So guys, I watched Serhii Plochy’s interview with Lex Fridman…

And while there are some interesting points, Plokhy commits two mystifications. The first is about the marginal presence of Ukrainian radical nationalism in Ukrainian society, and the other one is about the repression of the Russian language.

Much like the other Ukrainian propagandists, Plokhy mentions the mediocre electoral results of nationalist parties and candidates. This however is a mystification.

In Ukraine, only large and well funded political projects win the elections. The wealth in Ukraine is distributed among the few and those few control the political scene. Poroshenko, Tymoshenko, and even Zelensky are good examples of this. If you do not have the money, forget about electoral success.When the nationalist VO Svoboda had funding, it had like 8% of the support in mostly Western Ukraine.

Another problem compounding the radical nationalist vote is the diversity of groups and localized popularity of their leaders. Every Indian wants to be a chief and I would say the establishment likes it that way. No way would they allow a united nationalist front that could threaten them.

Also, it should be noted that the larger parties have adopted the nationalist program, including the Jew Zelensky, making the need for a nationalist candidate void. Politically smart Ukrainian nationalists are in the party of Poroshenko.

Better question would be how many radicals are in the military? How much are they involved in youth education? I have not compiled my fashiks category out of nothing. That category is getting fresh material several times per month. Ukraine just keeps giving.

Putin did not pull denazification out of his ass, so don’t act as if he did…

Fridman and Plokhy are repeating that the Russian language is not banned, and can be heard on the streets. Obviously, you cannot ban a language that is used by the majority of the people but you can still discriminate against it. The Russian language has been banned from the media, from the universities, and schools with Russian language the language of instruction have been becoming fewer and fewer. In more recent years we have seen Russian books being destroyed and statues of Pushkin damaged.

And while this could have been demanded or overlooked in most of Ukraine, it certainly was not so in Eastern Donbas and Crimea. I think there were also pockets of discontent with this policy throughout Ukraine. I certainly met Ukrainians that expressed to me deep dissatisfaction with this language policy.

People like to point out: “Imagine if Ireland promoted Gaelic over English?” I can tell you straight, Ireland today would have been a potato superpower and not a financial center. But imagine if Luxembourg promoted Luxembourgish over French and German? Luxembourg by the way has only one national language, Luxembourgish but it is firmly inside the Francophonie, and one of the wealthiest countries in Europe.