Anti-Russian sentiment is an umbrella term for any negative attitude towards or fear against the Russians or their culture. Russophobia vs. other types Irrational, primitive and ethnicity-driven hatred, despise, fear or prejudice of other type against Russians due to xenophobia, xenoracism or ingrained stereotypes (pejorative clichés), which may in some cases lead to ethnic violence or unfair ethnic discrimination, is called Russophobia, its opposite being Russophilia. Historically, Russophobia was in some cases rooted either in state-sponsored or grassroots mistreatment, discrimination and propaganda, as well as underpinned, depending on the point in history or the community concerned, also by anti-Eastern Orthodox sentiment (in Catholic and Protestant settings) or general anti-Christian sentiment (in other religious settings), anti-Slavic sentiment, negative sentiment towards the Turco-Mongol component of Russian society, or anti-Soviet sentiment. Pre-existing anti-Slavic sentiment has been considered one of the factors influencing the way of treatment of the Slavic nations under German occupation during World War II, among them Russians, although in the initial phase of war their state was a close ally of Nazi Germany and joined it in invading and partitioning its other Slavic neighbour along with exterminating its intellectual leadership. Russophobia in this sense should by no means be confused with distrust or fear towards the Russian state as an international political actor or condemnation of its authorities, often most fervent in the Slavic countries repeatedly coming throughout history under oppression of the Russian state in its various incarnations. While in Western Europe it tends to be based on various more or less fantastic fears of Russian conquest of Europe, such as those based on The Will of Peter the Great, documented in France in 19th century and later resurfaced in Britain as a result of fears of a Russian attack on British-controlled India in relation to the Great Game, the negative attitude and distrust to Russia in nations of Central and Eastern Europe has in turn been firmly anchored in their long-lasting real-life experiences of interactions with this state. The Russian Federation along with the immediate legal ancestor that Russia claims continuity with, have been, among others, responsible in contemporary times for: orchestrating genocide through famine in the forcibly annexed Ukraine committing numerous other crimes of genocide on its citizens belonging to ethnic minorities invasion, illegal annexation and ensuing Russian colonisation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joint invasion of the Second Polish Republic together with Nazi Germany and annexing