State terrorism on example of Putin’s regime: present and history

Abstract

The article analyses current international documents that define the criteria of state terrorism. It has been demonstrated that the political decisions taken by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in relation to Ukraine fall under the criteria of the Geneva Declaration on Terrorism. The scientific interpretation of state terrorism is explored here separately. Furthermore, the root cause of state terror in modern Russia is explained. The authors emphasise that Putin’s rule of modern Russia is no different from the way Peter I ruled the Moscow state, which was based on terror and violence. It is no coincidence that Vladimir Putin, after having visiting in June 2022 an exhibition dedicated to Peter I, compared himself to the tsar. It has been established by the authors that in the 16th century the departure from the tradition of Western-type civilizational development and the decline of the achievements of own culture were oddly combined in the territory of Muscovite Rus with society’s rejection of the basic principles of Asian order and culture. Elements of people’s democracy (freedom) were not entirely replaced by Asian despotism. Instead, a specific phenomenon of purely Russian ungovernability – popular rebellion and despotic arbitrariness – was formed. It is emphasized that the national consciousness was enslaved by both the Leninist and Stalinist administrative and political systems, where anti-Ukrainian rhetoric prevailed. It has been established that the Russian-Ukrainian war provides a historic opportunity for Ukraine to root out pro-Russian political forces and at the same time to hold Russia accountable for international crimes committed by its troops on the territory of an independent state on the direct instructions of Vladimir Putin.