Stars upon you (2021)

Can´t believe I haven´t posted this piece yet here on tumblr. It´s still one of my favorite works to date :D

don't you know, that i heard it through the grape vine

So here are some examples of Kremlin propaganda that I have seen being spread around and shared uncritically by people who should really know better:

1) The idea that NATO is responsible for the war in Ukraine or the idea that Ukraine itself is responsible for Russia’s invasion.

Russia invaded Ukraine—I don’t know why I should have to spell this out, but the country literally sending soldiers, tanks and missiles into a neighboring country is the one that is at fault for the war, and that country is Russia. In addition, the narrative that NATO expansion caused the current conflict ignores the agency of Eastern European countries; it is Ukraine and other Eastern European countries that have sought to join NATO, not the other way around. And why shouldn’t they? Russia’s aggression against Ukraine illustrates exactly why many countries have sought to join NATO in the first place. I’m not saying that NATO cannot be criticized (for instance, NATO has bombed countries in the Middle East). But it is inaccurate to claim that NATO caused the current conflict. As for the idea that Ukraine is to blame for the war, that is also patently false: before Russia invaded, it built up over 100,000 troops on its side of the border. Ukraine did not do the same. 

2) The idea that Ukraine is a right-wing state governed by Neo-Nazis.

Propaganda will often take a small grain of truth and completely blow it out of proportion. There are Neo-Nazis in Ukraine, like there unfortunately are in most European countries. But they are not in power—Zelenskyy’s government is not far right, and he is certainly not a Neo-Nazi; he is a Jew who lost family members in the Holocaust. Putin has pushed the lie that Ukraine is led by Neo-Nazis to justify his invasion, probably in part to garner support among Russians who feel proud of the Soviet Union’s victory against Nazi Germany. But, obviously, Ukraine is not Nazi Germany. And the very existence of far-right groups in Ukraine cannot justify Russia’s invasion and the subsequent loss of life. People who are spreading the idea that Ukraine is led by the far right/Neo-Nazis are doing Putin’s work for him. 

3) The idea that the Ukrainian government represses Russian speakers and the idea that Russian speakers should be part of Russia.

Ukraine does not oppress Russian speakers, as Putin has claimed. Many Ukrainians are bilingual, and Zelenskyy himself is a native Russian speaker. There have been efforts to popularize the Ukrainian language in recent years—attempting to reverse the effects of the Soviet Union’s systematic eradication of Ukrainian language and culture—but that is not the same thing as oppressing Russian speakers, although the Kremlin has tried to frame it as such. In addition, it is absurd to claim that just because there are Russian speakers in Ukraine, they should be part of Russia. Should all English-speaking countries be subsumed back into the British Empire? Should all Spanish-speaking countries become part of Spain? The answer is obviously no.

4) The idea that there are “no good guys” in the war.

I’ve seen a lot of people spreading the idea that Russia’s invasion is wrong, but Ukraine’s government is bad too (often using the other pieces of Kremlin propaganda about Ukraine as evidence). This is bothsidesism at its worst. The narrative that there are “no good guys” seeks to draw attention away from Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, its killing of innocent civilians and children, its blatant violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and self-determination, etc. and instead frame the conflict as something in which both sides are equally bad, somehow.

But the idea of “no good guys” in the Russia-Ukraine war places some of the blame on Putin, so how could that be Kremlin propaganda, you ask? This brings me to another important point: 

If you think something isn’t Kremlin propaganda because it does criticize Putin, you don’t understand how Kremlin propaganda works. 

Kremlin propaganda that is aimed to influence Western audiences can and does criticize Putin and Russia so that it can slip under your radar. You have to ask yourself: who benefits from the narrative that there are “no good guys”? The Kremlin benefits. Because that narrative is designed to reduce sympathy for Ukraine and to reduce people’s desire to help Ukraine. Kremlin propaganda isn’t going to necessarily try to convince people living in Western countries to support Putin. But it is going to try to convince you to not support Ukraine.