It's like a "greatest hits" tour of Russian imperialism -- Budapest, 1956; Prague, 1968; Kabul, 1979; Tbilisi, 1989, and Vilnius in 1991 -- and it's coming to a theater (of war) near you!
In what is shaping up to be a battle of occupation videos, a new two-minute parody has emerged on social media that counters many of the purported benefits of Russian imperialism laid out in the original I'm A Russian Occupier.
Whereas the original video claimed Moscow brought wealth and development to the Baltic states, Central Asia, and Ukraine, the new clip exposes the uglier side of Russian intervention.
The clip has been posted on the Internet by several sources, including Stepan Demura, a prominent Russian financial analyst, who published it on his YouTube account on March 6.
"I invaded prospering Afghanistan...and left behind the worst hotspot on the planet ruled by arms, violence, and drugs," the parody claims in its stated effort to offer the Russian people a glimpse of how the world "REALLY" perceives the Russians.
Filled with imagery contrasting war and poverty to modernity and happiness, the video says the average Pole is four times richer than the average Russian and that the Finns are producing telephones, clothing, and foodstuffs that the Russians can only dream of.
All of this was achieved only after "we were asked to leave and left" those countries, the video explains.
In an effort to show the consequences of Russian intervention, the video claims that the "Russian occupier" took the Kurile Islands from Japan, leaving people to "still catch fish and live with natural technology" while Japan operates with cutting-edge "future technology."
To the background images of distressed children and corpses lying in streets, the voice representing the Russian occupier claims, "it was me who arranged the Great Famine, the Holodomor, in Ukraine, where millions of people died of hunger."
Anti-Soviet demonstrations in Budapest in 1956, Prague in 1968, Tbilisi in 1989, and Vilnius in 1991 were left "drowning in blood" at the hands of Russian occupiers, the video says.
"Yet I haven't learnt how to build roads, make household appliances and proper clothes," the video claims, adding, "All I can do is bring pain and hatred."
"Today I'm coming to you," it warns, "Because I'm an occupier."
-- Farangis Najibullah