The main event in the world of Russian propaganda last week was the so-called referendum and everything related to it. Ukraine’s National Resistance Center analyzed in detail what the occupiers lied about last week.
If in 2014 the Kremlin managed to mislead a large part of the world’s population regarding the occupation of Ukraine, now Kremlin propaganda works exclusively for its own audience, because it is difficult to believe in a “referendum” where voting took place at gunpoint on the street and at the place of residence.
Due to the total resistance of the local population, Moscow decided to annex the temporarily occupied territories quickly. This greatly affected both the organization and the “quality of propaganda”. In fact, the Kremlin fed Russians lies about:
- legality, the necessity of conducting, mass support of the “referendum” both from the local and world community;
- the stability and prosperity that joining Russia will bring;
- crimes of Kyiv;
- partial mobilization.
- “Referendum”
There is no point in dwelling on the fact that this show has no legal consequences. The “referendum” was held in gross violation of both Ukrainian and Russian laws, in general, in violation of all possible practices of free expression of will:
- the “separate peoples of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions” did not exist in nature, in history, until last month, just like “the separate people of Crimea and the separate people of Donbas”;
- there are no voter lists;
- you could vote at home and on the street, which does not ensure the secrecy of the process at all;
- voting was conducted under the supervision of armed persons.
- Instead of describing the “voting”, we will simply leave an eloquent photo:
In the absence of any local interest in the “referendum”, Russian propaganda was proud of the support actions in Moscow and Crimea, where, by the way, public servants were also forced to be.
In Simferopol and Moscow multi-thousand rallies are taking place in support of referendums in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, DPR and LPR.
Nevertheless, the question is open. Why did such rallies not take place in Kherson region or Zaporizhzhia? In these territories, the Russians drew 87% and 93% of support, but there are no rallies.
Of course, Russian propaganda claims that this is because of the ban on mass events. But even a month ago, the Russians were taking a mass to the occupied regions on the day of the Russian flag, and they did not have any security problems.
In fact, the Russians deliberately stretched the “show of will” for 5 days, and organized voting by residence to be able to hide the lack of turnout. That is why all the support numbers drawn by the occupiers have no relation to the real state of affairs.
“International observers” became another topic of Kremlin propaganda. Of course, there were no international observers from the OSCE, which monitors election processes in democratic countries. Instead, Moscow brought foreign tourists who are on the Kremlin’s payroll to the occupied territories. More details about them at the link.
However, for example, the Russian Alina Lipp, who was born in Germany in the family of a Russian military, lives in St. Petersburg and speaks Russian fluently, is presented as a foreign observer. Moreover, she has never worked as a journalist, because all her work is a Telegram channel, where she spreads Moscow propaganda.
Alina Lipp, journalist, Germany. Referendums on the liberated territories are officially recognized as valid.
In particular, in March, she spread a fake about the murder of a Russian boy in Germany by Ukrainian refugees.
The main lie about the “referendum” among the Russians has not changed since 2014, and these are not even the phantasmagorical numbers of support they paint for themselves. The main lie is the basis for this action – the UN’s right to self-determination of peoples.
In accordance with the generally recognized principles and norms of international law, recognizing and confirming the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, taking into account the will of the people of Kherson region at the referendum held on September 27, 2022, I decide:
1. Recognize the state sovereignty and independence of the Kherson region.
2. This Decree comes into force from the date of its signing.
Yes, indeed, international law guarantees such a right, but there is a nuance – it is about peoples. which do not have a free state. There is no separate people of Kherson or Zaporizhzhia regions, because Ukrainians and Russians live there in the majority. The former are occupied, the latter have their own separate state and the right to move there.
Stability and prosperity
Russians continue to talk about economic stability, which exists only in propaganda videos. The country is under sanctions and has a falling GDP, which is only accelerating. If in the first quarter it was 0.5%, then in the second quarter it was 4%.
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation optimistically predicts a 6% drop in GDP based on the results of the year. However, even the Russians themselves note that the fall in GDP will continue in the following years, and only possibly in 2025 the country will grow by 1.5%, which will be due to a low comparative base with 2024. There is no question of returning to the 2021 figures in the coming decade.
In 2022, the number of Russians living below the poverty line increased by 69%. Currently, this number is 21 million people, that is, one in seven Russians. It is the poverty of the population that is the main motivation for Russian soldiers to die in Ukraine, but propaganda continues to portray “stability and prosperity.”
Here, for example, the Russians talk about the industrial crisis that occurred because Ukraine allegedly “blocked” trade with the Russian Federation. Although the Russian Federation is known for its trade wars against its neighbors. In particular, the Kremlin constantly introduced trade embargoes against Ukrainian goods even before 2014.
But despite the aggression of the Russian Federation in 2014, the turnover of trade between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in 2021 amounted to more than 12 billion dollars, so it is strange to hear stories about the blocking of goods from the Ukrainian side. At the same time, the turnover of trade with the EU was growing, because the reorientation of Ukrainian industry to the West was taking place.
In one of the propaganda videos, Russians are proud of Stalin, which indicates that the occupiers do not quite understand the specifics of the captured territories and the attitude of the local population to Stalin.
As under Stalin it will not be, but as in Ukraine – for sure
In general, in most of the videos, the Russians claim that they are building roads and schools, but there is no evidence, because there is only a video sequence. So currently, the only thing the occupation administration is proud of is painting gas pipes or installing benches.
Communal services continue to paint gas pipes.
Shifting responsibility
On September 30, the Russians fired at a convoy of cars near Zaporizhzhia that was moving to the occupied territories. As a result, 30 people died. Almost immediately, collaborators began to blame Ukraine. In particular, this was done by a member of the occupation administration, Volodymyr Rogov.
Ukrainian terrorists shelled at the exit from Zaporizhzhia a convoy of cars that were waiting for passage to the territory liberated from the Nazis.
However, the fact that at the time of the attack he was bragging about hitting Zaporizhzhia with “high-precision weapons” did not deter the traitor.
However, the strike was carried out by missiles from the S-300 air defense complex, which are not suitable for striking ground targets. Their use for attacks is already a war crime, because the Russian Federation cannot and could not guarantee their accuracy at that time.
That is, the occupiers were initially happy with the shelling of civilians, and when they saw the result, they began to shift the responsibility to Kyiv.
The very logic of Kyiv’s war crimes has a “logical hole”. If Kyiv really wanted to destroy Russian-speaking and loyal to the Russian Federation residents, then nothing prevented it from doing so for 8 years, when it controlled these territories. But Ukraine allegedly “began to commit” all these crimes only after the Russian invasion, because in reality their perpetrator is the Russian Federation, which simply transfers responsibility to another party.
Meanwhile, in Kherson, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liquidated FSB official Oleksiy Katerynichev, who was the deputy head of the occupation administration. His status and service in the FSB did not prevent Russian propaganda from calling it terror against the “civilian population” and calling the occupier a civilian.
This was a planned murder, targeted at a civilian serviceman.
Because if the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not commit crimes, they have to be invented.
Mobilization
Mobilization will begin after the “referendums”. Currently, all Gauleiters, as one, are lying that she will not be there. Instead, they talk about “volunteer battalions”. In particular, Yevhen Balytskyi, the leader of the Zaporozhian collaborators, said that his son enrolled in one of these.
Yevhen Balytskyi: Today my eldest son Alexander enlisted in the ranks of volunteer battalion named by Pavlo Sudoplatov.
But as always, he did not provide a photo, because such a battalion does not exist at the moment.
Interestingly, at the same time, the traitor complained that his son grew up at the time when the “Nazis” started the war in Donbas, and therefore could not go to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Considering that Balytskyi himself was a people’s deputy until 2019 and could have been one further, if he had not lost the elections, then according to his logic he himself was a “Nazi”, or Balytskyi’s principles did not prevent him from serving the “Nazis”.
Conclusions
All Russian propaganda serves aggression, trying to give at least some explanation for the Kremlin’s policy. But in fact, the whole “special operation” is aimed at capturing new territories. Moscow continues to live in a colonial world, where the main value is resources and captured lands, because there is nothing else in the Russian Federation.
Therefore, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center calls on the residents of the temporarily occupied territories to leave the region and not become a human resource for the enemy. Because we will return the land, but not the people.
