The war on truth
Although Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been reviled across the world, opinion polls suggest a majority of Russians support the war. But do they actually know what it is they are supporting? Absolutely not, said The Times. With his so-called “special operation” going so badly, Putin has ended all pretence of allowing truth to permeate his “perverted information bubble”. Access to social media such as Facebook has been blocked; the last vestiges of Russia’s independent media have been muzzled. More sinister still, the Kremlin has passed a law that threatens anyone spreading what is deemed to be “fake news” with up to 15 years in jail. In practice, that means it is illegal to describe the conflict as an “invasion” or as a “war”: all reporters must follow the lead of Russian state TV in calling it an operation to defend Russians from “Nato-backed aggression by a neoNazi Ukrainian government”. The era of transparency in Russia heralded by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s is well and truly dead. “It is as if glasnost never happened.”
Putin’s version of events isn’t being swallowed by everyone said Sam Jones in The Guardian: last weekend, 4,300 anti-war protesters chanting slogans including “No to war” and “Putin is a dickhead” were arrested at demonstrations in 21 Russian cities. But sadly, the “disinformation emanating from the Russian state” is proving effective in many quarters, said Valerie Hopkins in The New York Times. Older Russians, in particular, consume much of their news through state TV, which makes no mention of the destruction their country’s army is inflicting on Ukraine or the level of suffering it is causing civilians. Many Ukrainians report contacting relatives in Russia only to face a “surreal backlash” from family members who simply “refuse to believe that Russian soldiers could bomb innocent people” or that the war is happening at all. Within Russia, support for the war now has its own symbol: the letter Z, said The Economist. First spotted daubed on Russian tanks, it is said by some to symbolise the Kremlin’s desire to “take out” Ukraine’s President Zelensky. But whatever it signifies, it’s now a common sight in Russia; an athlete was even sanctioned for wearing it at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Doha.
The Kremlin’s problem, said John Thornhill in the FT, is that “reality has a nasty habit of intruding” on narratives built on lies. Russia’s claim that its invasion would be “swift and bloodless” has already proved “demonstrably false”. The ubiquity of smart phones and digital cameras will make it “impossible to conceal” forever “the reality of the urban battlefield” – and a global network of up to 10,000 hackers is already seeking to disrupt Russian media sites and push Ukrainian narratives on Russian social media. But even after disquieting news and economic privation take their toll, said Gideon Rachman in the FT, the chances of Putin being deposed are slim (see page 23). Instead, expect him to use ever more draconian methods to cling to power, effectively imprisoning his countrymen behind an “iron curtain” once again.