Russia's reality amid invasion of Ukraine
"Don't believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here"
Hey everyone. Welcome to a special edition of my newsletter on the intersection of Russia and the media - “From Mila With Love.” I hope you are safe and everyone you love is safe. I hope you are finding time to take care of yourselves. It has been a tough few weeks.
It’s been 19 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. Nineteen days of horror as millions of Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, and hundreds of civilians have been killed.
It’s also been 19 days of courageous efforts by Ukrainians and those joining the fight to save Ukraine.
Nineteen days of international media coverage. Nineteen days of people creating content on the ground and sifting through TikTok videos for information and fact-checking reports and videos circulating online.
And, for many Russians, 19 days of propaganda.
“Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here”
🎥 Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova held a sign with these words written on it in Russian as she stepped on set behind a Channel One TV anchor on air during March 14’s evening broadcast:
Ovsyannikova also pre-recorded a message (English version), in which she calls the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “fratricidal war.”
«К сожалению, последние годы я работала на «Первом канале», занимаясь кремлёвской пропагандой. И мне сейчас очень стыдно за это. Стыдно за то, что позволяла говорить ложь с экрана телевизора. Стыдно за то, что позволяла зомбировать русских людей.»
Unfortunately, I’ve spent many of the last few years working for Channel One, doing Kremlin propaganda, and I’m deeply ashamed of this. Ashamed that I allowed lies to come from the TV screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of Russian people. (Meduza)
She has been arrested, and so have many others across Russia who have protested the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since February 24, more than 14,900 protesters have been detained. OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights media project, keeps a running tally. Just so far on March 15 alone, more than 946 have been detained.
Channel One is one of the most popular Russian state media channels (Statista). Check out this article in The Atlantic for more of an understanding of how Russian state media covered the past few weeks.
As Olga Khazan writes, “In Russia’s version of the war, Russians are liberators, Ukrainians are Nazis, and the West is full of mendacious hypocrites. To turn on Russian TV news is to enter a parallel universe, one where even the word war is forbidden. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has now blocked or restricted any other sources of coverage, so this is the only version of the world most Russians see.”
On March 11, Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor announced it would block Instagram from March 14. This came after Meta Platform’s temporary hate speech policy change, which allowed Facebook and Instagram users in certain countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion. (Reuters)
With restricted social media access and an ever-growing list of “foreign agents” (independent reporters, media orgs, and human rights orgs hindered from working in Russia), the media landscape in Russia has grown even more overcrowded with state-run sources in recent weeks. Roskomnadzor threatened to block Wikipedia due to an article in Russian on the invasion of Ukraine, which mentions Ukrainian civilian deaths and Russian military deaths. (Russia has only admitted to 498 deaths and 1,597 injuries among Russian servicemembers - TASS)
War in the era of social media
📲 Some publications have called the Russian invasion of Ukraine the “first TikTok war.” This New Yorker article describes the sort of content that is being documented on TikTok. And as Kyle Chayka notes, “The invasion of Ukraine isn’t the first conflict to play out over social media. The Arab Spring uprisings and the Syrian civil war used Facebook and Twitter to organize protests and broadcast D.I.Y. footage.”
White House press secretary Psaki and officials from the National Security Council held a briefing March 10 with digital content creators covering the invasion of Ukraine on TikTok, YouTube and Twitter. (The Washington Post)
“We recognize this is a critically important avenue in the way the American public is finding out about the latest,” said the White House director of digital strategy, Rob Flaherty, “so we wanted to make sure you had the latest information from an authoritative source.” (The Washington Post)
Disseminating information in Russia
A 12-page memo from the Russian government to Russian state media reporters on how to frame TV coverage for March 3 was provided to Mother Jones by an anonymous contributor to a national Russian media outlet —
“It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally” (Mother Jones)
Carlson’s quote, “And how would the US behave if such a situation developed in neighboring Mexico or Canada?” was also included in the memo. (Mother Jones)
On March 9, a Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, injuring 17 and killing three. After photos were published of injured pregnant women as a result of the airstrike, the Russian Embassy in the UK sent out this tweet claiming the photos were staged. The tweet has since been deleted for violating Twitter rules:
➡️ For another look at Russian state media bending reality, check out this BuzzFeed story: How Russia’s Top Propagandist Foretold Putin's Justification For The Ukraine Invasion Through This Dramatic Film
Stay well, and stay informed. Here are some publications and Twitter list suggestions to follow for updates on the invasion, and here is a link to the English-language Kyiv Independent, which was started by Kyiv Post journalists after the outlet was shut down.
Reach out with any questions or comments, connect on Twitter for the latest, and stop back for more on media and Eastern Europe.
From Мила (Mila), With Love