Russia switches Europeans to horses and donkeys

Making high fuel price threats, Russian propaganda spreads "European" ad shot in Moscow suburbs

A "social video" is being given out in Russian state mass media and Telegram channels. The video shows a man getting on a horse-drawn Mini Cooper in a parking lot, while the car is filled with hay. Another hero of the video tries to ride a donkey.

The video ends with "good" advice in English with Russian subtitles: "Dear Europeans, switch to alternative transport because soon petrol will be too expensive."

Another state-owned Russian mass media, aimed at an international audience, has been showing this video without Russian subtitles for at least a week instead of commercials between TV programs.

In parallel, pro-Russian accounts share the video in the English-speaking Twitter segment.

Also, the video appeared on Greek and Serbian Internet resources.

In Russian Internet segment, this video is being passed off as a "social advertisement" shot in Europe.

At the same time, the parking lot on the video can be found on the Internet as such that is rented out for shooting TV series, movies, and ads and is located at the Khimki One business center at 25 Leningradskaya Street, Khimki town in Moscow suburbs.

The video appeared on news resources in the first decade of December 2022, while was uploaded to the Internet on June 12. Then the video with the telling title "Future... Europe" was uploaded to the Russian video hosting service Tubix.com. This platform appeared in Russia in the middle of 2022 as a substitute for YouTube. But judging by the number of video views on the hosting, something went wrong and the service did not become popular.

In half a year, the video gained only nine views. It was uploaded there by a user nicknamed Vall. From the description of his profile, we only know that he is from Russia.

Currently, Russian propaganda is trying to promote the video to a European audience via Twitter. It was first published by a user nicknamed Russian Market and a portrait of Vladimir Putin as his avatar. The publication contains a link to an English-language Telegram channel with the same name. It tells about the price cap on Russian oil at $60 per barrel, which was adopted by the G7 countries, and the Kremlin's threats to stop the oil supply to the countries that joined the price cap.

Russia is trying to influence European public opinion, but fuel prices in Europe are currently not rising. Their peak was observed in May-June, when A-95 gasoline cost more than 2.1 euros per liter in Austria, Spain, Italy, France. and Germany. It was then that the video was posted on the network. Gasoline has become cheaper by an average of EUR 0.50 in six months.

Andriy Olenin