When ‘Shared Suffering’ Becomes Complicity: Varlamov and Rodnyansky’s Dangerous Rhetoric

Source: Author’s Facebook page

So-called “Good Russians” continue to push a familiar narrative: blurring the line between aggressor and victim, equating Ukraine with Russia, Ukrainians with Russians, and moral responsibility with collective suffering. In this framing, there are no executioners—only “shared victims,” no accountability—only tragedy that allegedly struck everyone equally.

It has already happened before, remember? Not the Holodomor, but a “famine in certain territories of Ukraine, the Volga region, the Kuban, Belarus, the Southern Urals, Western Siberia, and Kazakhstan.” Not “the physical destruction of millions of Ukrainians in the USSR for being Ukrainian,” but “millions of victims of Stalinism in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and other republics.”

And now it is not “the deliberate torture of Ukrainians with cold and darkness as a means of coercion to force surrender to the occupiers,” but “suffering from frost without electricity in Ukraine and Russia.” The same thing. In Russia, it is supposedly even worse—because they didn’t expect it: “What are we doing?!”

In fact, Popes, dozens of famous people from various fields, politicians, and Trump and his team have been engaging in this for years. But now, specifically, the “good Russian” Ilya Varlamov has joined the discussion, dragging along the “good Ukrainian” Rodnyansky—a producer who for decades made money promoting the “Russian world” in Ukraine and in the minds of Ukrainians, and whom Moseychuk loves very much—who is also suffering greatly from the blackout in Kyiv and is deeply concerned about Ukrainian elderly people and children.

This video provides an overview of the consequences of Russia’s new military tactics against Ukraine. As a result of the destruction of energy infrastructure, residents of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, and other cities are left without electricity and heating. At the same time, residents of Belgorod are also experiencing blackouts. The video promises to explain how Ukraine and Russia are enduring one of the most difficult winters in four years of war, how people on both sides of the border live, and what is happening to the energy sector.

▪ Mass power and heating outages in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other cities
▪ How people survive without elevators, water, or heating, in unsanitary living conditions, and risks for the elderly and families with children
▪ Why Ukraine’s power system cannot withstand constant attacks
▪ Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes on Belgorod and the first major blackout in the border region
▪ Belgorod without electricity: accidents, darkness in the streets, and fear among residents
▪ Why Russia is attacking Ukraine’s energy sector: military and political goals
▪ Strikes on refineries and ports: how Ukraine targets Russia’s economy

Did you notice the key messages?

• The unspeakable suffering of “innocent Russians” is emphasized—while Ukrainian suffering is presented as justified, merely a pragmatic consequence of Russia’s political and military objectives.
• Ukraine is portrayed as facing catastrophic decline: conditions are already dire, they will only worsen, children and the elderly are suffering, unsanitary conditions prevail, and mass death is implied—therefore, the “rational” choice is to accept Putin’s demands.
• Ukrainians are framed as being tortured because of Ukraine’s own actions—strikes on Russian refineries, ports, and the Russian economy in general—sending a clear message: “Do not resist. Surrender, and the suffering will stop.”
• Even without further strikes (and they are promised to be even more devastating, with nuclear power plants already under attack), Ukraine is depicted as requiring years to recover, with its industry destined to disappear. Meanwhile, Russia’s energy sector and industry are portrayed as essentially invulnerable to Ukrainian strikes—making resistance pointless and negotiations on the Kremlin’s terms inevitable.

Rodnyansky willingly took part in constructing the narrative of “equal suffering of innocent civilians in cities”—with the caveat that Ukrainians suffer more and therefore should be more interested in stopping it. The very parallel between “Ukrainian cities and the Belgorod region,” presented as nearly identical situations, is itself immoral.

From the audience’s perspective, the reality is obvious: on one side are aggressors and executioners who openly support the “SVO” and are prepared to suffer for it; on the other are the victims of those executioners and mass murderers. Ukrainians just wanted to live in their country, in a Ukrainian Ukraine. The “suffering Russians” depicted by Varlamov, however, wanted to seize Kyiv because they believed it was right. Yet these fundamental causes are deliberately flattened and blurred by images of “shared suffering.”

Together with Varlamov, Rodnyansky continues to carry out the core propaganda task of the entire cohort of so-called “good Russians”: the whitewashing of Russia and Russians. The logic is familiar—Putin alone is to blame. Therefore, sanctions against Russia are unjust; shelling Russian territory is unjust; and Russian suffering is unjust. And all of this, we are told, must be stopped immediately.

What an abomination…

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