The Economist - USA (2022-05-21)

58 International TheEconomistMay21st 2022

AnotheritemdescribesRussia’ssecurity

services foiling a supposed bomb plot, in

whicha memberofRightSector,a Ukrainian

nationalistorganisation,hadplannedanat-

tackonMay9th—thedatethatmarksRus-

sia’svictoryoverGermanyinthesecondworld

war(6).Howbadwouldthesituationhave

becomeif RussiahadletNazismfesterforlon-

ger inUkraine?

Truthisa riskybusiness

To  someextent,atleast,thepropaganda

works.OnFebruary24thMikhailKatsurin,

a  restaurantownerinKyiv,woke tothe

soundofexplosions.Afewdayslater,he

calledhisfather,wholivesina smalltown

in  Russia. “Isaid, ‘Dad, they startedto

bombus,RussiainvadedUkraine’,”MrKat­

surin remembers. “He said, ‘No Misha,

that’sall Ukrainian propaganda—in fact

it’sa peacefuloperationandRussianhe­

roesaresavingyoufromNazism.’”

Many Ukrainians (and anti­war Rus­

sians)havehadsimilarexperiences.Rus­

siansarewatchingmoretelevisionnews

sincethewarbegan.Beforethewar,televi­

sionviewingtendedtocorrelatewithsup­

portfor Mr Putin.Perviy Kanal hasre­

placedentertainmentwithextracurrent

events.Inplaceofdaytimeshowscome

programmeslike“Anti­Fake”,wherepanel­

listsdismantleWestern“disinformation”.

Popular state television hosts, such as

VladimirSolovyov,anoxioushawk,pre­

sideoverminimultimediaempiresthat

extendthroughsocialmediaandradio.

Opinionpollsfindsupportforthe“spe­

cialmilitaryoperation”ashighas80%.But

thenumbersaresuspect.“Publicopinion

presupposes the existence of a public

sphere,butthathasbeendestroyedinRus­

sia,”arguesMrYudin.Opendiscussionof

thewarisallbutimpossible.“Thereisthe

sensethatsomethingishappeningthatwe

can’ttalkabout,becauseweneedtohang

ontooursenseofnormality,”saysMrYu­

din.“It’sasif a deadmanislyingthere,but

wecan’ttalkaboutit.”

Butthepropagandamachineisnotall­

powerful.Therehavebeenreportsofsol­

diersrefusingtofight.Twoteenagerswere

arrestedearlierthismonthforthrowing

Molotovcocktailsata militaryrecruitment

office. TheKremlin hassofar refrained

froma full­scalemobilisationanda draft.

Officialsknowit wouldbeunpopular.

Unofficial information can still be

found.YouTuberemainsunbanned.The

oppositionleader Alexei Navalny’s team

drawslargeaudiencesthere;manyhosts

fromEchoMoskvynowbroadcastonthe

site.Telegramhaschannelsofeverypoliti­

calstripe.Bannedsitescanbeaccessedvia

virtual private networks(vpns).Russian

downloadsofthetenmostpopularsurged

to700,000a dayinthemonthafterthewar

began,comparedwithanaverageof16,000

a daybefore,accordingtoAppfigures,a da­

tafirm.“Modernpeoplewithgadgetshave

theability towatch andreadanything,”

saysMrKolesnikov.

Butsuchpeoplearea minority.Before

thewar,around30%ofRussiansusedIn­

stagrameachday.Thatnumberhadfallen

to10%bylateApril, accordingtoMedi­

ascope,a researchfirm.EchoMoskvyused

tohavea nationalaudienceof3m.Itsrein­

carnationonYouTubehasjust554,000fol­

lowers.Many Russians, especially older

ones,donothavethemeansorskillstouse

vpns,andWesternsanctionshavemade

payingforthemtricky,too.

Atthesametime,manyconsumeoffi­

cialinformationbychoice.Misinforma­

tion, and not only Mr Putin’s, exploits

quirksofthehumanmind.Peopletendto

believestoriesthatreinforcetheirexisting

beliefs,a processknownas‘motivatedrea­

soning’.Mererepetitioncanalsomakein­

formation seem more believable. In to­

day’s Russia, those mechanisms are

backed up by repression. “People don't

wanttowatch[unofficialmedia], andif

theywatchit,theydon'twanttobelieveit,”

saysMrKolesnikov.“Itisa psychological

defencemechanism.”

6.00pm.Asyoudrivehome,stuckintraf-

ficalongtheThirdRingRoad,youcatchthe

newsontheradio.Asusual,thespecialoper-

ationinUkrainedominates.TalkofWestern-

backed bio-labs and engineered plagues

seemslikesomethingoutofsciencefiction.

Butthensodoesmuchoflifesincethepan-

demicbegan.PerhapstheAmericansreally

woulddosucha thing(7).

9:20pm.Afterdinner,youloungeinfront

ofa televisiontalkshowhostedbyVladimir

Solovyov.Hismonologue,deliveredfroma

sleekstudio,hasa clearsetofmessages.The

WestseeksnothinglessthanRussia’scom-

pletedestruction,MrPutinhasthetrustofthe

Russianpeopleanditistimeforyoutoshow

yoursupport(8).Yourise,butonlytograba

beerfromthefridge.n

MembersofRussia’ssecurity

servicescapturinga Ukrainian

allegedNazisympathiser,who

hadplanneda terroristattack

onVictoryDay.

“Ukraine was a base for developing

components of biological weapons and

developing new kinds of specimens...

according to the Russian armed forces,

[America] already tried to artifi cially

spark an epidemic in the Donbas.”

 ,  

“It’s not only about the liberation of

the fraternal Ukrainian people from

Nazism,”says Vladimir Solovyov, a

television host. “We are truly fi ghting

for the right to be Russian.”