(The Quint brings to you a new column, 'Khairiyat', by award-winning author Tabish Khair, where he talks about the politics of race, the experiences of diasporas, Europe-India dynamics and the interplay of culture, history and society, among other issues of global significance.)
The UN resolution deploring the invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s forces was passed by 141 out of 193 member states, with 35 abstaining. Apart from Russia, only four states – Eritrea, North Korea, Belarus and Syria – voted against it. These are countries already beyond the pale of international credibility. Even long-standing allies, like China and Cuba, and nations with historically close ties to Russia, such as India and Iran, not only abstained but also often recommended a cessation of hostilities.
Russia is incredibly isolated today. Even Hitler’s Germany had world powers like Italy and Japan backing it. On the one side, we have what I will call for the sake of convenience the ‘Western liberal democratic alliance’ of 141 nations, and on the other side, we have Putin’s Russia with four small, fringe nations. It appears that one side can possibly have nothing in common with the other.
And yet, I will argue that the two sides share something terrible: a large degree of disdain for the ordinary Russian citizen. It is this that ‘unites’ them.