ABSTRACT
The criminal dimension of the Russian aggressive war against Ukraine that started in 2014, especially after the commencement of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, opened a pending question concerning the real purpose of the conduct of the Russian Federation. Statements presented by the Russian political and military leadership, including the denial of Ukraine’s right sovereignty, alongside the arguments of an “artificial” character of the Ukrainian nation, supplemented by the criminal aspect of military actions on the frontline, allow a hypothesis to be formulated on the ongoing crime of genocide committed with the goal of restoring the Russian/Soviet empire. This chapter aims to analyze the contemporary criminal actions of Russians under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 9 December 1948 by underlining a historical continuation of the Kremlin’s repressive policies towards the Ukrainian nation observed during the time of the Soviet Union, namely the Great Famine (Holodomor) of the 1930s. The similarities between the Homo Sovieticus (“New Soviet Man”) doctrine and the contemporary concept of Russkiy Mir (“Russian World”) – the ideological basis for the genocide of the Kremlin as a means to uphold an empire then and now – are presented.
