How is Russian propaganda organized? The same as anywhere else, just bolder and more unrestrained.
Modest propaganda dilutes the truth with lies. They add a drop of tar to a barrel of honey – so that honey can still be consumed, but why would you want to?
In Russia, we have over a long period become gradually accustomed to tar. A spoonful for President Putin, for former Defense Minister Shoigu, for Foreign Minister Lavrov – and gradually, by Archimedes' law, all the honey has been displaced, leaving nothing but pure tar. A whole barrel.
In the realm of official mass media (radio, television), there is simply no truth left. Even on the entertaining Russian show "Field of Wonders,"[1] heroes of the "special military operation" have already appeared. Now, we can absolutely say that what is black on TV is white, and vice versa.
You see, the word "propaganda" stands in opposition to honest information, and there's practically none left in legal sources. This is no longer propaganda; it is simply the imposition of a single ideology in Russia. It is an experiment, akin to Gianni Rodari's story of building a land of liars within a federation.[2]
Honest information in Russia is now literally punishable by law. The so-called "foreign agents" are minor nuisances compared to the extremist and undesirable organizations. Anyone, even a 70-year-old grandmother who does not support the Russian government, can be labeled an extremist.
And working in an honest media outlet is outright criminalized.
Elvira Vikhareva
It Is Easier And Less Costly To Believe The Propaganda
In neighboring Belarus, dictator Lukashenko went even further – reading truthful news is a crime there. We are successfully moving down the same path.
By now, there is no point in analyzing new propaganda techniques used to deceive viewers, listeners, and readers. Just different shades of tar in a single, huge barrel.
Don't want tar? Then read the blocked and throttled internet, where only Telegram remains accessible, a platform the government could not control a few years ago and decided instead to use as one of its propaganda outlets. It is our only lifeline.
Of course, you can get truthful information – Telegram and its dedicated channels. But Telegram is not like a familiar TV you turn on during dinner, and the government exploits this. There is a habit, you see... a lazy press of a button, and no effort from even the most heroic journalists can compare.
Information should lead to conclusions. Often, conclusions lead to street protests in some countries. Try a solo protest in Russia. If you are lucky enough to get beyond your own doorstep – that is a win. But you will not stand with a poster for long; they will arrest you and send you to the police station.
If you are unlucky, you will be tried and sentenced to ten years. So many simply give up. It is easier and less costly to believe the propaganda, to sincerely love Big Brother (in the form of cameras on every corner helping the authorities identify dissenters) than to read the scary truth every day.
The truth is frightening. But propaganda sings about how "you are Russian, and you are lucky." And who would not want to believe that more?
Here is what Russian propaganda says: here is the enemy – in yellow and blue, under the flag of the EU or the USA. And here is how to fight the undesirables: an ad for enlistment in the "special military operation" on every corner, offering money to impoverished Russians.
In addition, they explain that you are doing the right thing. And if getting off the couch is still scary, if there is any self-preservation instinct left – people are encouraged to inform on others. That is also very easy and "right" in the world of Russian propaganda.
Interestingly, there is a gradual replacement of idols in Russian media. Some public figures are too morally upright and are seen as role models. If a public opinion leader does not support Putin's policies, he/she is automatically an enemy. They must be urgently replaced with someone loyal, while the former is labeled a "foreign agent."
As you know, the English have been caring for their lawns for 300 years, so every blade of grass grows next to another – and here, for 30 years, they have been grooming brains so every convolution aligns perfectly. People are not grass; they adapt faster.
We Always Have To Prove Something, Or Face Fines Or Arrests
There are no special paths for Russian propaganda. Everything has been thought up before us.
It is no coincidence that so many Nazi techniques are repeated – from slogans to the incredibly popular blond singer who, since the beginning of the military operation, is shouting in his songs, "I'm Russian, I'm lucky," with his compatriots, intoxicated by propaganda, echoing him.
It is simpler that way.
And the primary tactic has not changed over the years. Deceive and intimidate.
First, deceive with lies, and then intimidate those who do not believe.
To make your brain explode from what you have just read, let me tell you this: Russian propagandists love to echo, "Where were you ten years ago?!" They ask this question as in that old joke: "Have you already quit drinking cognac in the mornings? Yes or no? Look me in the eyes! Have you quit or not?"
Agree, caught in such a situation, you feel confused. The remarks that propaganda uses trap Russians, denying them the chance to say, "But I never drank!" There is only a definitive answer that places you in an utterly absurd position: "Yes, I quit, so I was indeed drinking endlessly but stopped," or "No, I did not quit."
And both are the worst possible answers.
These are classic rhetorical traps.
So it is with propagandists – they ask meaningless questions designed to provoke inflammatory responses.
The main question long posed to Russians, and picked up by many, is not about where we were ten years ago but what happened in 2014 and who was responsible for the events.[3]
(Read about what happened in 2014)
That question – "What actually happened?" – propagandists carefully sidestep, because the answer is known, and it instantly shatters their entire scheme.
Or another favorite question of Russian propagandists: "Why don't you love your homeland?" It carries similar demagoguery and can be phrased differently, but the essence remains the same: my compatriots are put in a position of having to justify themselves. We always have to prove something, or face fines or arrests.
Russian propaganda successfully equates the homeland with the authorities. For them, as for the Speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, "As long as Putin lives, Russia lives too," and should Putin disappear, Volodin believes, the whole country should vanish as well.
But the homeland is something completely different – it is not the government.
The government long ago stole elections from the people, tortures people in prisons, and sends troops to other countries.
And if an ordinary Russian disagrees, they must come to love a truncheon in the back, which prison guards (the Russian police enjoy torturing liberals) will inflict upon them.
We are constantly placed in false conditions.
The Russian Parliament Changes Laws Every Year To Suit Themselves
If you do not support the army, do not draw a "Z" on your forehead, they call you a traitor to the motherland, and hopefully, it does not lead to a 25-year sentence.
For decades, Russians have been distracted from what is really happening in the country.
They do not answer questions about why the dollar was 30 rubles ten years ago, but today it is 98. What happened to doubling the GDP? Why is food importation banned, even though the West did not prohibit it – our own authorities create all the conditions for escalation.
Propagandists serve the authorities and hope that the average citizen's memory is that of a fish, that we remember nothing of what happened yesterday.
For example, that not long ago Putin promised not to change the constitution but ended up rewriting it to suit himself.
That the chief propagandist mentioned above, Vladimir Solovyov, once said: "We cannot dream of seizing Ukrainian Crimea!" Turns out we can.
The authorities and their henchmen say many things, but in the end, they only do what benefits them.
The Russian parliament changes laws every year to suit themselves, hoping we will not be able to count how many people have been deprived of their right to be elected, contrary to the constitution.
And from every angle, we hear – "Where were you ten years ago, why don't you love the Motherland?!"
It is simple.
We were in the Motherland and do not confuse it with the president.
Those who disagree with the "Putin regime" have been diligently remembering how those who seized power have been looting the country, hiding behind words about how enemies are everywhere.
Those Who Ask Questions Are Either Deliberately Ignored Or Arrested
These enemies, as a consequence, turned out to be the Russian opposition and most public opinion leaders, among them world-renowned people (poets, artists, journalists, musicians) who do not share Putin's views.
It happened that they were unprepared to tolerate conflicts igniting on neighboring lands.
I still do not understand why we had to invade Ukraine.
First Moldova, then Georgia, and now Ukraine, and nowhere has the protection of Russians led to anything good.
In Turkmenistan, Russians were successfully betrayed, sold out for gas contracts.
And today, as in 2022, it seems that Russian authorities are once again in urgent need.
We understand that for them, people are unimportant; imperial ambitions are far more valuable.
And when given a chance to ask the propagandists an inconvenient question, do not expect reasonable answers. Everything is predetermined: "Enemies of the regime are not engaged with."
Those who do not believe Putin are not worthy of Russian citizenship.
This is the tragedy – there is no one to hold accountable.
Those who ask questions are either deliberately ignored or arrested.
Under worse circumstances, they are killed.
But some are still alive here. Some even resist. Although not everyone lives to see the end.
*Elvira Vikhareva is a renowned Russian opposition politician based in Russia. In 2023, she was poisoned with heavy metal salts.
