For 60 years now, our development projects have faced great challenges. And it is very difficult for us in many countries even to overcome poverty, to tackle climate issues, political and economic problems. Sub-Saharan Africa is a very poor region. The reasons for that are much talked about. But there is another reason that they are usually silent about: The lack of respect for the national sovereignty of African countries. For a very long time, African countries did not have their own sovereignty. Slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism. Even when they started to tell us about pseudo-independence, what was our legacy? Our legacy took the shape of presidents of republics that were practically subservient to the former colonizers. They were no lesser oppressors as the former colonizers'.

The paradigm of 'cancelling' an indigenous culture by default and ignoring it, with the mandatory reformatting of its bearers, is not only part of colonialism in Africa, but in many other geographical locations, including Canada.

It is quite characteristic that at the stage of drafting the Genocide Convention it was around the concept of 'cultural genocide' that the fiercest discussion took place. A number of countries, including the United States and Canada, opposed the inclusion of the term 'cultural genocide' in international law. In 2007, when ratifying the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Canada adhered to its previous position.

Cultural genocide is generally understood to include the forcible transfer of children to another human group; forced exile and deportation of individuals representing the culture of a group; prohibition of the use of the national language even in private intercourse and/or education; prohibition of new publications in the languages of a group; systematic destruction of monuments of material culture and architecture of historical, religious and general cultural significance; destruction of facilities used for the religious worship.

Cases of ignoring objective problems and ways of their possible solution that exist in non-Western countries form a separate stratum in 'cancel culture'. This practice is closely connected with the work of the media and the so-called news coverage of events, which is actually reduced to the artificial formation of worldview.

'The news <...> speaks to us in a natural unaccented voice, without reference to its own assumption-laden perspective. It fails to disclose that it does not merely report on the world, but is instead constantly at work crafting a new planet in our minds in line with its own often highly distinctive priorities', British writer and journalist Alain de Botton emphasizes in his book The News: A User’s Manual'. speaking about the effectiveness of 'constructing information reality'. One of the illustrative examples he gives is the specifics of coverage of various epidemics in Africa.

Currently, the African continent remains one of the most cholera-affected regions of the world. More than 55,000 people contracts it each year. Modern classification suggests that there were seven outbursts of cholera in Africa. The last Asian cholera epidemic in the region — with 32,000 reported cases and 20,000 deaths registered — was observed during the inter-pandemic period (in 1947) in Egypt and was caused by the retreat of British troops from cholera-infected Indian and Pakistani territories..

According to WHO, between 1970 and 1980, cholera was reported in 36 out of 54 African countries, with 185,591 cases and 19,583 deaths. Between 1981 to 1990, the epicenter of cholera outbreaks shifted from the west to the east of the continent, with the formation of 12 secondary endemic foci in Eastern (Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Mozambique), Western (Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria), Central (Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)) and Southern Africa (South Africa). The total number of cholera cases is increasing by 1.8 times compared to the previous decade., .

ЧИСЛО ЧЕЛОВЕК, ЗАБОЛЕВШИХ ХОЛЕРОЙ В СТРАНАХ АФРИКИ

Between 2001 and 2010, there was a 1.7-fold decrease in the global incidence of cholera. In Africa, on the contrary, this indicator increased by 1.2 times. Seventeen more African countries (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Benin, Guinea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and others) were categorize as cholera endemic during this period.

РОСТ ЧИСЛА ЗАБОЛЕВШИХ ХОЛЕРОЙ В СТРАНАХ АФРИКИ

Nevertheless, such a continuous problem remained invisible to most Western media. Unlike the Ebola virus, the response to which in Western society simultaneously emphasized the constant demand for pretexts to initiate 'cancel culture' and demonstrated the most striking features of deconstruction and post-truth.

As of February 2024, queries related to the keywords 'epidemic' and 'Africa' on the most common search engines (primarily Google) yield information about Ebola at the outset.

According to WHO, the 2014–2016 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa resulted in more than 28,600 infections and 11,300 deaths, far below the rates for cholera, malaria and other diseases that have plagued Africa for the past 200 years. The majority of Ebola cases were in three countries — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. In addition, isolated cases of the virus were registered in the USA, Great Britain, Spain and Germany. The mass media played a significant role in the PR campaign of the Ebola virus: with global 24-hour broadcasting at hand, they whipped up tension around the world. It should be noted, though, that the coverage of Ebola by journalists in general went far beyond the level of news warning the public about the danger, sliding into intimidation.

In her Pandemic: Tracking Contagious, science journalist Sonia Shah describes the public fear of Ebola that led to drastic measures. For example, from Connecticut to Mississippi, schools refused to accept teachers and students who had traveled to Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Rwanda and Nigeria, thousands of miles away from Ebola-affected areas, quarantining them for three weeks. Any signs of malaise in foreign nationals instantly provoked attempts of containment and avoidance. U.S. and European travel agencies therefore stopped offering trips to the African continent, making it much more difficult for aid workers to travel to the infected countries and hampering international efforts to contain the epidemic. In Prague, a Ghanaian student showing signs of chills was taken from a train station by an escort of 15 police officers and a rescue service representative in a biosecurity suit. The student had a common cold.

A similar picture can be observed with terrorism. In the current variation of 'cancel culture', it serves as an excuse to exclude entire countries from interstate dialogue, officially labeling the States facing terrorism as inferior.

In 2002, on the rebound of the global 'war on terror' announced by U.S. President George W. Bush, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw directly linked the existence of 'failed or incapacitated states' to the growth of terrorist threats in the world, with the main emphasis on African states — Somalia, Liberia and the DRC.

In the same 2002, the American Council on Foreign Relations published a study emphasizing the contribution of 'failed or incapacitated states' in the development of international terrorism. Since 2005, the U.S. Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine have been compiling a failed states rating that assesses the ability of authorities to control the integrity of their territory, as well as the demographic, political and economic situation in the country. According to this rating, the number of failed states in Africa grows annually. In 2006, two states were recognized as such (Sudan and DRC) and three (Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe) in 2007. In 2008–2013, the list included four countries (Sudan, Somalia and, alternately, Zimbabwe, Chad, DRC and South Sudan, which gained independence in 2013). In 2014, the list expanded to five countries (South Sudan, Somalia, DRC and Sudan were joined by the Central African Republic (CAR)). In 2015, the DRC left the list only to return there in 2016, joining Somalia, South Sudan, CAR, Sudan and Chad.

'НЕСОСТОЯВШИЕСЯ ИЛИ НЕДЕЕСПОСОБНЫЕ ГОСУДАРСТВА'

2.2.3 PALESTINE AND THE ARAB WORLD

ПАЛЕСТИНА И АРАБСКИЙ МИР

The 'cancelling' of Palestine is closely linked to the cycles of escalating conflicts between Israel and the Arab world. Moshe Dayan’s line from his interview to Haaretz in April 1969 regarding Jewish settlements being built in place of Arab settlements is widely known. 'You don’t even know the names of these Arab villages, and I don’t blame you, because these geography books no longer exist, the Arab villages are not there either Nahalal arose in the place of Mahlul; Gvat in the place of Jibta; Sarid in the place of Haneifa, and Kfar-Yehoshua in the place of Tal-Shaman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population'.

Basem Ra’ad, in his book Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean, cites the following fact: 'A book published in Israel on national embroidery, Arabesque: Decorative Needlework from the Holy Land, begins with 'biblical times' and ends with photographs of Jewish adults and children wearing embroidered clothing of Palestinian villagers... The euphemistic allusion Holy Land helps to disguise the fact that the of this unique art has its source in Palestine'.

Jaffa oranges (a special variety of this fruit), olives and olive oil, hummus, tabbouleh, falafel, kubbeh and many other types of food, drinks and ingredients originating from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq and the rest of the Arab world become Israeli in various media. Sometimes special campaigns are launched for this purpose.

For example, Israel calls falafel its 'national dish', a claim repeated in countless cookbooks, blogs and even academic articles. New York-based researcher Yael Raviv writes: 'Falafel was not assimilated into Israeli society by a long, slow natural process. Rather, its transformation into an icon of Israeli culture was rushed and deliberate. In its urgent search for symbols of unity, the nationalist movement hit upon falafel as a signifier of Israeli pride'..

The physical destruction of Muslim graves in Israel was a repeated cause of public outrage among the Arab population.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S. and allied forces caused enormous damage to the country’s cultural heritage. According to the BBC, archaeologists and the scholarly community appealed to Pentagon representatives to ensure the protection of monuments and archaeological excavations. However, in April 2003 the American military settled exactly on the territory of ancient Babylon, where about 6 thousand servicemen and more than 300 armored vehicles were deployed. Eyewitnesses reported that empty trucks also entered the territory.

Witnesses said that in 2003, American soldiers walked through the halls of the museum 'like in a supermarket and took what they wished'. After the Americans left, John Curtis, an expert at the British Museum in London, recorded all the damage and losses in a special report. The scholar stated that damage caused to the museum was irreparable, and the US and Polish servicemen were to blame for that. Curtis concluded that most of the damage had been done intentionally: the occupiers drove tanks on the ancient sidewalk on purpose..

U.S. commanders hypocritically responded that the Americans’ task in Babylon had been to 'protect historical treasures from looters'. Abdul Jabbar, an Iraqi archaeologist who led the reconstruction of Babylon in the 1990s, believes that the Americans set themselves the task of destroying what was left of the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia. In his opinion, 15 thousand historical sites were practically destroyed by the Americans in Iraq. The cynicism of the American side with regard to the stolen objects is obvious. As Ashton Hawkins, president of the American Council for Cultural Policy, said, 'the legitimate dispersal [transfer of objects to private collections] of cultural material through the market is one of the best ways to protect it'..

The situation with Palestine and Iraq clearly illustrates the modern Western format of 'cancelling', when repression concerns not only cultural heritage, but people either. During the decade of economic sanctions against Iraq, initiated in 1990, 1,700,000 children under the age of five died in the country. The blockade affected more than half of all health care facilities in Iraq. Two-thirds of hospitals were operating with a shortage of medicinal drugs and medical equipment, and health workers had to reintroduce massive vaccination campaigns against such returning infectious diseases as infantile paralysis and tuberculosis, given the limited resources.78.

10 ЛЕТ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИХ САНКЦИЙ ПРОТИВ ИРАКА

2.2.4 CHINA

КИТАЙ

The problem of 'cancel culture' in application to China is in the country’s stature: The West perceives the China as a strategic competitor, and on a slightly different aspect than Russia. In 2019, Robert Ashley, head of the Pentagon’s intelligence directorate, responded to the question of who was more dangerous to the US — Russia or China — as follows: Russia is more dangerous in the short term, while China is more dangerous in the long term. He noted that a country can become unpredictable if 'pushed against the wall', which is the case quite applicable to Russia. And Russian nuclear warheads 'pose an existential threat', he added. China, on the other hand, 'leads the way economically'. Accordingly, in China’s case, 'cancel culture' is centered on a long-term strategy of economic confrontation.

A key feature of the mainstream Western media today is the relentless China-bashing. There is not a single positive news about China, apart from reports about the celebration of the Lunar New Year. As Chandran Nair notes, negative narratives adhere to three main ideas.

The first is the belief that China is a threat to the entire world, and this belief that must be continuously nurtured at every available opportunity. How and why China is a threat is never explored; such is the deep-rooted and almost religious nature of this belief. Sound arguments do not matter. The second is that China must be linked to every possible global event that affects the West: from the pandemics to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to carbon emissions; from rising sea levels to the scramble for rare earths; from building of infrastructure in Africa to the production of vaccines. The first two points form the third: everything must be done to arrest the rise of China.

The history of 'cancel culture' in application to China is inextricably linked to the history of Western-Chinese relations. The image of the country in European culture was not created by the Chinese. Edward Said noted that 'the Orient was almost entirely a European invention'.

In the pre- digital media era, negative narratives about China were spread through European literature. It presented the Chinese yellow-faced, narrow-eyed villains who held the whole world in fear and threatened the stability of the cozy European civilization, which at that time was the strongest in the world and was therefore somewhat careless. One of the first literary heroes of this type is Dr Yen How, who was the protagonist of M.P. Shiel’s series of short stories The Yellow Danger. The very nickname of the character 'Yen Hau', which translates into English as 'yellow danger', is a reference to the racist concept that was once developed in France and by early twentieth century represented a very stable element of Europeans’ fears about China.

In 1910, Jack London’s short story The Unparalleled Invasion was published, one of the few works of science fiction by this author. The story is about events that take place in the future (at that time), between 1976 and 1987. According to the plot, China conquers and colonizes its neighbors, with the final goal of the country’s world domination. The Western countries, defending themselves against the invasion, attack China themselves, using biological weapons: smallpox, yellow fever, plague and cholera. The Chinese who manage to escape their plagued country are killed by Western armies on sea and land. The few survivors are threatened with death by punitive expeditions sent into the interior of China. The genocide of the Chinese, as well as the subsequent colonization of Chinese territories by Europeans, is portrayed by the author as something that is taken for granted, in accordance with the provisions of the American democratic program.

Dr. Fu Manchu is another vivid Chinese character who has become an identifying moniker through the efforts of mass literature. Dr. Fu Manchu, the brainchild of English writer Sax Rohmer born in the 1920s, has become the main image type of Europe and America, personifying the 'Yellow Peril'. The author describes him as follows: '...a face like Satan <...> with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race'.

Fu Manchu, according to O. Turner, was the embodiment of China’s power and danger for Americans, as well as one of the most dangerous enemies of Western civilization. This is evident already from his portrait: 'Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the wealth of scientific knowledge of past and present times, with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government — which, however, has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man'.

The next to address the image of China and the Chinese in his works was Thomas Burke. The theme of Chinatown appears in his work, which the author described in no other way than as a haven of evil. The collection of stories Limehouse Nights, published in 1916, enjoyed much success among readers, and it was especially delightful for the American audience.

It is worth noting that the Chinese became in many ways a collective image of 'an entire Eastern race' dangerous to Americans. The US hysteria about the 'Chinese virus' (Covid-2019) has a direct predecessor in the metaphor of the Yellow Peril, which became widespread in the West by the end of the nineteenth century along with the rise of European imperialism and racism.По словам американского эксперта Денниса Чжана, According to American expert Dennis Zhang, it meant 'economic, cultural, assimilationist, racial, biological, and medical claims against the Chinese'. The latter the source of all diseases and scapegoats during epidemics are in the eyes of American Sinophobes. This colored metaphor was racist, not nationalistic: it presented not only the Chinese, but all the peoples of East Asia as an existential threat to the Western world and the white man.

When an outbreak of bubonic plague struck Hong Kong in March 1894, causing panic in the West about the risk of a return of the medieval Black Death, the American Sinophobic press immediately labeled the plague as Asian. Hong Kong then played the role of present-day Wuhan: it became a symbol of the pandemic mythical prehistory that linked the bubonic plague to the decline of the Qing Empire.

The derogatory term 'Chinese disease', semantically similar to 'Chinese virus', which emerged from this term, became a widely reproduced metaphor already back in the nineteenth century. Its meaning was not limited exclusively to domestic complaints against the Chinese and 'Chinatowns'. It was assumed that the outdated, ancestor-oriented and fatalistic Chinese culture itself, and not only their sanitary and/or medical practices, contributed to the emergence of the disease.

C. Lynteris and D. Zhang draw attention to the 'fundamental differences' between modern Western Sinophobia and its classic examples of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While the Chinese were pathologized by the West as carriers of archaic and degenerate culture, the Sinophobic imagination of the 21st century reinterprets China as a dangerous champion of modernity, riding on scientific progress. C. Lynteris noted on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic that the mass orderly wearing of masks in China and a number of other Asian countries had given rise in the West to a frightening image of the 'masked Chinese' as a symbol of the coming future, where the values of collective survival typical of Asia, rather than Western individual freedoms, may be prioritized.

The derogatory term 'Chinese disease', semantically similar to 'Chinese virus', became a widely reproduced metaphor already back in the nineteenth century

It is well known that U.S. President Donald Trump ignored the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic for a long time. The topic became popular only after it had been introduced in the context of the U.S. confrontation with China. During March 2020, the disease turned into a 'Chinese virus' in Trump’s speeches. In March 2020, a photographer captured Trump’s talking points in which the word 'corona' was crossed out and specifically replaced with 'Chinese'. By then, neutral variants of the name for the epidemic had already been proposed (coronavirus 2019-nCoV, COVID-19, etc.); moreover, WHO officials discouraged the use of the phrase 'Chinese virus' because it could, unwittingly or not, lead to 'racial profiling'. Despite this, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo increased his use of the phrase 'Wuhan virus’' accusing the Chinese leadership of putting the world at risk by failing to disclose more information about the source of the epidemic. Following this, President Trump also began to constantly voice the phrase 'Chinese virus'. It is noteworthy that at the end of March 2020, the G7 foreign ministers did not agree on M. Pompeo’s call to identify the coronavirus as the 'Wuhan virus'.

Obviously, the now flourishing process of 'cancel culture' against China has a very old genesis. The attempts to 'cancel' China by Western civilizers through a series of invasions and three Opium Wars deserve special mention. For example, during the third Opium War, Yuanmingyuan Palace was destroyed (1860), a vast architectural complex with an area of 350 hectares, 8 times the size of the Vatican. There were more than 600 buildings built for the emperor. Yuanmingyuan was considered the architectural pearl of the empire: various parts of the complex repeated Mongol and Tibetan temples, the famous gardens of Hangzhou and Suzhou, and other architectural monuments of China.

It took the Anglo-French army two days to destroy Yuanmingyuan. The wooden part of the complex was burned to the ground, and the western buildings made of stone were looted. All that is left of the pearl of Chinese architecture is the stone masonry on the site of the western buildings. The Chinese authorities deliberately decided not to restore the garden and palace complex: now Yuanmingyuan serves as a reminder of the humiliation to which Europe subjected the country.

The outcome of the Opium Wars can be considered one of the first illustrative examples of the forced creation of a market with a complete loss of the country’s economic sovereignty in the areas defined by the West. In this case, the cancelling phenomenon is particularly multifaceted: in addition to the theft of cultural values and genocide, a centralized export of capital was organized: drug addiction became massively spread among the Chinese population — by 1836, about 2 million people had become opium consumers, including the top administration and officials in the capital city — and opium could be bought only for silver.

3. CONCLUSION: MULTIPOLARITY AS A NEW MODEL OF WORLD ORDER

As the case of 'cancelling' Russia shows, the West still aims to subjugate the entire world to its interests. Moreover, now it has tried out a new tool and is ready to actively use it. It is worth recalling a post by The Washington Post columnist Jason Willick published on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 'We are witnessing the first geopolitical cancellation of the 21st century'. The Western media, as the mouthpiece of the authorities, explicitly say — the first, and therefore not the last.

In recent decades, Western countries have actually replaced globalization processes with Westernization

The United States and the European Union in can impose restrictions on any country with no hesitation if a state irritates them or goes against pseudo-normality. The West has frozen Russian assets and is now searching hard for legal justification to legalize their appropriation. The experience gained will undoubtedly be used against other States.

By supporting and enforcing the ideology of the 'new ethics' , Western civilization not only carries out cultural genocide, but also destroys itself — society whose integration is based on the idea of incessant conflicts between multiple groups is doomed to decay. With the widespread deconstruction, fluidity of meanings and social norms in the background, the individual tends to experience existential fear and social loneliness. In an effort to get rid of them, the individual finds temporary refuge in marginalized groups, constructed on an artificially created value base aimed at a constant struggle for social justice.

Thus, the individual is drawn into a self-destructive social environment — instead of love and creation, he condemns himself to an endless and senseless 'war of all against all'.

Despite the self-destructiveness of their policies, Western elites will continue to dehumanize the culture of their civilization and other peoples in order to maintain the neocolonial system and spread hegemony. In this context, the political gain of individuals and groups has a much higher priority than the peaceful coexistence of multiple States and peoples.

The situation can be characterized as a global attempt to manipulate mass consciousness. This is no longer Jean Baudrillard’s 'war that never was', but a total battle of civilizations. In recent decades, Western countries have actually replaced globalization processes with Westernization. Naturally, this causes serious protests worldwide, because the ancient civilizations of China, India, Africa and other peoples do not want to submit to the values developed in a State whose history and culture have been formed fairly recently.

The Western countries’ desire to 'cancel' Russia disguises the desire to 'cancel' and delegitimize the multipolar world. The West does not want to tolerate the sovereignty of other civilizations, as recognition of such sovereignty automatically means recognition of multipolarity, which makes further Western hegemony is impossible.

Therefore, condoning the neo-colonial system is the path to civilizational abyss and degradation. The U.S. and its satellites are not interested in the development of non-Western States, since they are only a market for goods, as well as a source of cheap labor and natural resources. 'cancel culture' in such a system acts as a whip that the Western metropolis uses to punish the States that defend their right to sovereignty and their own way of development.

The best line of conduct in the current situation is that of creativity. The spread of the hegemony of Western civilization can be stopped only through an overall remodeling of the world on the basis of multipolarity, mutual respect and cooperation. Such a model will leave no room for imposed ideologies and 'cancel culture'. National and, in particular, cultural sovereignty will be a universally recognized value and right of each country.

The spread of the hegemony of Western civilization can be stopped only through an overall remodeling of the world on the basis of multipolarity

The roots of such a model of world order are in compliance with international law and mutually respectful dialogue on the platform of international organizations — the principle which is generally accepted, but forgotten by the West. Traditional values — family, love for the homeland, honor, collectivism, helping others, humanism, historical memory, etc. — would be Another component of such a world.

Russia and other countries unwilling to recognize the hegemony of the West and its neo-colonial policy of cultural genocide are united by traditional values shared by the world majority. All world denominations adhere to them, and they are the basis of many cultures.

Traditional values are closely connected with national and cultural identity, with people’s awareness of themselves as part of one State and nation. In turn, this awareness is a key aspect of cultural sovereignty. Therefore, traditional values are an integrating factor for States and nations on the path to a new multipolar model of world order based on mutual respect and recognition of the sovereignty of each stakeholder.

Advocating the formation of multipolarity as a new form of world order, Russia stands up to protect not only its own cultural sovereignty but also the sovereignty of other civilizations. Russia respects the right of every country to choose its own path of development, including cultural development, and calls on the world community to unite under the aegis of mutual respect and cooperation.

Despite these appeals, Western civilization continues to enforce a 'new ethics' on the world, dividing it into 'those its own' and 'others' in order to maintain hegemony and block the independent development of those who disagree. This cultural intervention is aimed at undermining national identity, putting the cultures of other civilizations on the Western track, which ultimately guides people politically and economically towards the West.

In fact, civilizations are subjected to cultural and economic occupation. The Western metropolis can at any moment impose economic sanctions and restrict access to its cultural objects and information resources to which the population of the occupied countries has got so accustomed. Then, employing the long-established techniques of fomenting color revolutions and civil wars, the West incites irritated people to take to the streets against the incumbent government, thereby getting rid of unwanted 'foreign colleagues'.

Western civilization continues to enforce a 'new ethics' on the world, dividing it into 'insiders' and 'strangers'

Carrying out cultural genocide in this way, Western civilization pursues the same goals as in the colonial times: the siphoning of resources from subordinate territories, the exploitation of cheap labor, and the sale of goods in foreign markets. This is why the current unipolar system of international relations can be confidently called neo-colonialism: it has aimed at the appropriation of other people’s resources, and will still do.

For more than 500 years, Western civilization has been the hegemon in the unipolarity-based world. In the era of colonialism, it exploited and plundered colonies with impunity, destroyed national and local cultures, relying on instruments of direct violence. The West continues its exploitation today, in the era of neocolonialism, using new mechanisms, such as 'cancel culture' and 'new ethics' , along with already tested methods.

Only multipolarity is natural for human civilization. This is how all States developed before the advent of colonialism. Therefore, the modern world order calls for changes:

  • Non-Western countries, which have been suppressed, plundered and culturally destroyed for centuries, must be restored to freedom, a fair share in the world’s wealth, dignity and autonomy.
  • It is necessary to build a new model of international relations in which sovereignty and respect for it become an unconditional and unquestioned value.
  • It is necessary to reorganize the system of international law and stop the exploitation of laws by Western metropolises that interpret them guided by short-term political ambitions. International relations should be based on law, rather than rules.
  • Traditional values must be revisited as a creative force for building the future. Values such as knowledge, family, patriotism, honor and mutual respect must once again guide shared sustainable development.

A multipolar world architecture can ensure the well-being and fair distribution of global wealth for the world’s population. It will give each civilization the right to sovereignty.

Today Russia advocates the creation of a multipolar model of the world order, defends the possibility of a sovereign path of development not only for itself, but also for all civilizations.

However, it is only with joint efforts of all non-Western civilizations that it will become possible to leave the neocolonial paradigm behind and create a multipolar model of international relations.

The dominance of one civilization and its expansion under the slogans of 'new ethics' , 'rule-based order', westernization, universalization and unipolarity will give way to a new system of international relations, i. e. multipolarity. It will make it possible to tap the potential of each civilization to serve the interests all mankind and its development.

4. REFERENCES

  1. Baudrillard J. (1976) Symbolic Exchange and Death
  2. Baudrillard J. (1981) Simulacra and Simulation
  3. Bol’shoy teatr otmenil aprelskiye pokazy sovmestnoy postanovki s Metropolitan Opera (in Russian) [The Bolshoi Theater canceled April shows of joint production with the Metropolitan Opera] // Interfax News Agency. 04.03.2022
  4. Botton, A. (2014) The News: A User’s Manual
  5. Marriage traditions and sad fate of the Nuba tribe: how the life of the people has changed // TravelAsk (accessed 07.01.2024)
  6. V-SSHA-vuz-pereimenoval-kabinet-Marksa-izza-spetsoperatsii-v-Rossii (in Russian) [A U.S. university renamed the K. Marx classroom because of Russia’s special operation] // RIA Novosti (accessed 06.01.2024)
  7. The University of Milan wanted to ban Dostoevsky (in Russian) // Gazeta ‘Izvestia. 03.03.2022
  8. Valery Gergiev uvolen iz Myunhenskoy filarmonii (in Russian) [Valery Gergiev fired from the Munich Philharmonic] // Kommersant newspaper. 01.03.2022
  9. Vanina E.Yu. (2007) Srednevekovoye myshleniye: indiyski variant (in Russian)/[Medieval thinking: Indian variant]. M.: Vostok. lit. 2014. India: history in history. M.: Vost. lit. Hegel G.W. F.: 1993. Lectures on the philosophy of history
  10. Vinogradov D. Amerikantsy vyvezli iz Iraka 130 tysiach drevnih artefaktov (in Russian) [Americans took out of Iraq 130 thousand ancient artifacts] // Svobodnaya Pressa. — 2013. — September 18 (accessed 13.09.2021)
  11. Danilchuk A. Poslednee razrushenie Vavilona. (in Russian) [The Last Destruction of Babylon. American military destroyed the ruins of the ancient city] (accessed 05.08.2021)
  12. Dolgopolova Zh.G. (2009) Rafael Lemkin — otets Konventsii o preduprezhdeniin prestupleniya genotsida (in Russian) [Raphael Lemkin — the father of the Genocide Convention] // Notes on Jewish History. 2009. No. 11 (114)
  13. Popova E.A. 'Cancel Culture' as a Manifestation of Western russophobia. // Humanities. Vestnik Finansovogo Universitet. 2022. No 6
  14. Israeli artists were kicked out of Estonia as they are 'Russians all through'. // Eurasia Daily (date of address: 06.01.2024)
  15. Istoriya Kitaya (in Russian) [History of China]/Edited by A.V. Meliksetov. — 2nd edition, revised and supplemented. — Moscow: Izd-voor MSU, Izd-voor 'Vysshaya Shkola', 2002. 736 p
  16. How the world fell out of love with Joanne Rowling and why it’s not just about her tweets on menstruation (in Russian) // Forbes
  17. Film Academy announced new criteria for Oscars (in Russian) // Kommersant
  18. Kozlov A.A. Pervaya volna globalizatsii i Kitay (in Russian) [The First Wave of Globalization and China. Opium Trade] (29.11.2016). [electronic resource] IFES RAS (accessed 20.05.2020)
  19. Kult Otmeny Rossii ['Cancel Russia' Cult] (in Russian) // ASAFOV. RU: author’s website. 2023 (accessed 01.07.2023)
  20. The culture of Ukrainian borsch cooking inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding // UNESCO (accessed 05.01.2024)
  21. Latvia-pobedila-Cheburashku [Latvia has won over Cheburashka] // Komsomolskaya Pravda (accessed 06.01.2024)
  22. Lyotard J.-F. (1979) The Postmodern Condition
  23. Lisitsa K.E., Turkulets V.A. 'Cancel Culture' as a Form of Stigmatization // Humanities, socio-economic and social sciences, 2022. No. 6. (in Russian)
  24. Maramovich A. S., Pinigin A. F. Endemichnye ochagi holery v Afrike (in Russian) [Endemic foci of cholera in Africa.] Microbiology Journal. 1995, 2 (Suppl.)
  25. Mezhdunarodnaya federatsiya onkazalas otmenyat sanktsii k sanochnicam Rossii vopreki sudy (in Russian) [The International Federation refused to 'cancel' sanctions against the Russian tobogganers despite the court ruling]. Text: electronic // Information Agency Interfax. 11.04.22
  26. Metropoliten muzey v Nyu-Yorke priznal hudozhnika Arkhipa Kuinzhi ukrainskim (in Russian) [The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recognized the artist Arkhip Kuindzhi as Ukrainian] // TASS news agency. 10.02.23
  27. Lawrence N. Session 'The image of the future of the African continent: sovereignty and traditional values as important elements of strategy and development' / Economic Forum / Russia-Africa Summit. 24.10.2019. Video recording is available through the application for electronic and mobile devices 'summit and forum Russia-Africa'. Start time of the speech: 1:02:25
  28. Shchipkov A.V. Nezavershenny nacizm. Genezis, transformatciya I rodostvennye yavleniya. (in Russian) [Unfinished Nazism. Genesis, transformations and related phenomena: monograph]. — M.: St. John the Theologian Russian Orthodox University, 2024
  29. 'Opyat' propal chto li? (in Russian) [Missing again or something?’ The Ministry of Health included more than 100 medicines in the list of low supply] // Moscow Online (accessed 05.01.2024) (accessed 05.01.2024)
  30. Pochti dva milliona detey skonchalos iz-za posledsviy ekonomicheskih sanktsiy (in Russian) [Almost two million Iraqi children died due to the consequences of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq] // RIA Novosti (accessed 04.01.2024)
  31. Rossiyu isklyuchili iz mirovogo futbola I lishili Olimpiady (in Russian) [Russia was excluded from world soccer and deprived of the Olympics. Why will this change the sport forever?] Text: electronic // Lenta Novosti. 26.05.2022
  32. Said, Edward W. (1995) Orientalism. Western conceptions of the Orient. Penguin
  33. Sax Rohmer. (1913) The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu
  34. Sourabh, Naresh Chandra; Myllyntaus, Timo, Famines in Late Nineteenth-Century India: Politics, Culture, and Environmental Justice. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany
  35. Totalnaya sanktsionnaya voyna protiv naseleniya RF (in Russian) [Total sanctions war against the RF population] // Nezavisimaya gazeta (accessed 06.01.2024)
  36. Toulouse can refuse Tugan Sokhiev in concerts // Radio of classical music Orpheus. News. 04.03.2022
  37. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 09.11.2022 No. 809 On approving the Fundamentals of State Policy to Preserve and Strengthen Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values (accessed 04.01.2024)
  38. Woddis J. (1960) Africa. The Roots of Revolt. London
  39. Foucault M. On the Genealogy of Ethics: An Overview of Work in Progress
  40. Foucault M. (1966) The Order of Things. An Archaeology of the Human Sciences/Les mots et les choses — une archéologie des sciences humaines
  41. Foucault M. (1976) History of Sexuality
  42. Holera v SSSR v period VII pandemii (in Russian) [Cholera in the USSR during the seventh pandemic.] Edited by V.V. Pokrovsky. I. Pokrovsky. М., 2000
  43. Shah, S. (2016) Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond
  44. Japan banned export to Russia of raw materials for some vaccines and reagents // Vademecum (accessed 05.01.2024)
  45. Address to the U.S. Senate, 7 February 1899 (PDF) // Tillman, Benjamin R. National Humanities Center (accessed 15.01.2024)
  46. Akbar Illahabadi (1846–1921). Satirical Verses and Excerpts from 'Dialogue Between Old and New'/transl. by M. Farooqi. In Nijhavan, Sh. (ed.), Nationalism in the Vernacular. Hindi, Urdu and the Literature of Indian Freedom: Anthology. 2010. Delhi: Permanent Black
  47. Anderson W.T. (1996) The Fontana Postmodernism Reader. London: Fontana Press. pp. 10–11
  48. Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media. — Text: electronic // The Diplomat: [web-site] (accessed 11.02.2024)
  49. Basem L. Ra’ad (2010) Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean (Pluto Press)
  50. Bat J.-P. (2012) Le syndrome Foccart: La politique française en Afrique, de 1959 à nos jours. — P.: Editions Gallimard. — p. 838
  51. Bell H. (1996) Postmodern Blackness // The Fontana Postmodern- ism Reader/Edit. by W.T. Anderson. London: Fontana Press, pp. 113–120
  52. Butler J. (2006) Gender Trouble. London: Routledge
  53. Crenshaw K. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color // Stanford Law Review. 1991. Vol. 43. No. 6. pp. 1241–1299
  54. Fahs B., Karger M. Women’s Studies as Virus: Institutional Feminism, Affect, and the Projection of Danger // Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies. 2016. Vol. 5. No. 1
  55. Full text of Jack Straw’s speech to the Foreign Policy Centre, 25 March 2002
  56. Gupta, M. (1954) Bhārat bhāratī. Chirganv, Jhansi: Sahitya Sadan, pp. 118–119
  57. Implementation of Additional Sanctions Against Russia and Belarus Under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and Refinements to Existing Controls // Department of Commerce (accessed 05.01.2024)
  58. India to force Britain into colonial 'reckoning' with treasure demands // The Telegraph
  59. IOC EB recommends no participation of Russian and Belarussian athletes and officials. // IOC News. 25.02.2022
  60. Israel demolishes Muslim graves near Al-Aqsa mosque // Anadolu Ajanci
  61. Keay J. (2001) India Discovered. The History of a Lost Civilization. London: Harper Collins.
  62. Kopecki D. (2020, March 18). WHO Officials Warn US President Trump against Calling Coronavirus 'the Chinese Virus'. CNBC
  63. London J. The Strength of the Strong. The Unparalleled Invasion
  64. Lynteris, C. (2018). Yellow Peril Epidemics: The Political Ontology of Degeneration and Emergence. In F. Bille, S. Urbansky (Eds) Yellow Perils: China Narratives in the Contemporary World (pр. 34–53). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
  65. Mickey Rourke Convinced He’ll Lose Oscar To Sean Penn/Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo Glad To Be In America Ferrara Pic // Creators. com (accessed 15.01.2024)
  66. Ngoupandé J.-P. (2003) L’Afrique face à l’islam. — P.: Editions Albin Michel, — 296 p
  67. Odijie, M. (2018). The Fear of 'Yellow Peril' and the Emergence of European Federalist Movement. The International History Review, 40 (2), 358–375
  68. Plans to turn Boris Johnson wedding church into replica Kremlin for film axed // Mirror (accessed 06.01.2024)
  69. Podmore W. (2008) British Foreign Policy since 1870. L.: Xlibris Corporation
  70. Pompeo, G-7 Foreign Ministers Spar over 'Wuhan Virus' (2020, March 25). Politico
  71. Poovey M. Feminism and Deconstruction // Feminist Studies. 1998. Vol. 14. No. 1. С. 51–65
  72. Rouvez A. (1994) Disconsolate Empires: French, British and Belgian Military Involvement in PostColonial Sub-Saharan Africa. Lanham; London: University Press of America
  73. Said, Edward W. Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims. Social Text No. 1, (Winter, 1979): 7–58
  74. Savès J. Discours de La Baule // Herodote.net. — P., 1990. — 20.06
  75. Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World — Oxford University Press, 1993. — ISBN 978–0-19- 508557–0
  76. Takeyh R., Sabbagh H.J., Gvosdev N. Do Terrorist Networks Need a Home? // Council on Foreign Relations. Summer 2002
  77. Taubman-Goldie G. Spheres of influence / G. Taubman-Goldie // The Nineteenth Century. — No. 90. December 1892. P. 984–990
  78. Thapar, R. (2002). Early India from the Origins to AD 1300. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press
  79. US Should Reach Out to India’s Opposition, Not Just Modi — Bloomberg // Bloomberg (accessed 21.02.2024)
  80. Viala-Gaudefroy, J. & Lindaman, D. (2020). Donald Trump’s 'Chinese virus': The Politics of Naming. The Conversation
  81. Walker Ch., Ludwig J. The Meaning of Sharp Power. How Authoritarian States Project Influence // Foreign Affairs, 2017, November 16
  82. Wer eine Nuklearwaffe nicht richtig einsetzt, braucht sich nicht zu wundern, wenn die Wirkung ausbleibt // Der Spiegel (accessed 05.01.2024)
  83. What led to the burning of Beijing’s Old Summer Palace? // James Carter. The China Project (accessed 04.01.2024)
  84. White A.S. Chartered Government in Africa/White // The Nineteenth Century. — No 203. — January 1894. P. 126–131
  85. WHO report on global surveillance of epidemic-prone infectious diseases. WHO/CDS/CSR/ISR/2000/l
  86. Yael Raviv, Falafel Nation: Cuisine and the Making of National Identity in Israel, U of Nebraska Press, 2015
  87. Zhang, D. (2021). Sinophobic Epidemics in America: Historical Discontinuity in Disease Related Yellow Peril Imaginaries of the Past and Present. Journal of Medical Humanities, 42, 63–80