Russian military cadets during an initiation ceremony in Moscow, Russia, 1 September 2021. Photo: EPA / Yuri Kochetkov
New training modules will see that Russian conscripts and professional soldiers are taught that Russophobia is “a threat to national security,” independent media outlet Verstka reported on Wednesday.
One of seven modules in the 2026 training programme for conscripts and enlisted military personnel, Extremism, Terrorism, Neonazism, and Russophobia as a Threat to National Security will also include lectures on the role of Western countries in developing Russophobia and nationalism in Ukraine.
So-called Russophobia is a term widely used in Russian government rhetoric, with the Foreign Ministry’s website having a page dedicated to it, on which statements made by Western government officials it accuses of “employing hate speech against Russia” are listed.
The new syllabus will also affect what’s taught to officers, who will now be given psychological training that includes how to identify “deviant behaviour” and how to respond to it, as well as studying the works of celebrated 18th-century Russian General Alexander Suvorov.
A prominent figure in Russian military history, Suvorov led his troops to victory against both the Ottomans and the Austrians, and his successful defence of the Crimean Peninsula in the 1789-91 Russo-Turkish War was used as the basis for former defence minister Sergey Shoigu’s suggestion that he be canonised in 2022.
These new additions to the military syllabus will accompany pre-existing requirements to study similarly patriotic subjects, including past presidential addresses and the “heroic feats” of Russian soldiers in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
