2024-04-10 02:52:42
In debates on the topic of Ukraine, television in Russia openly gives space to opinions that call for genocide, the mass expulsion of Ukrainians from their country, and the bombing of civilian targets.
Former President and current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev makes traditionally strong and extreme statements. He often writes on social networks about the use of nuclear weapons by Russia or that “we will go all the way to Lviv if necessary.” At a lecture in Moscow, he presented a map showing more than half of Ukraine as part of Russia.
Aggressive rhetoric does not appear only among politicians, but mainly among political scientists, analysts and journalists in television broadcasts. The common denominator of their views is the need to wage war harshly and ruthlessly, using all means, and showing no concern for Ukrainian civilians.
“There cannot be anything like Ukraine after the war. If we allow it, it will start to grow again and expand like a cancerous tumor,” said moderator Vladimir Solovyov, who is one of the main media propagandists of Vladimir Putin’s regime, at the beginning of April. “We have decades of confrontation with the West ahead of us. The decades of peace were a coincidence, but the hundreds of years of war before that were natural, because peace between good and evil is not possible,” he added in his regular program.
The guest of the debates twice in recent weeks was the historian Alexandr Sytin, who works at the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies and as a historian focused in the past on the country’s relations with the Baltic republics – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. He said on the TV program Město vstreči (Meeting place) that Ukraine is just the beginning.
“We talk about Ukraine, but it’s not actually about Ukraine. Russia is on the path of expansion not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe and NATO countries. They want to stop us, but they don’t know how,” Sytin said.
With a smile, he then recommended the total destruction of Kharkiv, the second largest Ukrainian city. “We have to bomb it, because this city means a lot to Ukrainians. Not in terms of military importance, but in terms of morale. The capture or destruction of Kharkiv will have a big impact on Ukrainian society, it will demoralize it. We have to destroy their will to defend themselves as hard as possible,” added the historian.
Moderator Sergej Mardan spoke similarly on the air. According to him, the country, which Russia invaded for no reason more than two years ago, will be gradually and systematically transformed into a sanitary corridor. “What does such a corridor mean? A war zone where there is no electricity, bridges and railways are destroyed and cities are uninhabitable,” said Mardan, a former editor of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.
“A world full of cynicism”
State television is the only or main source of information for many Russians. Similar opinions thus reach a large part of the households there. Former correspondent of Czech Television in Moscow, editor-in-chief of Czech Radio Plus and co-author of the podcast Na Východ! Josef Pazderka believes that in the “hysterical atmosphere of contemporary Russia”, according to him, some propagandists really believe their words and mean them seriously.
“The post-Soviet world of the Kremlin’s propaganda channels is full of cynicism and skillful juggling with very strong statements that may not mean what they sometimes contain. Recently, I have been watching the growing convulsions of a number of leading propagandists, for example Vladimir Solovyov or Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, but also some top of Russian politicians, whose level of aggressiveness and open brutality surprises me,” he described for Aktuálně.cz.
According to him, it seems that they “cynically juggled terms like nuclear attack, destroying Ukraine or bombing European cities for so long that they themselves began to believe them under the influence of the increasingly hysterical atmosphere of today’s Russia in a shifted reality”.
“I assume that the majority of similar statements are cynical gun-toting. However, some of them are personal convictions, which is a warning signal for the Western world,” says Pazderka.
Weapons of mass destruction? No problem
In an interview at the end of March, RT Russian TV journalist Vladislav Ugolnyi bluntly claimed that he had no problem with the use of weapons of mass destruction in a neighboring country. “We need absolute freedom in what we do. When something new needs to be built, the old must be destroyed. I am in favor of deploying biological and chemical weapons, but in such a way that it does not damage some historical buildings, important and sacred for Russia,” he said.
Propagandist Sergei Mardan promised to create a “sanitary zone” in place of Ukraine
On Solovyov Live, the presenter explained that the Russian government has formed a “party of retribution” that will “disassemble Ukraine into bricks” in response to the terrorist attack in the Moscow region:
“What’s happened… pic.twitter.com/cwuvAsj0CS
— SVTV NEWS (@svtv_news) April 1, 2024
Military expert Alexei Leonkov was already preparing the audience for the fact that the conflict will spill over the borders of Ukraine. “The West is waging a war against us, and when it loses it, it will pay us reparations. And we should already be asking where we will raise our flag the next time we liberate Ukraine,” he declared.
So far, the latest survey from the beginning of January showed that the majority of Russians approve of aggression against Ukraine. It is supported by 63 percent of respondents in a survey conducted by the American agency NORC in cooperation with the University of Chicago. 13 percent of respondents spoke against the war.
Video: Attacks on substations, Russians try to cut off Ukrainian cities (April 3, 2024)
By attacking substations, the Russians are trying to cut off large Ukrainian cities. | Video: Reuters