Propoganda through the 1AC's framing of Russia as simultaneously weak yet dangerous reinforces Western superiority.

Propaganda is characterised by the appeal of virtuous ideas such as reason, civilisation and human freedom to define the in-groups and the diametrically opposite to define Russia as the main out-group. Relations between the West and Russia have throughout history been conceptualised as a relationship between political subjects that drives civilisation forward, and political objects that must be civilised. The teacher-student relationship justifies a hierarchy and sovereign inequality as inferior ethnicity, morality, culture and values cannot be given equal status to the superior.

Propaganda is instrumental to legitimise special privileges for the West as the teacher, while the uncivilised nature of the Russian student presents an ultimatum—accept the role as the apprentice or be confronted in the form of containment or defeat. Either way, the stereotype precludes Russia from restoring its political subjectivity and sovereign equality. Russia’s acceptance of its role as an apprentice of the West is imperative for the West own identity-building as a benign hegemon devoted to socialising and civilising for common good. Andrius Kubilius, a member of the European Parliament and the former Prime Minister of Lithuania, argued for a combination: “The new EU strategy towards Russia should entail three elements—deterrence, containment and transformation” (Kubilius, 2021).

The inferior “Other” often plays the dual role of both a backward people and as an existential threat (Linklater, 2005). Case in point, Hitler’s propaganda against the Jews were defined by two distinct styles of language—either “scornful derision” of the inferior race or “panicstricken fear” of their threat to civilisation (Klemperer, 2006: 162). Russophobia has similarly produced two depictions in the language over the past 500 years—disdain for Russians as an uncivilised and backward people, and simultaneously an immense threat. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was common to argue that despite Russia’s “syndrome of backwardness”, it represents a threat to international security (Snyder, 1994: 181).

Consequently, propaganda can produce what Orwell referred to as doublethink, which is the act of accepting two contradictory beliefs simultaneously. Russia is depicted as hopelessly weak and lingering towards collapse, and simultaneously an all-powerful threat responsible for nearly all of the West’s problems. US Senator John McCain argued that “Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country” that is crippled [hurt] by corruption and authoritarianism, although it is also a country that can mastermind a great conspiracy of influencing almost every election and referendum across the West. Scornful derision is expressed towards Russia’s hopeless economy the size of the Italian economy and its military budget being less than 10% of NATO’smilitary budget, yet simultaneously the panicstricken fear of Russia conquering Europe requires the Western bloc to continuously increase its military spending, end economic reliance on Russia and rediscover solidarity against the Russian menace. During the Russian Duma elections, some media reports argued that Russia has no democracy, yet in the breath celebrated that Putin’s United Russia party lost many seats in the Duma. During the tensions between Ukraine and Russia in 2021/22, the Ukrainians were portrayed as brave, united and capable of destroying the Russian invading forces, while other reports there were warnings that the large hordes of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border could overwhelm the poor Ukrainians within a few days or hours.

An Oriental Barbarian The East–West schism has been an enduring feature of Western civilisation since the democratic people of ancient Greece competed with the barbaric Scythians and despotic Persians, followed by the civilised Roman Empire attacked by the uncivilised Huns. Charlemagne and Byzantium engaged in East–West rivalry in the Middle Ages over being the rightful heir to the Roman Empire, a claim to represent Europe, which produced propaganda about the Orthodox of the East (Mettan, 2017). Russia was detached from Europe in the thirteenth century as Kievan Rus disintegrated and the Mongols invaded and occupied Russian lands for the next 250 years. Relations between the West and Russia have ever since been informed by this period as Russia was assigned the identity and role of the inferior and despotic Asiatic people.

The focus on race was a central aspect of Russophobia for centuries. The Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century established the initial racial, geographical, economic and cultural Otherness of Russia. Portrayed as an Asiatic successor of the Mongols, Russia embodied both the barbaric inferiority of Eastern hordes and the existential threat that reaffirmed the West’s own civilisational superiority. Russophobic stereotypes began forming in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as Russia liberated itself from the Mongol-yoke, defeated the Tatar kingdoms and returned to the European political realm. Western European states assigned Russia the role of a barbarian Asiatic power from the East that threatened European civilisation, which was a sentiment that the Poles could also harness support in their struggle against Muscovy.