Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has inspired an unprecedented global response. Governments have supplied aid and arms to Ukrainians and organized severe sanctions against Russia’s economy, in the hopes of pressuring the Kremlin to back down.
Ordinary people around the world are finding their own ways to resist Russian aggression. The desire to do something, anything, as civilians are being massacred is part of what makes us human. It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of this much violence, so even small acts of protest can be meaningful.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has requested Americans stop buying from companies that have continued to do business with Russia – including the parent companies of Dunkin’ Donuts, Reebok and Subway – so it’s understandable people don’t want to find themselves on the wrong side of efforts to aid Ukraine.
But that doesn’t mean everything is helpful. Since the invasion began, we’ve been seeing some reactions that come across less as solidarity and more as empty symbolism, if not outright xenophobia.
Food fights
Earlier this month, a group of small-town officials in New York gathered news crews to watch them dump bottles of vodka on to the pavement. This follows bans on the sale of Russian vodka by at least 11 US states, and protests from bar owners around the country, including Bob Quay of Bob’s Bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who stopped serving Stolichnaya last month after learning about US sanctions against Russia and deciding he “would put on sanctions as well”.
The reality is less than 1% of US vodka imports are actually made in Russia. Stolichnaya – which rebranded as Stoli this month – is produced in Latvia and was founded by a Putin critic who was exiled from Russia in 2000. Svedka? Made in Sweden. Smirnoff? Made in the USA. As one liquor store wrote in a note to its customers recently: “No need to dump them out anywhere except your glass.”
Vodka isn’t the only “Russian” product being targeted regardless of actual Russianness. Rick Anderson, a North Carolina deli owner, made headlines last week when he renamed Russian dressing “Ukrainian dressing”, which he said “tastes just like our old dressing, without the notable hints of genocide”. He should rest assured that, just like French dressing and Italian dressing, Russian dressing was created in the US – sauce historians believe it originated in New Hampshire.
Some restaurateurs have gone to extremes to avoid any association with the war. Le Roy Jucep, a Quebec diner that claims it invented the celebrated Canadian dish poutine, announced earlier this month it would no longer use that name over fears that it sounds too close to the Russian leader’s name in French. Instead, it’s calling poutine “fries-cheese-gravy”.
The restaurant wrote on Facebook: “Tonight the Jucep team decided to temporarily retire the word P**tine from its trademark in order to express, in its own way, its profound dismay over the situation in Ukraine,” before deleting the post shortly after.
But others have shown awareness that protesting against Russian food can only do so much. Last week, Wisconsin’s National Mustard Museum replaced its Russian mustard with a sign promising the condiment’s return “once the invasion of Ukraine is over and Russia recognizes and respects the sovereign nation of Ukraine”. After the sign went viral online, the museum reversed course.
“We do not for a minute believe that the makers of the Russian mustards on display at the National Mustard Museum should be held responsible for the war in Ukraine,” the museum’s founder, Barry Levenson, told the Guardian. “That is why we are returning them to the public display with a sign asking people to donate to the IRC,” a non-governmental organization that provides humanitarian relief to the refugees.
The condiment curator added: “I have tasted so-called Russian-style mustards – sweet and hot. I like them.”
Some of history’s most famous Russians have been shunned, despite having been dead for generations. In early March, a university in Milan axed a course on the 19th-century novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky after administrators deemed the writer to be disturbingly Russian. The institution said in a statement that it wanted “to avoid any controversy, in a moment of high tension”.
The school backtracked after an uproar, as Dostoevsky defenders pointed out that the author was sentenced to a Siberian prison labor camp for discussing banned books under Russia’s Tsarist regime, and that he has been dead for 141 years.
There’s been debate as well over whether we should listen to the work of Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, in particular the composer’s 1812 Overture, written to mark Russia’s defense against Napoleon’s invading forces more than two centuries ago. A performance of the work was canceled by the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra. A director there claimed it had “nothing to do with Tchaikovsky being Russian” but “more to do with us deciding that it was inappropriate at the present time”.
On Saturday an American space advocacy nonprofit renamed a fundraiser that had been dedicated to Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin – the first human to enter outer space, who died during a training flight in 1968. The annual gala, which has been known as “Yuri’s night” for seven years in a row, is now called “A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next.” According to a now-deleted note, the organizers explained the change was made “in light of current world events” but “the focus of this fundraising event remains the same.”
This month the video game studio Electronic Arts removed the Russian national team from its Fifa video game franchise, “in solidarity with the Ukrainian people”.
Even Russian animals are feeling the heat. The American Kennel Club announced that it would ban dog registrations from its Russian counterpart, “in solidarity with the Ukrainian people”. That followed a move earlier this month by the International Cat Federation, the self-described “United Nations of cat federations”, which barred Russian felines from its competitions, saying in a statement that it could not “witness these atrocities and do nothing”.
Harassing Russian people
By far the most unhelpful protests have been those directed at ordinary Russian people. In countries including New Zealand, Germany, Canada and the United States, Russian immigrants of all ages have reported being harassed and threatened, on public transit, in stores and at their jobs. Vandals have targeted Russia-themed restaurants and stores in New York and Washington and Russian community centers and churches in Canada, even though all these places publicly oppose the invasion of Ukraine, and in many cases count Ukrainians among their staff.
This Russophobia doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s part of a long and ugly pattern of xenophobic, nationalist hatred that flares up during international conflicts and targets people just for appearing “too foreign”. It operates according to the same fearful logic of comparatively sillier acts like pouring out vodka. And it ultimately undermines solidarity rather than creating it.
For most of us, the best way to make a tangible difference right now is to donate resources to the victims of war. Examples of worthy organizations include People in Need and the International Rescue Committee, which are on the ground helping Ukrainian residents and refugees (some others are listed here). Ukrainian media need help to keep reporting. And OVD-Info, a legal aid group in Russia, is accepting donations to assist anti-war protesters who have been arrested by Putin’s government.
