“Trust, but verify”.
You expect positive propaganda on all sides of every war with some truths exaggerated and others buried to serve a narrative.
The efforts Russia goes to to invent stories though, is a different matter.
Nobody doubts that Ukraine has a Nazi problem, or that Zelenskyy’s predecessor passed a lot of anti Russian laws. Or that Russian supporting political parties have been banned.
But the industrial scale fiction Russia pushes over these matters only serves one purpose, to dehumanise the enemy at home and abroad. And even Russia knows it’s fiction.
We’ve seen Russian election officials stuffing unused ballot sheets into the Yes piles on one Russian TV broadcast, five feet from the reporter, cameraman and boom mike holder.
We’ve seen the exact same group of half a dozen Russian soldiers popping up repeatedly at different Putin visits and alleged despatches from the front... They’re in Russia and always have been.
A small group of stage school kids alleged to be Ukrainian and in Ukraine have been on Russian TV in different skits in different locations and different stories... they were paraded for stories set in Russia one week, in Mariupol the next, back in Russia a few days later, and I think they even appeared in a news story allegedly showing Ukrainian kids happily going through the Russian reeducation and adoption system.
One Russian TV celebrity Vox Pop has been seen posing as a pro Russian mayor in one town, a fireman in another, a soldier in several different front line positions, an irate refugee from Mariupol, and an army medic. He’s been in three different places at once.
Kadyrov bragged from a gas station allegedly in the Donbas which was met with derision because that gas station chain never has opened a presence in Ukraine and it was subsequently proved to be far east of the Russia Ukraine border.
These fakes are intentionally obvious and Russia doesn’t care that they can be debunked very quickly by anyone with the mildest sense of critical thinking, a bit of initiative, and a pause button. The material is produced for consumption by useful idiots, politically blinkered ideologues who don’t care what’s true or not so long as it supports a narrative, anyone else who’s actively looking for confirmation bias, and of course the “dumb proles” who need to be geed up for their daily 2 Minute Hate.
It’s like phishing spam. You don’t have to be bigly smart to know what spam looks and smells like. You know your bank wouldn’t send you an email with spelling and grammar errors all over it. You know that Nigerian princes don’t treat you like a VIP.
So why do the spammers bother making it? Well, because it doesn’t matter that 98% wouldn’t fall for it so long as there’s at least one percent who are suicidally gullible, completely ignorant, or so desperate they are grasping at straws.
Russian propaganda is like that.
Amateurs. They make Jussie Smollett and AOC look credible.
You mean Russians engage in propaganda?
The debunking is also being debunked.
Neither side has produced the woman clearly named in the video.
Isn’t this “war” over yet? It’s like a stupid sitcom that got renewed for 2 or 3 seasons more than it should have.
Typical putinesque attempts at lies — they can’t even make good propaganda
Mar 30, 2023
Desperation and fantastical thinking take hold of “top US foreign policy experts” as they contemplate an end game in Ukraine…
- CSIS admits crucial weapons and munitions face critical shortages including HIMARS launchers, 155mm artillery rounds, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles;
- CSIS suggests the US could deplete all of its inventories along with Europe into Ukraine to make up for critical shortages or shift to “substitutes” despite being inadequate for Ukraine’s requirements;
- A recent confab of US foreign policy experts attempted to come to grips with the coming end game in Ukraine in which they see a Russian victory owed to its ability to supply more weapons, munitions, and trained manpower;
- Suggestions to turn the tide include sending 1,000 M1 Abrams tanks, creating (another) foreign legion, and transferring weapons to Ukraine to strike deep within Russia;
- However these “solutions” range from unrealistic to entirely counterproductive;
- Ukraine doesn’t have the manpower or time to assemble crews for 1,000 M1 Abrams tanks, a foreign legion was already created and already failed, and striking deep inside Russia will likely only help Moscow justify further mobilizations;
- Sanctioning China is also considered, with no self-reflection on the flawed reasoning that led to ineffective sanctions already placed on Russia;
- Only a fundamental change in Washington’s premise can a sensible foreign policy be proposed, one that sees the US cooperating constructively with all other nations rather than attempting to subjugate all other nations;