Russian state news agency mistakenly published an article about Russia establishing  “The New World Order”

“A New World is being born in front of our eyes. Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has started a new era — and in three dimensions at once. And of course, in the fourth, internal — Russian. A new period in both in ideology and the very model of our socio—economic system — but this is something worth discussing separately a little later.

In the morning of February 26th the Russian state news agency “RIA News” published an article about Russian victory in Ukraine. It was written in advance and was meant to go live after a successful Russian “blitzcrieg” in Ukraine, which never happened. The article exposes the imperialist desire of the Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the “era of Western global dominance” and create a new “multipolar world”. The article was instantly deleted but its copy can still be found in an archive.

Russia is restoring its unity — the tragedy of 1991, this terrible catastrophe of our history, its unnatural dislocation, has been overcome. Yes, at great cost, yes, through the tragic events of the actual civil war, because right now the brothers, separated by belonging to the Russian and Ukrainian armies, are still shooting at each other — but there will be no more anti-Russia called Ukraine. Russia is restoring its historical wholeness by gathering the Russian world, the Russian people together — in its entirety of Great Russians, Belarusians and Little Russians (derogatory name for Ukrainians, — note by translator). If we had refused to do this, if we had allowed the temporary division to stay like that for centuries, we would have not only betrayed the memory of our ancestors, but we would have been damned by our descendants — for allowing the decay of the Russian land.

Nationalists in Ukraine are fighting upon the recommendation of foreigners, Putin said

Vladimir Putin took upon himself — without a bit of exaggeration — a historical responsibility, when he has decided not to leave the solving of the Ukrainian issue to future generations. After all, the need to resolve it would always remain a major problem for Russia — for two key reasons. And the issue of national security, that is, the creation of Ukraine as an anti-Russia and an outpost for Western pressure on us, is only the second in importance among them.

The first importance would always remain an insecurity of the divided people, an insecurity of national humiliation — when the Russian house first lost part of its foundation (Kyiv), and then had to come to terms with the existence of two countries of two different nations. Meaning, either to abandon its history, agreeing with the crazy versions that “only Ukraine is the real Rus (Kyivska Rus — a loose federation of East Slavic, Baltic and Finnic peoples in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, — note by translator) or to grind our teeth helplessly, remembering the times when “we lost Ukraine”. Bringing Ukraine back, that is, turning it back to Russia, would be more and more difficult with each passing decade — the re-coding, de-russification of Russians, and the setting against Russian Little Russians-Ukrainians would gain momentum. And if full geopolitical and military control of the West over Ukraine was consolidated, its return to Russia would’ve become impossible at all — it would have to fight the Atlantic bloc for it.

Putin: the main clashes in Ukraine are happening with nationalistic formations

Now this problem is gone — Ukraine has returned to Russia. This does not mean that its statehood will be liquidated, but it will be restructured, re-established and returned to its natural state as part of the Russian world. In what borders, in what form will the union with Russia be fixed (through the CSTO and the Eurasian Union or the Union State of Russia and Belarus)? This will be decided after the end of the history of Ukraine as anti-Russia. In any case, the period of the split of the Russian people is coming to an end.

And here begins the second dimension of the coming new era — it concerns the relations between Russia and the West. Not even Russia, but the Russian world, that is, the three states, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, acting geopolitically as one whole. These relations have entered a new stage — the West sees Russia’s return to its historical borders in Europe. And it loudly resents it, although deep in its heart it must admit that it could not be otherwise.

Russia formed a delegation for negotiations with Ukraine

Did anyone in the old European capitals, Paris and Berlin, seriously believe that Moscow would give up Kyiv? That Russians would forever be a divided nation? And at the same time that Europe is uniting, when German and French elites are trying to seize control of European integration from the Anglo-Saxons and assemble a united Europe? Forgetting that the unification of Europe was only possible thanks to the unification of Germany, which happened by Russian good (albeit not very clever) will. To take a swing at the Russian lands after that is the top of not even just ingratitude, but of geopolitical stupidity

More precisely, there was only one option: to bet on the further decay of Russia, meaning, the Russian Federation. But the fact that it did not work should have been clear twenty years ago. Moreover, fifteen years ago, after Putin’s Munich speech, even the deaf could hear — Russia is coming back.

Russia has brought an agreement to organize negotiations to Ukraine, said Peskov

Now the West is trying to punish Russia for its comeback, for not giving the possibility to realize its plans to profit at its expense, for not letting it expand its western space to the east.

Analysis of Russian Article

“RIA Novosti” accidentally reveals Russia’s insane desires, proclaiming victory and deleting the post after a few minutes

Two days after the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Russian state-controlled media published an article proclaiming the new world order as Russia has won. The article was deleted in a few minutes, yet the web archive has kept its record.
A “false-alarm” celebration of Russia’s triumph
At 8 AM on February 26, Russian state-controlled media “RIA Novosti” published an article with a big title: “The incursion of Russia and the new world.”
The author celebrated Russia’s triumph over Ukraine and proclaimed the new world order, where Ukraine is finally “where it belongs,” and the West is no longer the one “setting terms.”

The author, Pyotr Akopov, who has an impressive record of articles on “RIA Novosti,” calls Ukraine “anti-Russia,” states that the world order will finally be refactored since Russia was able to defeat Ukraine. As for Ukraine itself, “it will be reorganized, re-established, and returned to its natural state of being a part of the Russian World.”

The fact that the article was deleted right after going live, especially considering there was no sign of Russia’s triumph at that moment, tends to suggest the piece was prepared in advance and was published earlier by mistake.

One might pass by the erroneously published article, which was just a couple of thoughts from a columnist. It is common for the media to prepare articles for various outcomes in advance so that such incidents may occur, just like it was with Bloomberg. However, “RIA Novosti” is a part of “Rossiya Segodnya,” a government-owned media group, which means the ultimate subjugation of its editorship to the government in today’s Russia. Therefore, the deleted article may indeed be interpreted as Russia’s declaration of political intents, despite being removed from the site.

The “family reunion” stands as a justification for an unlawful invasion in Russia’s narrative
The first part of the text is full of Russian ill-based justifications for the irredentist goals it would have achieved with the conquest of Ukraine. The invasion into the territory of the sovereign nation is being framed as “reunification of the Rus(sian) lands” and “rectification of the 1991 tragedy of Russian dissolution”. However, even in such a text, there is an outstandingly notorious hommage: the author glorifies Vladimir Putin for taking the “historical burden of finally solving the Ukrainian question” – and you are right if you’ve felt the vibes of the Reich in those words.

However, the ideas that should really worry the Global West are presented in the second part of the article. The author claims that Russia’s relations with the West are of no importance to Russia, and, thus, any pressure put on it by Western countries would be worthless. Furthermore, he narrates that with the end of the war and long-awaited reunion, the epoch of the West dominance has ended. The author’s words suggest that Ukraine’s occupation will reinforce the Russian bloc and mark the establishment of a multipolar world (where the West is opposed to Russia and China).

Article is provided by representatives of Kyiv-Mohyla University who have made their services available to provide accurate, timely, on-the-ground reporting about the war in Ukraine, including nuanced localized ongoing updates on what is happening across the country, as well as commentary and analysis.