U.S. switches to Putin’s friends: a digest of Russian propaganda for August 2
The Kremlin has decided to legislatively “terrorize” the POWs of “Azov” and is eager to help China in the conflict with Taiwan. The Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security collected the main fakes and narratives of Russian propaganda for August 2.
That's according to the Center for Strategic Communication.
Moscow recognizes Azov fighters as “cannibal terrorists”
China’s potential losses over possible Taiwan war
Sanctions: from “black gold” to Kabaeva and 6G
When a fake can be truer than the truth itself
Moscow recognizes Azov fighters as “cannibal terrorists”
Russia has finally resolved the legal conflict with the POWs of the Azov Regiment. On August 2, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized Azov, which, let us remind you, is part of the National Guard of Ukraine, as a “terrorist organization.”
Thus, the Ukrainian regiment became the 41st in the list of relevant organizations, which is drafted by the FSB — alongside al-Qaeda and the Taliban (with which the Russian Federation still fairly friendly relations).
Subsequently, Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on participation in a terrorist organization or its creation may be applied to Azov POWs. “Punishment” for them can now be significantly increased. From 10-20 years in prison to life imprisonment.
Now in Russia, those who at least put a “dislike” under the propaganda news about the Azov fighters will automatically fall under the “justification of terrorism.” This is punishable by two to five years’ imprisonment.
Let us remind you that the corresponding claim was filed by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office back in May, when the “Azov case” was almost the main trend of Russian propaganda. But the narratives about “Nazi terrorists” had not been legally supported until now. Interestingly, the Supreme Court, in announcing its judgment, stated that it came into force immediately. That is, Russia is in a rush.
IN FACT, once upon a time, the topic of the fight against terrorism was, for the Putin regime, a pass to a decent international community. The US fought against terrorists (who just destroyed al-Zawahiri, the leader of the already mentioned Al-Qaeda), while Putin fought against terrorists in the North Caucasus. On this ground, Washington and Moscow found mutual understanding.
But with the gradual degradation of the Russian political system, Kremlin “anti-terrorism” also degenerated into forms that increasingly alarmed former partners.
In Russia, “terrorists” and “extremists” were critics of the regime and just anyone who annoyed the Kremlin, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Memorial Society. The accusation of terrorism has become a legalized form of reprisal against anyone.
Modern Russian “anti-terrorism” has an extremely disgusting cannibal nature. Sometimes it’s literally cannibalism. As, for example, in the case of charges against Azov POWs:
Insinuations about cannibalism are another manifestation of the official policy of dehumanization of Ukrainians among the Russian audience, to encourage its approval or direct participation in the genocide.
The criminalization of POWs is a violation of international humanitarian law. And accusing them of terrorism is an attempt to draw attention away from Russia’s own terrorist nature.
“The jurisdiction of the Russian authorities does not extend to the territory of Ukraine. Therefore, the “decision” of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to recognize the Azov regiment as an alleged “terrorist organization” is a legal nonsense. It sounds a little strange: a country that is one step away from being recognized as a sponsor of terrorism and that violates any rules and customs of war, recognizes someone as a terrorist organization,” Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Presidential Office.
And he’s absolutely right. Because already on August 2, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation officially declared the severance of diplomatic relations with the United States in case Washington declares Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
Speaker of the Russian diplomatic department Zakharova said: “Washington risks finally crossing the line of no return with all the consequences arising.”
The promised terrible consequence, obviously,being the entry of the Russian Federation into the war between the United States and China on the Chinese side… if these two states one day decide to fight each other.
China’s losses over the war with Taiwan
After the September 1 remake of the beginning of the First World War did not come through in the Balkans, Russian propagandists very much counted at least on the picture of the theatre of military operations opening in the Pacific and of a global conflict.
But Taiwan, where the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi flew to on August 2, did not turn into Pearl Harbor.
During her flight, one could track how gradually, literally live, the rhetoric of the Russian media changed: “will she fly? — she did! — is she flying? — she is! — will she land? — she did!” This psychosis, which the Russian authorities and their media found themselves in, climaxed with Kadyrov’s post on “great powers.”
IN FACT, that Russia is so desperate to include someone else in its “global war” against the West testifies to its weakness and inferiority complex no less than the current queues of Russians seen in the H&M and IKEA – the brands that announced their withdrawal from the Russian Federation.
With such mental “idolatry before the West” (as they said in Soviet times), war cannot be won, even if goods of European quality in Russia will be replaced by goods of Chinese quality. Mentally, this war between the Kremlin and the West is lost. And long before Putin. Back in the 1970s, when there was a group of resellers of imported clothes who were selling American jeans.
As for Beijing’s relationship with Taiwan, for example, from 1991 to the end of May 2021, Taiwan’s investment in the PRC amounted to USD 193.5 billion.
It is in Taiwan that TCMS, the world leader in semiconductor manufacturing, is based. Those semiconductors that Russia is in dire need of, and that it dreams of getting for its “Kalibrs.”
TSMC Chairman Mark Liu has already stated that if China attacks Taiwan, “all of the company’s businesses will cease operation. Breaking supply chains will cause damage on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
Therefore, Beijing will still think hard before moving on from exercising around Taiwan to something more serious.
As for Beijing’s quarrel with Washington, it is worth knowing the following figure: the turnover of China and the United States during the last year amounted to USD 755.645 billion. The turnover between the PRC and the EU, according to the results of the first quarter of this year, amounted to USD 205.87 billion.
For comparison: the turnover between Russia and China stands at a mere USD 51.09 billion. Will Beijing sacrifice American and European markets for Putin’s geopolitical nonsense about the war with the West?
Sanctions: from Black Gold to 6G
China is not Russia. It is only Putin who, for the sake of his unfounded ambitions, can literally give others a huge Russian share in the oil and gas markets.
Since the beginning of August, coal has been added to the list of previously sanctioned gas, oil, steel; their supply to the EU countries from Russia is embargoed. The price of the issue is small — EUR 4 billion per year — yet painful. Russian propagandists complain that “Europe will freeze” and happily discuss the news about how, for example, Dutch people already stockpiling firewood.
IN FACT, the largest importers of Russian coal in Europe are the Netherlands — 14.9 million tons. They are followed by: Poland — 7.7 million tons, Germany — 7 million tons, Italy — 4.4 million tons, and France — 2.6 million tons. But already this year, in addition to domestic energy-saving measures, Europe has begun to introduce external procurement. Kazakhstan alone delivered almost twice as much coal to the EU countries from January to May as it did last year.
This has already led to a 17% decrease in the production of “black gold” in the Russian Federation and in its export to 30%. Most Russian coal companies employing tens of thousands of people are in Kuzbass and the Far East. The embargo will entail a reduction in the extraction and processing of coal, respectively, which could become disastrous for the populations of these regions. And they still have to chip in for the “restoration of Donbas.”
In addition, on August 2, the US Treasury Department added 13 Russian citizens to the sanctions list, including six billionaires, as well as Alina Kabaeva, former gymnast, and now Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Media Group. Washington did not put her on its lists until the very end out of fear of “Putin’s personal anger.” Well, now the US leaves him with “nothing personal.”
The US hid its really high-precision strike behind Kabaeva, who became the main media face of Washington’s new list. It included the Skolkovo Foundation, the Technopark, and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. Sanctions may lead to restrictions on access to American technology and seriously complicate the development of telecom equipment for 6G generation communications. The need for its implementation (passing the 5G stage) was announced last week in the Russian Federation at the highest level.
Global cooperation on technical standards and frequency selection is important for the development of these technologies. Therefore, given that Western manufacturers of telecom equipment Nokia, Ericsson leave Russia and the Chinese Huawei OpenRAN has suspended its supplies, this blow by Washington is really painful for Russia.
When a fake can be truer than the truth itself
And finally — another fake (as it was already officially declared in the Russian Federation). This time, a fake report was published by “the ex-president of the Russian Federation Medvedev,” whose scandalous “revelation” in “VKontakte” on the restoration of the USSR, “made the morning” of many people on August 2. The post was quite long. Here are the main points.
● all the peoples who once inhabited the great and powerful Soviet Union will live together again in friendship and mutual understanding;
● after the liberation of Kyiv and all the territories of the Little Russia … Russia will once again become united, powerful, and invincible, as it was a thousand years ago in the days of the Ancient Russian state;
● after that, under the sole hand of Moscow, led by the Slavic people, we will go on a campaign to restore the borders of our homeland, which, as we know, do not end anywhere;
● Georgia was created within the current borders only within the Russian Empire;
● Kazakhstan is an artificial state, these are former Russian territories… In this century, the authorities of Kazakhstan have begun to implement initiatives to resettle various ethnic groups within the republic, which can be qualified as genocide of Russians.
Consequently, Medvedev stated that the page had been hacked. Then the question is to the leadership of the main social network of Russia, where every official, by the way, must have an account. If Medvedev himself couldn’t be secured, what can be said of others? Many people assume that this was such a trolling from the current “Donbas handler” Kiriyenko, whose son is part of the VKontakte management. And the already mentioned Kabaeva couldn’t save Kiriyenko from the fake at some point.
IN FACT, we live in a wonderful time when a fake can be truer than the truth itself. A famous Ukrainian publicist Denys Kazanskyi writes in this regard that the content of the post (even if it was deleted) did not differ from the Nazi nonsense that Medvedev wrote before.
“Opus continues to be discussed as if it were a real post. After all, absolutely everyone — both supporters and enemies — understands that this is what the Russian authorities really think. Even if Medvedev did not write this post, it is no different from what is regularly stated by various Russian MPs and officials.
Be that as it may, one fake post (if it really is fake) revealed more truth than all the official statements of Russian officials made in previous years.”
Therefore, the ex-president can no longer be ashamed of his revelations. Sanctions will only intensify anyway, and no new global war will write off anything.
Center for Strategic Communication