This week we focus on two actions seemingly taken directly from the Kremlin's toolbox of deception and manipulation. First – in St. Petersburg, Putin issued a kind of warning to the West. Second – Russian military aircraft hit a civilian ship carrying Ukrainian grain to Egypt.
What did he mean
As a rule, Putin's presence in Russian state communication is “from A to Z”. Footage shows him in his office in the Kremlin, at grand parades, at military factories, visiting veterans or giving instructions to ministers. Setting and presentation are key to deciphering implicit messages, as usually in Russian state- and Kremlin-controlled media, everything is carefully staged.
On September 12, Putin gave an impromptu interview to the state TV channel “First Channel” – on the street near Palace Square in St. Petersburg. In an unusual setting, Putin appeared restless and spoke in unusually long and complex sentences. The image was a far cry from the macho pose the Kremlin usually strikes for Putin's public appearances. His main message was that Western long-range weapons could not be used alone by the Ukrainians. According to his analysis, if Kiev were to use such weapons to strike deep inside Russia, soldiers from NATO countries would be involved. According to Putin, this would “change the nature of the conflict”. We ask ourselves, who actually started the war?
State media stepped up the fake show of courage...
It appears that Russia's state-controlled media and those connected to the Kremlin have been tasked with translating Putin's words for the masses. Over the next few days, the message that “The West risks war with Russia” grew into a common line and the pro-Kremlin disinformation network readily provided it with additional visibility.
...but the message of courage remained hidden deep within the Kremlin website
However, communications managers seem to have decided to hide this message deep within the Kremlin website – in an anonymous post titled “Answer to a media question“. Basically, the presidential website is full of posts about literally every action of Putin, as well as his articles, speeches and other documents that disparage Ukraine and promote the “special military operation” – i.e. Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine.
And let's say again that the strategists in Moscow put the preservation of Putin's image above all else. Therefore, he should not appear to be declaring open war on the West. Let it rather appear that the West itself “announces“ his war against Russia. Let journalists and analysts spread this message. And it was indeed widely picked up in the world media.
The question arises whether this kind of communication reflects the Kremlin's desire not to sow nuclear threats at any moment, but to try to achieve the same effect – intimidating the western public – by other means.
Naturally, for a man like Putin, with a painstakingly constructed image of an all-powerful leader, it is somehow uncomfortable to accept that garrisons, warehouses and air bases deep inside Russia are being hit by strikes. One such example from this week was the September 18 drone strike on a large ammunition depot in Tver Oblast, west of Moscow Oblast. There were reports of explosions similar to small earthquakes.
Looking beyond the verbal equilibristics and fabrications we see: Russia attacked Ukraine. Ukraine defends itself in accordance with Art. 51 of the UN Charter. More than 50 countries are helping Kyiv in this defense. End of story.
Meanwhile in the Black Sea, Russia attacks a civilian grain tanker
A day before Putin's statement in St. Petersburg, Moscow sent another message. On September 11, a Russian warplane hit a civilian grain carrier with a supersonic anti-ship missile. Manned by a Turkish crew, the ship was sailing in international waters and carrying wheat to Egypt. Such ships are protected by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which allows freedom of navigation and the peaceful use of the high seas.
This attack – the first of its kind since Russia blocked the Black Sea Grain Initiative – coincided with the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. There, Russia works to attract countries from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia to its side with beautiful words. Moscow is trying to deceive the world that Russia is the protector of countries in dire need of food imports. Just listen to Foreign Minister Lavrov's tirades against the so-called “global majority”. This propaganda operation of “Russia Today”, “Sputnik“ and other state media is also a facade behind which more covert influence operations in Africa and Latin America are concealed.
Destructive war on all fronts
We have already written here on the “EUvsDisinfo” page how the words about how important it is not to interrupt food supplies come into direct conflict with the reality of Russian bombing of Ukrainian ports, grain terminals and agricultural areas. These actions aim to stop Ukrainian agricultural exports, equally important to importers and the Ukrainian economy. If we consider this campaign in combination with widespread Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, energy production, and terrorist bombings of residential areas, one message remains: Russia is waging a brutal war to destroy the Ukrainian nation.
Other topics in this week's review from EUvsDisinfo:
Ukraine is building concentration camps in Kursk. Here, once again, we see a particularly inflammatory set of claims: images and insinuations of camps reinforce Moscow's endless accusations of “Ukrainian neo-Nazis”. Last week, many Russian state media carried the story, even in several languages through the state-run Rossiya Segodnya-Sputnik network. Russian state propagandists have been caught numerous times fabricating outright lies and using imagery such as the crucifixion of civilians and the burning of churches to evoke an emotional response.
French soldiers hanged eight children in the Kursk region. As we wrote in the previous post of “EUvsDisinfo“ about the Kursk Problem, here we come across another lie designed to evoke memories of the death squads. The plot is “Made in Moscow”, but it was built specifically for – we are not surprised are we? – French-speaking audiences and has accordingly been distributed in both French and English. Along with this, another false claim was directed at target audiences in French-speaking African countries: French troops are directly involved in the Ukrainian invasion of Russia's Kursk region. Let's keep in mind the so-called sleeper effect when we hear and see these titles – it is about the phenomenon that repeated lies, even when known to be false, leave a mental imprint, i.e. doubt that maybe there is something true in the story.
Russian women are always happy, while those in the West are oppressed. The main state news agency RIA gives yet another example of fomenting opposition along the "us vs. them" axis. – this is reminiscent of the Soviet era, when the USSR presented itself as a world leader in this or that. Let's just recall the fact that no sociological research supports this claim. What has been researched is that Russia ranks 56th out of 177 countries in the 2023 Global Women's Peace and Security Index in terms of women's inclusion, justice and security.