Alexei Mozgovoi, the notorious separatist commander killed in a blaze of bullets and mines over the weekend in Luhansk Oblast, is now fodder for propaganda in the ongoing war for hearts and minds of those living in the Russian-controlled zones.
Mozogovoi, known for his iron fist in ruling separatist Luhansk and in running “people’s courts” that issued death sentences – was gunned down in Alchevsk on May 23, along with several members of his entourage and three civilians, one of them a pregnant woman.
Both Russian media and separatist-run news outlets in Luhansk quickly spun the massacre as proof that Ukrainian forces are both ruthless and highly capable.
Separatist leaders of Luhansk issued a statement placing the blame on Ukrainian saboteurs seeking to sow discord in the self-proclaimed republic, and Russian media quickly toed the same line.
Yet even claims of responsibility by Ukrainian partisans have been laughed off as wishful thinking by the separatists, many of whom are convinced it was an inside job.
Many have questioned how Ukrainian forces could have infiltrated separatist territory and pulled off such a gruesome execution, using directional mines, machine guns and AK-47s, right in the center of a major highway under separatist control.
Even Mozgovoi’s replacement, Yuri Shevchenko, seemed to concede that the theory of Ukrainian involvement was not so much a credible one as a necessity in the propaganda war.
““I believe that in the context of war, it is criminal to put forward other versions,” Shevchenko said in comments carried by The Independent.
Kirill Androsov, the deputy commander of the Prizrak, or Ghost Battalion, said he didn’t buy the official version.
“His killers were internal,” he told The Independent.
While officially Luhansk leaders maintained that Mozgovoi was killed by Ukrainians, members of the group told the Kyiv Post that the murder was not carried out by the Ukrainian side.
“All the chatter says it actually wasn’t Ukrainians,” said Slava Nikulin, a member of the brigade. “But we don’t know who it was, or why. We’re still trying to get to the bottom of it. Until we do, the official version will be that it was Ukrainians.”
Another member of the battalion, who requested that only his nickname “Naglets” be used for fear of reprisals, said point blank: “It wasn’t the Ukrainians. No way.”
These affirmations came after a mysterious group of Ukrainian partisans confessed to the crime on social media.
Alexander Gladky, a member of a group of Ukrainian partisans calling itself “Ten,” or “Shadow,” claimed to have been behind the massacre on Facebook – a fact which Russian-backed media outlets quickly scooped up to back their own version of events.
Yet Gladky has made a series of dubious claims in the past, having taken credit for supposedly killing separatist leader Motorola in March, a claim that was quickly debunked.
Gladky’s eagerness to take credit for such high-profile assassinations deep in rebel territory has triggered speculation that he – and the group — may not even exist, that Gladky’s social media pages are actually run by separatist forces.
Media expert Anatoly Shary has described the group as something that “only exists in the dreams of a small, ignorant section of the Facebook population.”
Many have pointed out the many inaccuracies in Gladky’s story, the most glaring error being that Gladky said Mozgovoi had been travelling in a khaki colored jeep, when video of the crime scene clearly showed a black one.
Russian media quickly picked the story up and ran with it, however, with popular news outlets Regnum, Moskovsky Komsomolets and state-run RIA Novosti all identifying Ukrainian partisans as the culprits. RIA Novosti even went so far as to translate and publish The Independent’s interview with Mozgovoi’s fellow fighters – but they removed the quote claiming it was an inside job.
The careful spinning of Mozgovoi’s murder into a Ukrainian-orchestrated act of sabotage rather than the more likely result of infighting among the ranks comes amid an ongoing media campaign to depict Ukrainian soldiers as inhumane, brutal and highly capable.
Days before Mozgovoi’s assassination, a video purporting to show Ukrainian soldiers hanging a separatist and his pregnant wife went viral.
Prosecutors in Luhansk even held a press conference on the supposed crime, which was slammed as further proof that Ukrainian forces are a threat to all sane, ordinary people living in the country.
The video gained momentum on separatist-friendly forums even despite the many obvious signs that it was staged, with many commentators ignoring the fact that the victims barely struggled.
Media analyst Vasily Gatov said such propaganda has an indoctrination process not unlike that of a cult.
These instances are textbook examples of war-time propaganda, he said, the goal of which is to “dehumanize the adversary.” Those who believe such reports without even questioning the authenticity are generally already indoctrinated by such propaganda, he said.
Describing the media reports released by Luhansk officials as “an emotionally exaggerated version of how the normal media works,” he said such propaganda allows for “the construction of the twisted world in which they want people to live.”
“This is where Moscow plays a more important role than separatists, because the separatists don’t have sufficient resources, or enough brains, to be honest. This is probably more strategically dangerous, as most people are not immune from this type of indoctrination. It may affect their understanding or behavior in one way or another,” he said.
