Beyond Putin’s Analogies: The Genocide Debate on Ukraine and the Balkan Analogy Worth Noting

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Dirk Moses and Diana Dumitru for offering substantive comments to my initial draft of the manuscript. The present version would have not been completed without their interventions. I also am indebted to Alexander Etkind for approaching me to discuss Putin’s analogies with the Balkans – I have learned a lot from numerous interactions we have had. Not least, when he learned about my research for this essay, Andrii Nekoliak has been crucial in providing me with most valuable sources in the Ukraine debate on genocide – and I am very thankful to him.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Jeremy Cliffe, “Russia’s Attack on Ukraine’s Donbas Is a Grotesque Parody of Humanitarian Intervention,” New Statesman, 23 February 2022, https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2022/02/how-the-donbas-region-became-a-grotesque-theatre-of-war.

2 Ibid.

3 Hugo Bachega, “No Sign of Russian De-Escalation Yet, Nato Says,” BBC News, 15 February 2022, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-60372815.

4 Izabella Tabarovsky and Eugene Finkel, “Statement on the War in Ukraine by Scholars of Genocide, Nazism and World War II,” Jewish Journal, 27 February 2022, https://jewishjournal.com/news/worldwide/345515/statement-on-the-war-in-ukraine-by-scholars-of-genocide-nazism-and-world-war-ii/.

5 A. Dirk Moses, The Problems of Genocide Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021); Anton Weiss-Wendt, A Rhetorical Crime: Genocide in the Geopolitical Discourse of the Cold War (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018).

6 United Nations, “When to Refer to a Situation as ‘Genocide’” (United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect), https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/publications-and-resources/GuidanceNote-When%20to%20refer%20to%20a%20situation%20as%20genocide.pdf.

7 Ibid., 3.

8 Ibid.

9 Lothar Gorris, “Ivan Krastev on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: ‘Putin Lives in Historic Analogies and Metaphors’,” Der Spiegel, 17 March 2022.

10 Ibid. While Krastev has a point when drawing such parallels, it must be noted that television towers are common targets in military conflicts to destroy public communications infrastructure. For example, Sarajevo’s television tower was one of early targets of Bosnian Serbs in 1992, so were the television towers in Afghanistan early targets of the US aerial bombings in 2001.

11 Kremlin, “Address by President of the Russian Federation,” President of Russia, 18 March 2014, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603.

12 Ibid. Emphasis added.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 “The Propaganda War Waged Over The Iraq Invasion (2003),” Journeyman Pictures, 2014, min 6:15, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3GINVv9-9s.

16 Kremlin, “Address by President of the Russian Federation,” President of Russia, 18 March 2014, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603.

17 Ibid. Emphasis added.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid. Emphasis added.

20 For an exception, see Alexander Motyl in Mary Yang, “What Putin’s Past Says About Ukraine’s Future,” Foreign Policy, 3 March 2022.

21 Alexander Hinton, “Putin’s Claims That Ukraine Is Committing Genocide Are Baseless, but Not Unprecedented,” The Conversation, 25 February 2022, http://theconversation.com/putins-claims-that-ukraine-is-committing-genocide-are-baseless-but-not-unprecedented-177511.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Jon Greenberg, “Fact Check: Putin Says Russians Face ‘Genocide’ in Ukraine,” WRAL.Com, 28 February 2022, https://www.wral.com/fact-check-putin-says-russians-face-genocide-in-ukraine/20163715/.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 ICJ, Ukraine institutes proceedings against the Russian Federation and requests the Court to indicate provisional measures, No. 2022/4 (International Court of Justice, 27 February 2022).

28 Ibid., 1. Emphasis added.

29 Philip Gourevitch, “Is It Time to Call Putin’s War in Ukraine Genocide?” The New Yorker, 13 March 2022. Emphasis added.

30 Julian Borger, “UN International Court of Justice Orders Russia to Halt Invasion of Ukraine,” The Guardian, 16 March 2022.

31 ICJ, Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v. Russian Federation), No. 2022/11 (International Court of Justice, 16 March 2022).

32 Eliot Higgins, “Russia’s Bucha ‘Facts’ Versus the Evidence,” Bellingcat, 4 April 2022, https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/04/04/russias-bucha-facts-versus-the-evidence/.

33 Sarah Rainsford, “Ukraine: The Children’s Camp That Became an Execution Ground,” BBC News, 15 May 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61442387.

34 Ibid.

35 “Zelensky Accuses Russia of Genocide after Alleged Atrocities in Kyiv Suburbs,” Times of Israel, 3 April 2022.

36 “Biden Says Russia Committing ‘Genocide’ in Ukraine,” Al Jazeera, 12 April 2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/12/biden-says-russia-committing-genocide-in-ukraine.

37 Ibid.

38 Ron Elving, “Speaking of Genocide, Biden Escalates the War of Words over Ukraine,” NPR, 18 April 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/04/18/1093206883/speaking-of-genocide-biden-escalates-the-war-of-words-over-ukraine.

39 Kateryna Tishchenko, “Ukrainian Parliament Has Recognized the Actions of the Russian Federation as Genocide against Ukrainians,” Ukrayinska Pravda, 14 April 2022, https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/04/14/7339618/.

40 Ibid.

41 “Latvian and Estonian Parliaments Say Russia Committed Genocide in Ukraine,” Reuters, 21 April 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/latvian-estonian-parliaments-say-russia-committed-genocide-ukraine-2022-04-21/.

42 “Lithuania Recognises War in Ukraine as Genocide, Russia as Terrorist State,” Lithuanian National Radio and Television, 10 May 2022, https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1691202/lithuania-recognises-war-in-ukraine-as-genocide-russia-as-terrorist-state.

43 Kanishka Singh, “Canada Lawmakers Vote Unanimously to Label Russia’s Acts in Ukraine as ‘Genocide’,” Reuters, 27 April 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-lawmakers-vote-unanimously-label-russias-acts-ukraine-genocide-2022-04-27/.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid.

46 Some others that followed Biden’s lead on genocide claims include Poland’s and Spain's Prime Ministers, among a few others, see “Will Russian Atrocities in Ukraine Be Recognized as Genocide? Here Is What the Researchers Say about This,” Vox Ukraine, 8 April 2022, https://voxukraine.org/en/will-russian-atrocities-in-ukraine-be-recognized-as-genocide-here-is-what-the-researchers-say-about-this.

47 Ross Douthat, “Why Biden Saying ‘Genocide’ Doesn’t Matter,” The New York Times, 23 April 2022.

48 “Will Russian Atrocities in Ukraine Be Recognized as Genocide?” Vox Ukraine.

49 Rich Lowry, “Russia Is Not Committing Genocide in Ukraine,” Politico, 14 April 2022.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 Alexander Motyl in UkeTube, War Crimes in the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Alexander Motyl, 2022, min. 3:00, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjaapWR6aXQ; Motyl also offers a rather bleak overview of general historical human behaviour in wars of expansion and occupation, mentioning the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese policies in their colonies, which, he says, were not any better than what we see with the Russians, min. 3:45.

53 Ibid., min. 15:10.

54 Timothy Snyder, “‘Genocide’ and Genocide,” Thinking About … , 26 February 2022, https://snyder.substack.com/p/genocide-and-genocide.

55 There are legitimate reasons for it, as elaborated in the next section.

56 See “An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation’s Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the Duty to Prevent,” New Lines Institute and Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, May 2022, https://newlinesinstitute.org/an-independent-legal-analysis-of-the-russian-federations-breaches-of-the-genocide-convention-in-ukraine-and-the-duty-to-prevent/.

57 ICTJ, “Transitional Justice in the Former Yugoslavia” (International Center for Transitional Justice, 2009), https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-FormerYugoslavia-Justice-Facts-2009-English.pdf; see also HLC, “Humanitarian Law Center,” 22 May 2011, https://web.archive.org/web/20110522141442/http://www.hlc-rdc.org/stranice/Linkovi-modula/About-us.en.html.

58 ICTY, “Mandate and Crimes under ICTY Jurisdiction,” 2022, https://www.icty.org/en/about/tribunal/mandate-and-crimes-under-icty-jurisdiction.

59 Marko Milanović, “State Responsibility for Genocide: A Follow-Up,” European Journal of International Law 18, no. 4 (2007): 669–70.

60 William Schabas, “Genocide and the International Court of Justice: Finally, a Duty to Prevent the Crime of Crimes,” Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal 2, no. 2 (2007), https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol2/iss2/2/.

61 See ICTY, “Cases,” 2022, https://www.icty.org/en/cases.

62 Robert Marquand, “Why Genocide Is Difficult to Prosecute,” Christian Science Monitor, 30 April 2007, https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0430/p01s04-wogi.html; Leila Sadat in: NPR, “Why Genocide Is Difficult to Prove Before an International Criminal Court,” NPR, 12 April 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092251159/why-genocide-is-difficult-to-prove-before-an-international-criminal-court.

63 In Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944).

64 A. Dirk Moses, “The Ukraine Genocide Debate Reveals the Limits of International Law,” Lawfare, 16 May 2022, Lawfare Blog, https://www.lawfareblog.com/ukraine-genocide-debate-reveals-limits-international-law. According to Alexander Etkind, what Russia is doing now in Ukraine now is genocide per Lemkin’s definition: see Alexander Etkind, “Ukraine, Russia, and Genocide of Minor Differences,” Journal of Genocide Research, (7 June 2022): 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2022.2082911.

65 Sergiy Sydorenko, “Proving Genocide Committed by Putin, Lavrov, and the Russian Army. Interview of Ukrainian Lawyer,” European Pravda, 18 May 2022, https://www.eurointegration.com.ua/eng/interview/2022/05/18/7139627/.

66 Fascism has been most prominently used in the Yugoslav communist discourse since WWII. In Serbian discourse, especially during the late 1980s and 1990s, Nazism and fascism have been used interchangeably.

67 Jasna Dragović-Soso, Saviours of the Nation: Serbia’s Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002).

68 Bette Denich, “Dismembering Yugoslavia: Nationalist Ideologies and the Symbolic Revival of Genocide,” American Ethnologist 21, no. 2 (1994): 367–90.

69 SANU, “Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) Memorandum, 1986,” World History Commons, September 1986, https://worldhistorycommons.org/serbian-academy-arts-and-sciences-sanu-memorandum-1986#doc_transcription.

70 Ibid.; See also Emir Suljagić, “Genocide by Plebiscite: The Bosnian Serb Assembly and Social Construction of ‘Turks’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Journal of Genocide Research 23, no. 4 (2021): 568–87.

71 SANU, “Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) Memorandum, 1986.”

72 Ibid.

73 In the Kosovo Albanian collective memory this is remembered as “Serbia’s occupation of Kosovo.”

74 Marina Martinovic, “Radovan Karadzic – From Poet to War Criminal,” Deutsche Welle, 23 March 2016, https://www.dw.com/en/radovan-karadzic-from-poet-to-war-criminal/a-19137363.

75 Christian Axboe Nielsen, “Surmounting the Myopic Focus on Genocide: The Case of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Journal of Genocide Research 15, no. 1 (2013): 23.

76 Ibid.; Denich, “Dismembering Yugoslavia.”

77 ICTY, “Mladic Case,” 22 August 2013, https://www.icty.org/x/cases/mladic/trans/en/130822ED.htm. Emphasis added.

78 E/CN.4/1992/S-2/NGO/1, “Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic Srpska on the Activities and Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights” (United Nations, 30 November 1992), 4, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G92/147/41/pdf/G9214741.pdf?OpenElement.

79 Ibid., 5.

80 S/2022/154, “Letter Dated 24 February 2022 from the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Addressed to the Secretary-General” (United Nations, 24 February 2022), https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N22/268/16/pdf/N2226816.pdf?OpenElement. Emphasis added.

81 A/49/586, “Letter Dated 26 October 1994 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Yugoslavia to the United Nations Addressed to the Secretary-General” (United Nations, 28 October 1994), https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N94/418/38/pdf/N9441838.pdf?OpenElement.

82 Ibid., 1–2. Emphasis added.

83 Ibid., 2.

84 ICTY, “Statement of Guilt: Biljana Plavšić,” 17 December 2002, https://www.icty.org/sid/221.

85 Stipe Odak and Andriana Benčić, “Jasenovac – A Past That Does Not Pass: The Presence of Jasenovac in Croatian and Serbian Collective Memory of Conflict,” East European Politics and Societies 30, no. 4 (2016): 822.

86 Nermina Kuloglija, “How Russian State Funds Promote Genocide Denial in Bosnia,” Balkan Insight, 16 December 2021, https://balkaninsight.com/2021/12/16/how-russian-state-funds-promote-genocide-denial-in-bosnia/. Serbia’s Parliament has issued its “Srebrenica Declaration” in 2010, which condemns the crime, short of calling it genocide, see “Serbia Adopts Resolution Condemning Srebrenica Massacre,” Balkan Insight, 31 March 2010, https://balkaninsight.com/2010/03/31/serbia-adopts-resolution-condemning-srebrenica-massacre/; For Serbia’s instrumental use of the “Srebrenica Declaration” see Jasna Dragović-Soso, “Apologising for Srebrenica: The Declaration of the Serbian Parliament, the European Union and the Politics of Compromise,” East European Politics 28, no. 2 (2012): 163–79.

87 Botschaft der Russischen Föderation, “Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s Interview with RT Arabic, Moscow, May 26, 2022,” 30 May 2022, https://russische-botschaft.ru/de/2022/05/30/foreign-minister-sergey-lavrovs-interview-with-rt-arabic-moscow-may-26-2022/.

88 Snyder, “‘Genocide’ and Genocide.”

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Shpend Kursani

Shpend Kursani is a Lecturer in International Relations at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of the University of Tartu. He holds a PhD degree in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute (EUI) and an MPhil degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. Shpend’s research focuses on contestation of authority in world politics, self-determination, secession, recognition, state-making, violence, and radicalization. His PhD dissertation “Contested States: The Struggle for Survival and Recognition in the Post-1945 International Order,” won the Linz-Rokkan Prize for the Best EUI Thesis in Political Sociology.