In the information war, the leadership in Moscow leaves no stone unturned. Now, in the ruins of Mariupol, Kremlin propaganda resounds from huge TV screens.
The Russian government is using abstruse measures to prevent comparisons between today’s Russia and Orwell’s utopia from “1984” from getting stuck in the minds of Russian citizens. But with their actions, the leadership in Moscow seems to want to torpedo these actions themselves. A particularly vivid example of this practice can now be seen in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. There, the Russian Ministry of Disaster Management has equipped three trucks with large television screens. These now drive through the rubble of the metropolis destroyed by Russian troops – and show the program of Russian state television.
“For almost three months, residents of Mariupol were in an information vacuum due to a lack of electricity. Rescuers from the Russian Emergencies Ministry use three mobile complexes to inform and alert the population. One of these complexes is permanently installed, the other two move around the city and broadcast news for two hours each in the different districts of Mariupol,” the Russian news agency Tass quoted the ministry as saying.
Mariupol under propaganda sound
Such complexes would also operate in other areas of the Donetsk region that have come under Russian control, particularly in the Volnovakha and Krasnolimansky districts. “They broadcast news from federal and republican TV channels, give background information to residents, and show children cartoons and fairy tales,” Tass reports hypocritically, without even mentioning why Mariupol has been cut off from electricity and information for three months. “Republican stations” are TV stations from the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
According to Advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol Petr Andryushtchenko (he, like other representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, is outside the occupied city), twelve 75-inch televisions have also been installed in busy places – currently mainly at distribution points humanitarian aid and various papers and in places with access to water.
“Against the background of ruins and mass graves, the residents of Mariupol are now being told about supposed improvements and the crimes of the Ukrainian army,” Andryushtchenko commented sarcastically on this approach.
The meaning and purpose of the rolling propaganda wagons is simple: The information vacuum in which Mariupol has had to fight to survive for the past few months should be filled as quickly as possible. And with Kremlin propaganda. In the fight for people’s heads, this is the only means left to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Here you can find out what a bizarre, twisted world that Kremlin propagandists present to their viewers.
