Confrontation with Putin, not with Pushkin or the Russian people

Individual athletes have opted to play against Russian rivals; Football organizations FIFA and UEFA have barred Russian teams from participating in their competitions; The Champions League final will not take place in St. Petersburg; Russia will not be able to host the Formula I Grand Prix; And in a decision that makes no sense, the International Paralympic Committee has decided to bar Russian disabled athletes from participating in the Winter Paralympics in Beijing. Russia is challenging that ban. Its sports minister said the ban was a violation of the Olympic Charter, ignoring the fact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine violates the United Nations Charter. Not ready to miss the fun, the International Cat Federation decided to ban Russian-bred cats from their competition—that would teach Putin!

These decisions, ranging from the sensible (Grand Prix) to the ridiculous (Russian cats), come on top of other misguided attempts to punish Russia. In the Italian city of Florence, the mayor received a petition asking that a statue in memory of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who completed his novel The Idiot in that city, be removed. It’s not easy these days for Dostoyevsky in Italy. The University of Milano-Bicocca asked Professor Paolo Nori to postpone his four-lecture class on Dostoyevsky. University administrators may have forgotten that the great novelist barely escaped execution and spent five years as a punishment in Siberia when he was part of a progressive literary group hated by the Tsarists. After ridicule and outcry, the university enlists Professor Nori for help, advising that he should also add some Ukrainian writers to broaden the minds of the students. Nori scrapped the course instead.

To be sure, Ukraine has a rich literary tradition, but it makes no sense to force a professor to teach Ukrainian writers in a course on Dostoyevsky (or any other Russian writer). It brings together two cultures that Ukrainians rightly emphasize, and it forcibly links Ukrainian identity with Russia. True, no course of Indian literature can be complete without the voices of Muslim, Dalit or women writers. But combining Russian and Ukrainian writers makes no sense, unless there is a literary, pedagogical or aesthetic reason for doing so. At the core of the Russo-Ukraine dispute is Russia’s absurd claim that Ukraine does not actually exist as a nation, and that it has always been part of Russia. By all means, let there be a course on Ukrainian literature, Mykola Hohol (known more widely as Nikolai Gogol) and Anna Akhmatova, who were born in Ukraine, or Anton Chekhov and Mikhail Bulgakov, who grew up or Spent time in Ukraine, celebrating, and contemporary writers such as Oksana Zabuzhko and Andrei Kurkov. But why consider them only in relation to Russian writing?

Instead, governments should accelerate their confiscation of assets belonging to Russian oligarchs who are close to Putin, or send fighter jets to aid Ukraine. Those measures carry the real punch and are far more meaningful in stopping the Russian advance. Equally significant is Ukraine’s initiative to set up an international tribunal to prosecute Russia for the crime of aggression. The International Criminal Court (ICC) cannot function because Russia is not a State party to the Rome Statute, and because it would veto any attempt at the United Nations Security Council to refer such prosecution to the ICC. Such measures can harm Russia. Cultural and sports boycotts would mean Putin commits crimes and that artists and writers face punishment. The danger is Putin, not Pushkin.

Sports and cultural boycotts are cost-free, the burden of which is borne by writers, dancers, musicians, athletes and artists, who may be apolitical or may actually oppose Putin’s audacity. In Russia, thousands of people who oppose Putin and his war, including courageous writers and journalists, are paying for Putin’s audacity. Speaking Russian: Some writers have issued provocative calls for peace. Thousands of citizens are joining the protest. The boycott of Russian writers, artists, athletes and cats only adds to Putin’s claim that the world is ganging up against Russia.

Instead, the world should provide Ukraine with strategic assistance, including weapons; Naming around Putin and placing laser-sharp sanctions on those who support the war; and by crippling their ability to move their assets globally, and by liquidating them where possible. Any move that harms Russian civil society or the Russian intelligentsia in opposition to the regime is counter-productive. It can make politicians feel like they are doing something and make them feel good, but it is of little use.

Salil Tripathi is a writer based in New York. Read Salil’s previous mint columns at www.livemint.com/saliltripathi