Putin’s dogs of propaganda War: Who are his main propagandists (2)

In part 1 we described how the Putin regime employs a repugnant category of crude propagandists to not only shape Russian domestic public opinion through disinformation but also to fan intolerance and hatred and justify war crimes and crimes against humanity. These accomplices to the Kremlin’s evil are rarely known outside Russia and should be exposed as despicable Goebbels-like promoters of contemporary Russian fascism.

More on the context – Goebbels has become the Kremlin’s role model.

For many years, Russian propaganda depicted, both at home and for foreign consumption, Ukrainians as Nazis, neo-Nazis, and Bandero-nazis (Stepan Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist leader in the middle of the last century), accusing them of ultra-nationalism undistinguishable from fascism. Yet as we see, a very real fascist regime has been established precisely in Russia, and its propaganda, like a crooked mirror, seeks to mask its true face, distorting reality to the absolute degree.

Russian propagandists call the capture and occupation of Ukrainian cities “liberation,” constantly drawing parallels with the liberation of Ukraine from German troops during the Second World War.

Initially, the Kremlin announced its was launching a “special operation” to prop up its enclaves in the Donbas, but immediately tried to take Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other Ukrainian cities and, while still attacking in the east and south of Ukraine, is claiming Kherson and Mariupol for Russia.  It appears that the key Ukrainian southern port of Odesa might also be a target.

While this brazen imperialistic and savage land-grab is under way employing Nazi methods, Russia unashamedly persists in labeling its opponents resisting its despotism and barbarity as “fascists.”

The goal of Putin’s policy coincides that of Hitler – to restore the “lost greatness” of his state, to regain territories inhabited by Russians, Russian speakers, or which were once part of the Russian empire, whether tsarist or Soviet.

Like the Nazi regime in Germany, the fascist one in Italy, and the communist regime in the USSR, today’s Russia actively promotes a personality cult of its leader and a chauvinistic concept of the Russian people’s exclusivity, superiority and right to rule over others.

Like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, Putin has advocated the concept of “self-reliance” (autarchy, self-sufficiency) in the face of Western censure and sanctions. His, like their attitude, is one of a cynical contempt for the established international order and UN Charter that Moscow exploits for its own ends, while lying to the outside world that Russia is merely defending itself.

Putin’s emulation of Hitler’s methods include borrowing from the propagandistic methodology developed by Goebbels and his aides. It is aimed at the gullible, ignorant and useful idiots cultivated or bought by the Kremlin.” And at the home public deprived by the Russian state of truthful information and alternative views.

Here’s a quote from Goebbels that is very pertinent to understanding the Kremlin’s approach. But also, the risks it entails during its war against Ukraine and confrontation with the West, that are hardly going according to its plans:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

So, the imposition of censorship and demonization and criminalization of critics of Putin’s despotism, barbarism in Ukraine, disdain for international law and threats to use nuclear weapons is fully in line with what Goebbels taught.

But what is not so apparent to the outside world, to those who do not watch Russian TV, is how base and vile its domestic propaganda has become. What makes it not only so reprehensible and dangerous is that it deliberately promotes hatred, belligerence and even the idea that Russia should use its nuclear weapons to destroy its enemies.

With the Russian onslaught against Ukraine bogged down and the West mobilizing to help the Ukrainians with weapons, and not only with words and cash, Putin’s propagandists have also had to change their tune.  Now they are saying that Russia is not at war with Ukraine (after all, credit cannot be seen to be given to the heroism and fortitude of the Ukrainians), but with NATO.

And, irresponsibly and ominously, several of them in recent days have been advocating on TV that Moscow carry out a first nuclear strike against the West because “our rockets are faster than theirs.”

This frightening and ugly feature of Putin’s fascist regime needs to be emphasized and known.

Now, moving on to more of the other main Putinist propagandists.

Margarita Simonyan

She is a leading Russian propagandist currently at the apogee of her notoriety. Of Armenian origin, she is one of the chief promoters of the Nazi-like racist idea of Russia and Russians “uber alles.” Her statements are full of hatred, xenophobia and belligerence.

Simonyan began her career by covering Russia’s war against Chechnya as the Kremlin wanted it. Then she moved to Moscow and quickly joined the presidential pool of journalists. At the age of 25, as a result of her readiness to apply her skills in the cause of what was officially required, she was appointed head of the newly-created flagship propaganda channel Russia Today. Subsequently, she was placed in charge of both the Russia Today and Sputnik news agencies.

These are some recent examples of her statements.

On March 26, during a political show on Russian television, Simonyan said that “Nazism affects a significant part” of Ukrainians. She said that previously she had believed that it only applied to “separate groups.” As she put it:

“Unfortunately, a large part of the Ukrainian people was overwhelmed by the rage of Nazism. What a mass character it assumes! I also thought that there were few of them, but I could not imagine that there are so many of them!”

On April 18, during Vladimir Solovyov’s TV show, she stated that “Nazism is like herpes that almost all humans are infected with…. Only Russians are vaccinated against it. We will cure this infection (Nazism) not only in Ukraine, but in Western countries, including the US.”

In April 2022 Simonyan proposed to remove the formal article on the prohibition of censorship from the Russian Constitution. According to her, freedom of speech will lead to “the collapse of the country.” No “large state,” in her view, can exist “without control over information.” And in Russia’s case, she added,  freedom of speech is “generally not in our historical tradition.”

Tigran Keosayan

He is Simonyan’s husband.  From an Armenian background too, he also tries to sound more Russian than the Russian imperialists themselves. A repulsive, vituperate propagandist, he is the host of the program Pilorama.

His most recent scandal occurred on April 25 when Keosayan warned non-Russian former Soviet republics which are now independent states that Russia would not forgive them if they do not back the Kremlin in words and actions at this moment of truth.

In particular, he cautioned the “ungrateful” Kazakhs to “watch what is happening in Ukraine closely” and “think seriously,” as by implication, he suggested, they could be the next victims of Russia’s displeasure. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry called Keosayan’s statements “offensive” and a justification for banning him from entering their country.

Dmitry Kiselev

Kiselev, known as “Putin’s mouthpiece,” has become a legendary smug Kremlin propagandist pretending to be a journalist, TV presenter and commentator. He has been Deputy General Director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company since 2008, and General Director of the International Information Agency Russia Today since December 9, 2013.

One of the most militant Russian anti-Western propagandists, and reputedly wealthier as a result, he has repeatedly not only vilified and threatened Ukraine but also reiterates “”Russia is the only country in the world with a capability to turn America into radioactive ash.”  Russia should “hold a gun to America’s head” if it persists in supporting Ukraine.

The cynical ruthlessness of Putinist propagandists like Kiselev was captured in one of his statements reported in the US press back in July 2017 when he declared: “If you can persuade a person, you don’t need to kill him. Let’s think about what’s better: to kill or to persuade? Because if you aren’t able to persuade, then you will have to kill.”

To be continued.