So there is a biker gang in Russia called Night Wolves. The leader of the bikers is no fool. He found the perfect way to get his gang a free pass on everything it does and even – an unheard-of feat for a biker gang – receive enormous handouts from the government. The gang declared itself to be filled with Russian nationalists and started waving Russian imperialist symbols around at every turn.
Of course, Putin was hugely pleased and started shelling out millions to support the biker gang. And this made the gang beholden to Putin and obligated to do his bidding.
So over the weekend the domesticated bikers set out on a road trip to Poland. The purpose of the road trip was supposedly a celebration of the USSR’s victory in World War II. Why the celebration had to involve a gang traveling into Poland was never fully explained.
As you can imagine, the Poles did not welcome the aggressive biker gang waving Russian imperialist flags into the country. Poles do not have a good historic memory of angry Russians crossing their borders. Neither are they supportive of the Night Wolves’ participation in Russia’s war on neighboring Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued one of its hugely bizarre statements to protest against Poland’s rejection of the Night Wolves:
“We demand explanations from the Polish authorities and decisively condemn their actions, which have demonstrated a readiness, for the sake of opportunistic considerations, to rewrite history and, in effect, to blaspheme against the heroism of those who have saved Poland and the world from fascism,” the statement said.
Note the part about “blaspheming against the heroism of those who have saved.” This is very, very important. Russia’s entire foreign policy is based on the idea that Russia saved the world from Nazism and going against any of Russia’s wishes today constitutes an insult to the memory of that heroic act of saving the world.
This all sounds entirely deranged but Russians have been repeating this idiotic story about being entitled to do anything they want because “our grandpas fought in the war” that they now fully believe it.
Clarissa's Blog 
—Russia’s entire foreign policy is based on the idea that Russia saved the world from Nazism and going against any of Russia’s wishes today constitutes an insult to the memory of that heroic act of saving the world.
Why not? There are multiple countries that believe their policies (foreign or domestic) should not ever be criticized because their founding nations were at some point victims of persecution or genocide… Why shouldn’t the people who undoubtedly contributed so much to the victory over the Nazis be granted similar exceptions? I am not really supporting Russia here, or, God forbid, questioning the right of certain states to exist, I am merely pointing out that Russia is nothing special, and therefore any attempts to make Russia behave in a more ethical or mature manner than the rest of the world will be futile.
By the way, have you heard about the complaints of one of the bikers that the Poles “even search his cosmetics bag?” 🙂
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Twitter is going nuts over the cosmetics bag comment. 🙂 Whatever possessed the poor fellow to say something like this?
And I agree that this is a foundational myth many national identities are based on. All I want is for people to be aware that this is what drives the Russians. I don’t think anybody knows because the reporting is for shit.
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If I recall correctly, Russia “saved” Poland in 1945 by permanently annexing the eastern half of the country (like Putin has with Crimea), executing virtually all of the Polish Army officer corps, and then forcing the western half to live under a communist dictatorship until 1989.
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The devastation that the Soviets visited 9n Poland after 1945 was horrifying. And of course the Poles can’t forget that. Nor should they.
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And the first thing I think of when I see the photo is, “Hollywood, you forgot to pick up General Zhod and his small army of human sympathisers when you wrapped the shooting of ‘Superman’ so many years ago …” 🙂
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