(This is the text of my briefing of The United Nations Security Council this morning, 14 March 2023, for a session called by the Russian Federation to discuss "russophobia." If you wish to quote me exactly as I spoke, you might wish to check against the video of the session, which for now is available here.)
Ladies and gentlemen, I come before you as a historian of the region, as a historian of eastern Europe, and specifically as a historian of mass killing and political atrocity. I am glad to be asked to brief you on the use of the term "russophobia" by Russian state actors. I believe that such a discussion can clarify something about the character of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and Russia's illegal occupation of Ukrainian territory. I will speak briefly and confine myself to two points.
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