Simply how horrific Kremlin propaganda has change into is obscured by two issues. On the one hand, it’s so excessive in its absurd claims that the majority observers within the West don’t cowl it; and on the opposite, it so typically is employed to place a smiley face on actually horrific people and teams that the majority desire to not cowl it in any respect.
That’s unlucky as a result of it has the impact of obscuring each what the Russian inhabitants is subjected to and what the Russian powers that be intend, and so it’s helpful not less than from time to time to wade into this swamp and name consideration to only how deep and murky it has change into.
A brand new article by Anna Stroganova, a journalist for RFI’s Russian Service, offers a helpful correction by exploring how far Kremlin propagandists are going to “romanticize” the Wagner “Non-public Army Firm” with a purpose to entice extra folks to its ranks (rfi.fr/ru/россия/20221209-как-российские-пропагандисты-романтизируют-образ-чвк-вагнера).
Regardless that mercenary teams just like the Wagner PMC are unlawful beneath Russian legislation, regardless that the group has been recruiting criminals to battle in Ukraine, and regardless that its items have been recognized as chargeable for crimes of conflict and crimes in opposition to humanity, Russia Right now and different Kremlin shops have been celebrating it has noble and heroic.
Stroganova provides examples starting from on-line posts to songs to tv applications that recommend the Kremlin has ordered a full-scale propaganda marketing campaign to spice up the picture of the Wagner group and obscure its illegalities each from the onset and in Ukraine. Such efforts should be challenged lest these messages dominate pondering in Russia and in some circles within the West.
