The Ukrainian stand at the traditional exhibition of the cultures of the students' native countries, held at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, outraged officials and propagandists. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin would “study the details” of what happened at RUDN University, because the flag of Ukraine was on the stand – “the very regime that supports the nationalists and with which we are now fighting.” And the Ministry of Education and Science initiated an internal audit of the educational institution. “There are places where displaying Ukrainian flags is inappropriate and harmful,” explained Konstantin Mogilevsky, deputy head of the department. “The university, in my opinion, belongs to this category.”
The Russia 24 TV channel could not stand aside either – according to the channel's propagandists, Ukrainian students chose "provocative" symbols to demonstrate their culture:
“Journalists and bloggers also pay attention to the page of the Ukrainian community on the RUDN University website, where it says that Ukraine is the Carpathians, vyshyvanka, trembita and the Mriya plane. The symbols are, to put it mildly, provocative.”
What is the “provocativeness” of the symbols chosen by the students?
The plane "Mriya" ("Dream") was created in the Soviet Union. It was the largest and largest aircraft in the world ever flown. At the same time, the plane is really connected with Ukraine. It was designed at the Kiev Mechanical Plant by the Soviet aircraft designer Viktor Tolmachev , who was born in Kursk and later studied in Kharkov and worked in Kiev. He entered the Guinness Book of Records with 240 air records.
Perhaps the emotional reaction of the propagandists is explained not by the Ukrainian roots of the Mriya, but by the fact that the Russian occupying forces destroyed the legendary aircraft literally in the first days of a full-scale invasion of a neighboring country. But RUDN students are definitely not to blame for this.
The next symbol – trembita – also not liked by Russia 24, is simply a wind instrument played by Ukrainian highlanders – Hutsuls, who, by the way, live not only in Ukraine, but also in Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary. In the USSR, the musical comedy "Trembita" was even filmed, which in January of this year was also recalled on Channel One.
What is provocative in the Carpathians – the mountains in western Ukraine – and vyshyvanka – part of the Ukrainian folk costume, is also incomprehensible.
In order to justify its indignation (which is similar to the desire to “cancel” everything Ukrainian in Russia in general), Russia 24 invited RT, TASS and Reedus columnist Roman Antonovsky as an expert. He stated:
“Very strange symbols of Ukraine. Why is neither Gogol, nor Grigory Skovoroda, nor the heroes born in the Donbass who died for his freedom, like Korsa or Mozgovoi, mentioned there? Namely, some symbols of western Ukraine, where all Russophobia comes from.”
However, here Antonovsky gets confused in his testimony. Donbass is now considered by the Russian authorities as their territory, as well as Korsa (Olga Kachura), and Mozgovoy are considered heroes of the “Russian world” by propaganda, so all this cannot symbolize Ukrainian culture in any way. In fact, while recognizing that even the vyshyvanka is now a symbol of a culture that has no right to exist for Russian propaganda, the Kremlin confirms that the war in Ukraine is aimed not at the declared “denazification”, but at the destruction of an ethnic group, which falls under the internationally recognized definition of genocide. .