All last week I was watching Russian state TV. My Russian-born colleague sympathised with me and compared it to watching someone vomit. “An unpleasant professional experiment,” – I replied. Some people cut open frogs, I watch Russian propaganda.”
Anyway, they say: Keep your friends close and enemies even closer. In the era of mass disinformation one can predict Russia’s steps by following its media. Over many years, Russia has developed a strong vertical of obedient journalism to effectively spread its propaganda across the country.
Ukraine has been a priority subject in recent months. In January, TV channel Russia 24, Russia Today, the notorious “60 Minutes” with the irreplaceable “star couple” Olga Skabeeva and Yevgeniy Popov, and, of course, the purest Kremlin “voice” Dmitry Kiselev, talked about the so-called “Ukrainian crisis,” about poor Donbas, which was about to be attacked by the Ukrainian military and nationalists; about the proposal to recognize the self-proclaimed “LPR/DPR” as independent republics and about how “Russians do not abandon their people”.
As proof of concern for peace in Ukraine, Russia 24 was showing mercenary leaders with the same messaging. Judging by them, Russia's main goal is the Donbas region; as it is easier to explain the protection of Russian speakers from Ukrainian nationalists that way.
It was scary to listen about Russian-Belarusian exercises along the Ukrainian border – this is how Russian TV explains the preparedness to NATO’s aggression.
At the same time, in every news item, in every talk show, journalists and experts emphasize that Russia has no interest in Ukraine at all. They say Russia demands security guarantees, but the West keeps forcing Moscow to discuss Ukraine. It is as if this justification allows the “experts” a kind of frenzied joy to lap up the details of the government’s fictions.
Paying attention
I am not the only one who has noticed this. Ivan Davydov, a Russian independent journalist – they are not heard so loudly in Russia, but their words are all the more precious – also writes about this. He speaks with sympathy and sorrow about the morality and self-fulfillment of the already world-famous faces of our profession.
“…I remember a very different Vladimir Solovyov… how Dmitry Kiselyov, a young and talented journalist, was suspended from airing on the First Program on Soviet Central Television for refusing to read a propaganda text about the January 1991 events in Vilnius,” Davydov surprised me with his memories.
What was the reason for such a surprising change? I daresay there are two: fear and money. Ordinary employees are afraid of losing their jobs. The stars, if you can call them that, of course, get a lot of money. Their size can be judged, for example, by the relatively recent (just before the poisoning and imprisonment) investigation by Alexey Navalny about an entire estate on Lake Como in Italy, owned by Vladimir Solovyov – a video easily found on the Internet.
On “Ekho Moskvy”, attention was drawn to the way pro-Kremlin propagandists present the geopolitical situation. Famous Russian opposition TV critic Irina Petrovskaya noted in her program “Person on TV” that in their threats to the U.S., the West, and Ukraine, “these guys (politicians, commentators and journalists) are running ahead of the diplomatic and any other train, endlessly calling for a strike, hit, enter, win, annex. This rhetoric is absolutely military, aggressive,” she says.
Russian journalism still exists, but they refuse to give in to the arguments of the authorities in the form of money or pressure, and they are not allowed on state-run TV channels.
Other fake news
Meanwhile, propaganda has also reached the Internet. One video was especially popular on social networks, in which… NATO troops ride in the Ukrainian subway. After all, in the background of the video the announcement of the names of Kyiv’s stations is made in Ukrainian! However, many Ukrainians would not recognise the subway. And here is why: An organization that refutes disinformation StopFake has traced that this video was shot on the Stockholm subway as far back as 2015. But it was edited and spread now, among others, by an account with the name “Patriots of Rus’.” The audio from the Kyiv subway was added with the help of a video editing program. And in fact, the video captures a drill by Swedish army personnel to assess the effectiveness of using public transport to move troops around Stockholm. Obviously, those who shared the video did not mean to target Ukrainians as the key goal. It is enough to convince Russians who have never been to a Ukrainian underground.
I don’t know if Russia will use any of the latest lethal weapons against Ukraine, God forbid, of course, but it has been using weapons of mass disinformation for a long time now.
Op-ed disclaimer: The Kyiv Post is not responsible or liable for any content in this article, which expresses the personal viewpoint of the author only.
