‘Countries of the West send in their scum to die as mercenaries’ How the Kremlin tells propagandists to talk about the war and to minimize the Crimean Bridge blast
Once again, Meduza has gained access to the Kremlin-issued guidelines for Russian propagandists. This time, it’s a memo on how the pro-Kremlin media should talk about the recent Crimean Bridge blast. The Russian President’s Office instructed the state-controlled media and bloggers to present the explosion as something that has “split the American establishment on the question of supporting the terrorist Ukrainian state.” Meduza’s special correspondent Andrey Pertsev reports on how the Russian state would like its citizens to think of the security failure on the bridge.
The guidelines accentuate the ease with which the Crimean Bridge is going to be restored. “The hysteria around the explosion was completely artificial, and the damage grossly exaggerated by the Kyiv propaganda,” says the Kremlin’s new memo to the media. It also advises propagandists to say that the blast led to a greater “unity” and solidarity, and that “there’s no panic or fear.” Instead, it recommends saying something like this:
People are very understanding of the temporary difficulties and the auto checkpoints. They reveal their better qualities by helping out at gas stations, sharing their fuel, and caring for those who are stranded in Crimea. The resorts, the hospitality and private sectors are all extending the dates of their visitors’ stays free of charge, so that they could leave calmly once transportation is working again.
When addressing the facts of the explosion, the memo gathers them under the section title “Strengthening Russia.”
The section devoted to the so-called “special operation,” which continues to be the official euphemism for the war, says that the Ukrainian armed forces “stand no chance of advancing further” in their Kherson offensive.
The President’s Office also recommends saying that “in the West’s war against Russia ‘to the last Ukrainian’, Ukrainians are starting to run out.” Another suggested thesis is this:
Countries of the West can send in their own scum to die as mercenaries [in the Ukrainian war]. Ukrainian formations deployed in the Kyiv-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia now have an equal number of AFU troops and foreign mercenaries.
The mass media are also encouraged to spread the idea that, due to its support of Ukraine, Germany is now running out of weapons. “Weapons deliveries to Ukraine have depleted the military reserves of the NATO countries, which are being effectively demilitarized by Russia,” the memo suggests.
The subsection on “The New World Order” suggests that the United States is busy preparing the public for “ditching the Kyiv regime.” To support this thesis, the pro-Krelin press is supposed to quote the former US president Donald Trump and the former State Department spokesman John Kirby, both of whom have recently urged that talks begin immediately between Ukraine and Russia.
Apart from these recommendations, a source close to the Russian Presidential Office has told Meduza that the Kremlin has commissioned its opinion-polling contractor, VTsIOM, to conduct a poll on how the Russian society feels about the Crimean Bridge explosion: “A broad range of questions will be asked, about attitudes towards the war and towards Ukraine. There’s also concern about the Russians’ attitudes towards Zelensky.”
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Article by Andrey Pertsev. Translation by Anna Razumnaya.