ANATOMY OF PROPAGANDA: TOP 3 EVENTS OF THE WEEK
22/05/2023, 12:30
Kremlin needs to present Russian society with some results of the large-scale offensive for which they carried out mobilization in the fall of 2022. The capture of the destroyed district centre of Donetsk region, Bakhmut, is presented as a ‘victory'. The country's leadership compensates the losses incurred (over 100 thousand in Bahmut alone) by luring a new batch of Russians into contract service. The social tension caused by the massive influx of Asian migrants getting the freed-up jobs is being smoothed over by new Kremlin’s pompous statements.
State propaganda celebrates the "capture" of Bahmut. Vladimir Putin officially congratulated both the Wagner stormtroopers and all the service members of the Russian Armed Forces units on this. Despite Prigozhin is repeatedly emphasizing the cowardice of the Russian armed forces units, both Putin and the Ministry of Defense still mentioned some merits of the Russian Armed Forces in capturing Bahmut. According to the Kremlin tradition, society is being shaped around another fake propaganda picture instead of a real victory.
The Kremlin is actively looking for ways to recruit new soldiers for the war. The military-political leadership is afraid to conduct a new wave of mobilization, so it is looking for lateral ways to replenish the thinning army with personnel. Propaganda publics are full of advertisements for contract service, regional officials hold regular meetings on the issue of fulfilling the recruitment plan, and industrial enterprises are obliged to promote the benefits of service among their employees.
While migrants from Asia are replacing the work places of hundreds of thousands of Russians who went to war, the Kremlin is trying to justify such trends to society. A meeting of the Presidential Council on Interethnic Relations was held recently, at which Vladimir Putin demanded the migration policy to be based for the interests of Russians. And he promised a "flexible, balanced approach that does not create risks for us, but works for the development of the country."
