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How does Russian propaganda work

Interesting discussion about how Russia does propaganda

8 comments to How does Russian propaganda work

  • Marc

    I am more worried by the western response,if it wasn’t strangely co-ordinated from the start then i am a horses head.

  • The ‘western’ response has been disjointed & extremely uneven.

  • The ‘western’ response has been disjointed & extremely uneven.

    Indeed. As I pointed out towards the end of this post, it was the Ukraine’s unexpected (to the western smart set, not just Putin) refusal to be conquered as quickly as the Crimea was that dragged the disjointed and uneven western response into existence.

    I am glad to note that (unlike over lockdowns), Britain did set the world something of an example.

  • Paul Marks

    The Russian television propaganda was much better than the Chinese television propaganda. The People’s Republic of China propaganda was just blatant lying – but “RT” (ad so on) was a skilful mixture of truth and lies.

    However, with Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – the Russian propaganda machine just fell apart (even before RT and so on were banned).

    For months they had been saying that Russia would not invade – and then it did. And it was just too much to explain away.

    Some of them tried to make the transition to a People’s Republic of China style of propaganda – up is down, water is dry, hot is cold….. But their hearts were not in it – it was all just too silly and crude.

    A lot of the leading people in the Russian propaganda machine just resigned in disgust – what is the point of being a skilful propagandist (who can carefully weave truth and lies together) if your boss (Mr Putin) suddenly orders you to go over to People’s Republic of China style propaganda – up is down water is dry, hot is cold…..

    Mr Putin has, essentially, destroyed his own propaganda machine.

    As for the war itself…..

    I am told (by British government people) that the strike for the Ukrainian capital was not the total farce I thought it was – that it came close to success, that the war could have been won by Mr Putin early on. But that emergency action by the British government (in terms of arms and other help) prevented that.

    Now this could be a self serving story by British government types “we stopped Putin” – but they do believe it.

    What will happen now?

    Well Russia (which is a nation – NOT an “empire” as some people seem to think, it is just a very-big-nation) will grind on with the war – because Mr Putin has committed his regime to this (mad) enterprise.

    As the guards used to say in the old Soviet camps (but never in the German camps) “you today – me tomorrow” (the Nazi guards really did believe that Jews were demons – but guards in Soviet camps always knew the people they were murdering were just like themselves “you today, me tomorrow”, “life is shit – and then we die”).

    People know the Big Boss (Mr Putin) has messed up, but the Big Boss (whoever he is) always messes up – “you today, me tomorrow” (often said before shooting someone in the face – and said to show that the killer knows that the person he is killing is the same as him, and that it will likely be his own turn another day), “life is shit and then we die”.

  • Paul Marks

    By the way – the old bedtime story “if only we had one strong leader when the Mongols invaded – then we would not have been slaughtered and subjected CENTURIES OF HELL” is a myth.

    The Mongols massively improved cavalry warfare (and warfare generally) – one Prince over the Rus (over the “rowers” – those Slavs with a bit of Norse on top) would not have made a vital difference, the Mongols would have won anyway.

    Yes the ancestors of the Indo Europeans in what is now Russia and the Ukraine invented cavalry (just as they invented the spoked wheel – now seen on the flag of India and elsewhere) and, yes, they were in Siberia as long ago as ten thousand B.C. But the Mongols perfected cavalry warfare (and other Asian peoples had pushed the Indo Europeans out of other lands long BEFORE the Mongols, for example Chinese chronicles, before they got changed, used to boast how they had slaughtered the funny looking people with their red or blond hair, and taken land).

    The centuries of Hell could not have been avoided.

    And then were more centuries of fighting as Cossacks (Turkish word – meaning free-booters), who were Russian as well as Ukrainian, gradually took back land that their ancestors had once held – all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

    The Cossacks (who were as much “rowers”, boatmen, as much as they were riders) had no Big Boss ordering them about – and they won, at least in part, because they learned to use FIREARMS.

  • mickc

    No,no Western propaganda…except for example…

    Colour Revolution…CIA coup

    Anti Assad forces…ISIS supported by the USA and SA

    Withdrawal from Afghanistan…scuttle leaving allies in the lurch

    And the rest of the nonsense…

    The West was warned by the adults such as Kennan and Mearsheimer. Kennan in particular had played the game very successfully, thank god,but was ignored and the West…actually the USA…gets its bollocks in a wringer…but it’s Russia’s fault?

    Any adults left in the West? Doesn’t seem so..

  • mickc, what does any of that have to do with the above posting? Also, you really need to stop watching Russia Today, it is designed to appeal to useful idiots.

  • Bell Curve

    if it wasn’t strangely co-ordinated from the start then i am a horses head.

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6f/54/87/6f5487b5f86d6586733876129c9d1ee6.jpg