So completely convinced are we that ‘the Russian’ is a monster that all we are capable of seeing in Russia is monsters, and this has not been at all difficult for western governments to tap into and exploit for their own ends. Ireland is by far not the worst example, and so here we are looking at Ireland so as to give some kind of idea of how bad things are in more Russophobic societies — places like Britain, Germany, Poland, and Estonia. While, for example, Poland and Estonia have recent histories of Russian Soviet domination and so have legitimate fears of a return to that awful reality, we can also see in this a racial element. Russia, we have decided, is the evil other. Whatever it does is wicked. … More Western Hypocrisy over Ukraine