Day after day, the Kremlin floods the world with its propaganda. In this column we present the most macabre, bizarre or perfidious gems from the propagandists’ workshop. This time: the Elven Battalions of Ukraine.
Nazis, fascists, homosexuals, transvestites, feminists: for the Kremlin propagandists there is no difference. This is hard to believe, but still true. In an attempt to discredit the Ukrainian army, everything is unearthed that feeds the prejudices and fears of Russian society, which in no small part seems stuck in the darkest times of human history – and in which the Kremlin has those who have retained some common sense, would be only too happy to send.
The much-cited “battalions of homosexuals” that, according to RT boss Margarita Simonyan, are roaming through Ukraine and in her imagination probably threaten the morale of the “Russian liberators” are just one example of the propaganda excesses that arouse aversion in the audience both against the Ukrainian armed forces as well as to inject homosexuals.
Of orcs and elves
The state broadcaster NTW succeeded in creating another propaganda masterpiece last week (the word masterpiece can of course be seen in thousands of quotation marks.) In the program “Mesto Wstretschi” (meeting point), the makers presented what they called the “fight between two designate worlds”. The propagandists were particularly taken with Wladimir Klitschko’s vocabulary.
“The mayor of Kyiv refers to Russians as orcs, alluding to the fact that in ‘Lord of the Rings’ the orcs were finally defeated by the wonderful, splendid, free and beautiful elves,” begins presenter Ivan Trushkin in what he believes to be a sweeping sweep against the Ukrainian armed forces.
“Now we’re going to show you these beautiful, very beautiful elves and see where these elves even come from,” he begins a post with what was supposed to be a smirk.
Shown are a “transvestite who took off his heels to volunteer for counter-terrorism”; a “non-binary person” who joined the Ukrainian armed forces with a “boyfriend” “with no combat experience”, and feminists who “created a scandal” after a battalion refused to take them.
All these “informals” – as they are called in Russia for people who deviate even slightly from traditional role models – would not flock to the Ukrainian army by accident. They would fear a massacre in the event of a Russian victory. The European Council would be particularly concerned about transgender people, only to gleefully present a singer who “managed to change gender but not identity card”.
The singer Max Barskih preferred to flee to the USA right away. Although the “lover of sequins and lace” promised to go to the front.
Propaganda turns some into tsars and others into lepers
The fact that the NTW propagandists make fun of a man who likes glitter costumes cannot be surpassed in terms of comedy. Given that the man in the picture below is considered the tsar of Russian show business.
His name is Philipp Kirkorow. His homosexuality is an open secret. But Russian state television manages to make one homosexual tsar and condemn everyone else to lepers.
“Western media show these wondrous elves allegedly fighting the cursed Russians. What for? To show that the Ukrainian army shares Western values? But why? In my opinion, such images discredit the Ukrainian army,” explains the apparently astonished moderator . While the studio guests listen to his elf performances with thoughtful faces.
Their answers are at least as revealing as the question posed by the smooth-licked moderator, who, with his finely plucked eyebrows and white-powdered face, doesn’t look all that different from his enemy image.
“Such people” and other revealing statements
Boris Nedezhdin, a politician from Uzbekistan, flatly claims that homosexual elves are a Western invention. “To convince the viewers that such people are treated normally in the Ukrainian army,” interjects the moderator. “Yes. The West wants to send the signal that Ukraine is a little different from us, even though Ukraine and Russia have been united by one society, one state and one church for hundreds of years,” he reiterates the tale that Vladimir Putin made into the world has set.
But not only the “elves” are homosexual, the “great fighters are gay too”. Like the characters of Greek legends, they would “mate” with their comrades. “It boosts morale,” he exclaims. One or the other viewer may ask where he got this expertise from.
New World, Old Mar
But the political scientist Anton Chaschenko manages to return to the unpunctual question: Why are Western media showing these elves? “Because something like that likes it there,” he says with disgust on his face. Also: “There are open gays who behave so demonstratively, very rich people.”
Whose ideological basis did someone use?
