In a series of short articles, we will analyze the Russian propaganda machine’s methods of disinformation, which, although many of its elements have benefited from the Soviet Union’s previous propaganda experience, are simualtaneously characterized by the juxtaposition of institutionalized tactics against new sensational schemes.
Article 1
The Innocent and Just Russia
We discuss the trope of Russian innocence, Russia as the victim—a contemporary replication of antiquated Soviet misinformation wherein Putin roots out every justification for reviving the former communist propaganda machine against so-called “Western Liberalism.”
Perhaps President Putin believes the clock has not changed. Perhaps he believes that the geo-strategic norms established in the Yalta Accords after World War II are still in force regardless of the developments in those countries that Russia considers mere planets caught in its orbit.
Whether circling in close orbit like Ukraine and Georgia or from afar like Venezuela and Syria, the Russian propaganda apparatus attempts to inject a cushion of protection against a more significant social movement towards democracy and liberalism by what Russia sees as a “malicious liberal Western influence.”
As a result, some countries in Europe, including the Baltics and Ukraine, are finding themselves subjected to more intense media attacks. On every occasion, Russia encourages select citizens to enter a vicious circle of perpetual socio-political protests against their communities and country under the pretext that they are victims of rampant anti-Russian hostility.
We see a prominent example of this tactic in Russian backed protests that broke out under the guise of state-sponsored persecution against the Russian speaking community after the Estonian government had relocated a statue of a Red Army soldier. Moreover, the most flagrant example of this tactic can be found in Russia’s support for Ukrainian separatists in Donbas under the pretext of the rise of anti-Russian hatred in Ukraine.
As illustrated, the Russian propaganda machine has formulated the self-defense argument to provide its tanks and militias the justification to attack, kill, occupy, destroy, wage wars, divide states, and force “refoulement” of civilians.
That same argument served as the basis for the 2014 attack on Georgia, where, ironically, Putin accused Georgia of attacking Russia. With the aim of “defending Russia against Georgian aggression,” Russia occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia and then held a referendum under arms, after which those two provinces separated from Georgia.
The “killing under self-defense” argument again underpinned the propaganda campaign Russia used to intervene in Syria to “protect itself from Russian terrorists operating among the Syrian opposition.” Again, Russia used the same argument while preparing to occupy Crimea, Donbas, etc. Now Moscow threatens to conduct a referendum in which these states will be, in all practicality, annexed to Russia. In this process, billions of rubles and thousands of troops deploy to dismantle small states under the pretext of defending Russia against terrorism in Syria and Kazakhstan.
Wherever the people of these countries aspire to a political system that distances itself from the Russian Oligarch model, the Russian propaganda machine labels their governing authorities as fascist and illegal.
Those countries are characterized as being run by corrupt elites who do not fully consider their people’s interests. According to this propagandistic rhetoric, Ukraine is governed by an illegal coup d’état junta and dominated by neo-Nazis, while fascists rule Estonia and Latvia.
In a paradoxical line of misintformation, the rulers of Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Kazakhstan, and, of course, Russia label themselves innocent victims, and their people who seek freedom are nothing but puppets in the hands of the global conspiracy against Russia and its allies.
These developments are, as always, just a cardboard cutout of the same calcified misinformation strategy where the United States and its Western allies engage in a selfish, ruthless attempt to dominate the world. So, of course, anything Russia or any other country does to resist it is commendable and justified.
Under the “defense of Russia” guise, the Russian propaganda machine characterizes target countries as not worthy of choosing an independent path of development or forming separate alliances if those paths or alliances fail to serve Russian interests.
More importantly, Russia knows no entity has ever endeavored to attack it, even when it was at its weakest period after the fall of the Soviet Union. History shows the true enemy of the Russian Oligarchy is not missiles and tanks. It is the orange flags and the objective rise of democracy in Eastern Europe that ultimately threaten its “sacred model.”
