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Locked on 03/18/2023 11:53:18 AM PDT by Jim Robinson, reason:
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Posted on 03/18/2023 4:02:08 AM PDT by tlozo
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s elite propagandists wanted to drink champagne in the studio to properly celebrate the moment. Head of state propaganda agency, RT, Margarita Simonyan, expressed “an overwhelming sense of euphoria” and added: “I’ve been waiting eight years for this . . . it finally happened. This is true happiness.”
With the bloody all-out invasion now in its second year, the euphoria has been replaced by a lingering sense of dread, with Putin’s mouthpieces routinely fretting about the possibility of war crimes tribunals. The issue is playing on their minds.
Appearing on the state TV show, Evening With Vladimir Solovyov in November, Simonyan said: “Let me tell you that if we manage to lose, the Hague — whether real or hypothetical — will even come for the street cleaner sweeping the cobblestones behind the Kremlin.” The same month, Olga Skabeeva, the host of the state TV show 60 Minutes, likewise predicted that if Russia loses its war against Ukraine, every Russian will be considered guilty. She argued that a resounding victory was the only way “to avoid tribunals at the Hague, criminal cases, and having to pay reparations.”
As the months go by, these concerns have not subsided. During Solovyov’s show on March 6, Vitaly Tretyakov, dean of Moscow State University’s Higher School of Television, worried out loud about the statements from “significant” Western figures expressing the demand that Putin and other Russians face war crimes tribunals.
The Kremlin’s propagandists have plenty of reasons to be concerned; street sweepers and other average citizens rather less so. The agitation for war crimes against Ukrainians (described as animals and worse), the descriptions of them as Nazis, and the delight at the attacks on their homes and civilian energy grid have, after all, not been broadcast by people on the street. From the lowliest pawns on Putin’s chess board to the queens of propaganda like Simonyan and Skabeeva, the state-controlled media has played a central part in prompting, encouraging, rationalizing, and normalizing the Kremlin’s massacre of its next-door neighbors.
It may be tempting to interpret such lurid language as silliness designed for a domestic audience. But the outpourings of the propaganda machine have often foreshadowed or justified serious acts of state violence against Ukraine, including the mass murder of civilians, the mass kidnapping of Ukrainian citizens, the weaponization of migrant flows, and the evisceration of the Ukrainian polity.
Examples of such talk are easy to find. They proliferate nightly on live TV. Before the full-fledged invasion, Russian state media favored the description of pro-independence Ukrainians as “pigs,” with corresponding cartoons featured on state television, where Ukraine’s language, food, and traditions were routinely mocked. Since February 2022, the descriptions have descended into the realm of open dehumanization. During his show in July, Solovyov said: “When a doctor is deworming a cat — for the doctor, it’s a special operation, for the worms, it’s a war, and for the cat, it’s a cleansing.”
In October, RT’s director of broadcasting, Anton Krasovsky, suggested drowning Ukrainian children, setting Ukrainian homes on fire — with the inhabitants inside — and alleged that Ukrainian grandmothers would gladly pay to be raped by Russian soldiers. He insisted that Ukraine should end in its current form, with its only surviving sliver zoned for pig rearing. Krasovsky felt the need to clarify that when he said “pigs,” he did not mean Ukrainian women.
In October, Pavel Gubarev, a Russian political figure who proclaimed himself the “People’s Governor” of the Donetsk Region in 2014 and later as leader of the Donbas People’s Militia, explained that Ukrainians were, “Russian people, possessed by the devil,” and that Russia’s aim was to “convince them” that they are not Ukrainian. He added: “But if you don’t want us to change your minds, then we will kill you. We will kill as many of you as we have to. We will kill 1 million or 5 million, we can exterminate all of you.”
Semen Bagdasarov, Russian member of parliament, suggested making use of the catastrophe in Turkey caused by the earthquakes - take Istanbul from them and join it to Russia.
❗️Please let's make sure this video is spread as widely as possible. pic.twitter.com/lb1FOkJ1c6— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) March 18, 2023
The fact that they say it isn’t so shocking - given Russian (and Ukrainian) tendencies. But the fact that they say it on television and that they are responsible and influential members of Russian society is what is so shocking.
That’s picked out of context and nothing compared to one hears on the Ukrainian TV over last 10 years.
Can you please provide a) the context for ‘we will kill 1 million, or 5 million’ and b) screenshots of hosts on Ukrainian state TV calling for genocide against russia anytime over the last 10 years? Thx
Sure, high placed officials are talking about it every day, your crap is just nitpicking from clowns nobody knows.
Screenshot please.
“That’s picked out of context”
Not really. These examples are mild from what I have seen.
” and nothing compared to one hears on the Ukrainian TV over last 10 years.”
What one hears is one thing, but the fact that the Russians are taking Ukrainian children into Russia and russifying them is what is really despicable.
I have no problem admitting the Ukrainians are mean bastards - I’ve known that my whole life - but for some reasons all of you pro-Russian posters have difficulty admitting the truth about the Russians. Why is that?
What is wrong with “russyfication”?
Google Irina Farion. Over the last year everybody from their elites said worse. It is their specific line that that their war is not with Putin but with the entire “backward Asiatic mass”.
Nobody translates it into English though.
Forced russification of non-russian-national children is one of the definitions of genocide. The reason the ICC issued its arrest warrant against putin and Maria Lvova-Belova on the specific charge of kidnapping Ukrainian children into russia is because they bragged about it on russian state TV (i.e. provided the evidence themselves)
I took it in quotes. The children taken from warzone to move them from the Ukrainian attacks, in most cases with their parents’ consent.
It is a normal practice in warfare, the US did it in Vietnam on a larger scale.
Enjoy. Pay attention to Paribiy, a guy you can find on many pictures with McCain.
His speech explains the Ukrainian state policy towards minorities and explains why half of the country world rather be Russians.
“What is wrong with “russyfication”?”
Would you want to be russified as an American?
He’s not American, he is a very chauvinistic russian who thinks everyone else in the world is jealous of russia and wants to be just like them. In his mind it’s inconceivable that anyone would object to being assimilated by russia.
What is russyfication to start with? What it has to do with Americans?
Quit trashing up the place with your language.
No disparagement to Vietnam vets. But I don’t think anyone can sensibly argue that that war was well thought out or prosecuted correctly, without detrimental effects on Vietnamese civilians by the actions of our side. Also I don’t think the putin fans should be allowed to get away with using it for their whataboutism.
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