Russian propaganda digest for Nov 30

Russia is preparing another “referendum” in Ukraine and explaining to Europeans why it was “forced” to attack the nation.

The Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security collected the main fakes and narratives of the Russian propaganda for November 30.

1. The Kremlin should pay attention to other figures voiced by von der Leyen

2. Warsaw refutes Moscow's fakes even before they appear

3. Kremlin narratives in Modern Diplomacy

4. Russians hate Americans with fake illumination

The Kremlin should pay attention to another figure voiced by von der Leyen

On November 30, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that “Russia's invasion of Ukraine has brought death, devastation, and untold suffering,” and estimated that in Ukraine, allegedly “more than 20,000 civilians and 100,000 military personnel have died.”

Later, this part of the statement by von der Leyen was disavowed. But Russia immediately commented on this along the lines that the head of the EC “was lectured by Washington, the European Union is the 51st state of the United States and does not make a decision on its own.”

IN FACT, if we are talking about the figures from the EC president, then, according to the classical formula of the ratio of losses in defense and attack (1 to 3), it turns out that 300,000 Russian occupiers have already been killed in Ukraine.

And Moscow should mention the “killer-funny” maths by the Ministry of Defense of Russia, which the whole world ridiculed early November.

However, other figures, apart from those mentioned by von der Leyen in her address, are much more important for Russia. And the address, it should be recalled, was devoted to the plan of confiscation of Russian assets and creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders.

Thus, the European Commission has officially proposed that a fund worth EUR 300 billion in frozen Russian state assets and RUB 19 billion in Russian private assets be set up to compensate for assistance to Ukraine.

Given the fact that the EU is gradually putting an end to Putin's “black market,” while the creation of a special fund to support and restore Ukraine at the expense of frozen Russian assets is gradually moving from the plane of simple discussion to an increasingly practical one (for example, through the recognition of Russia as a sponsor of terrorism, which gives legal grounds for appropriate solutions in each of the countries), it is better for Moscow to pay attention to these real losses, rather than to rejoice at the Ukrainian death toll, as per a highly overstated assessment of the EC president.

Warsaw refutes Moscow’s fakes even before they appear

On November 30, Simonyan, who already started preparing for The Hague, said: “Ukraine is a huge country, obscenely huge, we need to make it smaller, which we have been doing successfully.”

Russia is trying its best to engage Ukraine’s closest neighbors in its “successful” plans. On November 30, Naryshkin, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, responsible for the Polish direction (one of Putin's old-time friends from the KGB years, said that Warsaw is already “forcing preparations for the annexation of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and most of Ternopil region of Ukraine.”

Moreover, according to him, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda has already even instructed the relevant services to quickly prepare a formal justification of Polish claims to Western Ukraine.

Since there has long been nothing creative in Moscow narratives, Russia is also following its fake referendum template in promoting its ridiculous “Polish case.” Naryshkin stated that “Poland intends to hold referenda in western Ukraine to justify the claims to its lands.”

At the same time, the chief of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service added that the Polish leadership wanted to act “actively and persistently” due to alleged fears that NATO partners will try to negotiate with the Kremlin during winter, “regardless of the interests of not only Ukrainians, but also Poles.”

IN FACT, a small warning, firstly, for Simonyan. If someday, for example, neighboring overpopulated China decides to “make an obscenely vast Russia smaller” by occupying (certainly not without “referenda”) the neglected and sparsely populated Far Eastern territories, RT's editor-in-chief should recall her own words.

Secondly, it's not even funny anymore given that the topic of the “Polish question” and the chief intelligence officer in Russia has already turned into something like “Nebenzya and mosquitoes.” They were appointed in the Kremlin to be responsible for these areas, so they are responsible. As much as they can be.

But it is a little easier for Naryshkin than for Nebenzya. At least because the former is not regularly ridiculed at the UN. In addition, he is strongly supported by Putin, who himself periodically promotes the point that Poland retains the idea of annexing western regions of Ukraine. Last time he did this was on November 4, when he declared that Warsaw, Bucharest, and Budapest were carrying plans to reclaim territories lost after World War II.

In response, Poland said that Putin once again told “fakes very far removed from reality.” The Romanian MFA responded that they fully support the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and condemn Russia for its military aggression. Even the Hungarian MFA, in spite of Orban’s scarf, said they did not agree with Putin’s statements about territorial claims to Ukraine.

The last time Warsaw debunked those stories even two days before Naryshkin announced them again. The reason, too, was connected with Poland having “claims” to Ukrainian territories.

As a reminder, the cause was the fake letter allegedly from the Polish Embassy in Ukraine alongside claims that Warsaw planned to annex Ukraine’s Western regions.

Kremlin narratives in Modern Diplomacy

European media are also used to promote the narrative of “Poland’s aggressive plans for Ukraine.” At the end of October, Russian media teamed up to spread the almost identical stories, saying that the Modern Diplomacy portal reported that Poland was preparing to hold a referendum on the annexation of the Western regions of Ukraine.

IN FACT, the page with this “editorial” (as described by the Russian media) article no longer exists. The link provided, for example, by Life.ru is inactive.

It is unclear who is the intended target audience of such fakes. Probably, it’s Naryshkin himself…

However, Modern Diplomacy does openly promote Russian narratives. On November 30, the outlet issued a piece with a highly “original” title Debunking Lies about the War in Ukraine.

In the article, the author (who refers to himself as a "research historian”), Eric Zuesse, “debunked” four “lies” at once. For example: “The war began on February 24, 2022, not in 2014" or "Why Russia's invasion of Ukraine was legal."

Zuesse’s text contains phrases like “America’s demand that its vassal-nation Ukraine must have a ‘right’ to place U.S. missiles only 5 minutes from Moscow.”

Or take this paragraph: “The Obama Administration perpetrated in February 2014 a bloody Ukrainian coup (hidden behind popular anti-corruption Ukrainian demonstrations that the CIA and State Department had trained and organized local racist-fascist anti-Russian Ukrainians to lead) overthrowing the democratically elected President of Ukraine and replacing him by a racist-fascist (ideologically nazi) regime.”

The entire article is penned in the same spirit. Modern Diplomacy, of course, clarifies that "views expressed in the publication are solely those of the author and in no way represent or reflect the views of Modern Diplomacy, its advisory and editorial boards, sponsors, partners, or affiliates."

But Russian media will absolutely refer to this text, and this is the technology and style used by the Kremlin propaganda across the world.

Russians hate Americans with fake illumination

And finally, a story about a fake illumination that prominently shows Russia’s attempts at friendship with the Iranian people.

On November 29, before the 3rd round game of the group stage of the FIFA World Cup between Iran and the US, information was published that the wall of the Oktyabr cinema located in Novy Arbat Street in Moscow featured a banner supporting Iranians saying “The US is always small. Iran, Russia is with you!”

IN FACT, on November 30, it turned out to be a fake. Kirill Rukov, editor-in-chief of the Russian-language version of The Village, said: “It was a fake. We have already removed the story. There was only one video of this banner, and it went viral, spread by a pro-Kremlin bot farm on Twitter and on pro-Iranian Telegram channels. There were no other witnesses who took a picture from other angles.”

Later, other publications also confirmed it was a fake.

As usual, Russian propaganda has no shame. All the way down to writing “The US is always small” on an American iPhone. But this all comes from an inferiority complex. Not just in terms of technology, but in terms of mentality.