Useful idiots: a manual

Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, The Day has run a series of publications having as their leitmotif the phrase “attack from the rear.” Even though the powerful Russian propaganda machine sometimes becomes a butt of jokes featuring crucified underwear-clad little boys, exterminated blue-and-yellow bullfinches or epileptic grannies raped at checkpoints, it is actually no laughing matter given the number of citizens affected by it. In this regard, the Russians have prepared a cynical formula even for a hardened nationalist from the Carpathian Mountains, where the nationalist themselves becomes an element of propaganda. In this way, Russia is targeting our rear not with tanks or rocket artillery, but through a series of manipulative techniques instead.

It would seem that after two years of war, the Ukrainians ought to learn to see through the most minute details of such implanted formulas. However, the death of a maniacally cruel gangster, former Rostov car washer who was proud of shooting dead over a dozen prisoners – that death turned out to be a test precisely for patriotic Ukrainians. A huge queue of “mourners” who had been bussed in to the grave of the bastard in Donetsk was presented by the Russian media as evidence of mass worship. For your average Russian TV viewer from Ufa, prepared to accept such stories at face value, this picture logically fits into the propaganda image of “people’s militia.” And the fact that this specific militiaman was a Russian citizen changes nothing. Meanwhile, for the average resident of the Donbas, the televised crowd also comes as no surprise.

Firstly, the occupied territories are in fact full of pro-Russian elements, who have been even further blinded to truth by Kremlin propaganda in the past two years. Secondly, one should remember that we are dealing with the community that not just exists under a totalitarian occupation regime, but has to deal with a criminal free-for-all as well. In these totally intimidated territories where the only power comes from the barrel of an assault rifle, we are dealing with an isolated laboratory flask which can be used for audacious and bloody provocations as well as for creating any kind of TV pictures. Residents of Lviv or Kyiv regions will find it difficult to understand the true conditions in the Donbas, which has effectively been turned into a concentration camp. For an ordinary Ukrainian, it is hard to realize that the worst fear is caused not by the shrill whistle of an arriving mine, but by a stolen thug-filled jeep coming to your apartment block’s entrance. Thus, one can understand the reflections of former residents of the Donbas who see queues to the slain occupier’s body as painful reminder of what their native land has turned into. However, the Ukrainians as a whole should not play on feelings of pain caused by humiliation of the Donbas, since we need to draw conclusions about the causes of this tragedy instead.

Nonetheless, in unison with the Russian TV’s fake broadcasts, social networks were literally filled with hysteric cries of those who positioned themselves as patriots. The key thesis of this propaganda message is “We do not want to have such people as fellow citizens!” It happened just as three teenagers got into the enemy’s dungeons in Luhansk for taking pictures of themselves beside the Ukrainian flag, and as a pro-Russian woman in the Dnipro Opera hit a Ukrainian soldier in the head with a hammer! Politicians, experts, and journalists began to nervously philosophize about “what to do with the residents of the Donbas,” as if they had any leverage or right to influence other people’s fates. Some Ukrainian authorities have simply imploded over this fairly simple, but revealing case.

Still, Vladimir Putin can feel satisfied now, because it is obvious that some segments of the Ukrainian society have to some extent become ready to play along with him. That is, using the seemingly patriotic imperatives, one can actually hit one’s own (!) Ukrainian statehood by dividing the nation into ours and others, and our lands into truly ours and those willingly left at the mercy of the invaders. The Kremlin Chekist’s dream of strangling the victim with their own hands is coming true.

Here, one cannot help but remember the hysteric fits thrown in social networks a year ago regarding Kharkiv, when that city once again elected Hennadii Kernes as its mayor. It turned out that the public came to see this fact as a disappointment and some patriots switched, reflectively and somewhat infantilely, from claiming “it is nothing of my business” to “blast it all!” They called for blasting away our unity and statehood! For a time, “stupid Kharkivites” replaced in popular consciousness “dumb Donbas residents” and “unreconstructed Soviets.”

However, the true significance of this issue is evidenced by the recently published materials allegedly coming from private correspondence of Vladislav Surkov, which show, in particular, how Russia employs Ukrainian media and Ukrainian political forces to incite another crisis, this time in Zakarpattia. Russia works methodically, cynically, and creatively, adapting to the conditions and characteristics of individual regions. Still, this correspondence itself shows the alleged victims of the hack (like Serhii Liovochkin) as not bad people after all. Was it another manipulation, then?

If even the Ukrainians who bleed with the blood of thousands of their dead compatriots are so easily duped by the Kremlin’s tricks, it is not surprising that the Russian aggression against Ukraine is perceived just as ambiguously in the West. We forget that Russia never lost its influence in the West. Frank-Walter Steinmeier lecturing students in the Urals or pensioners Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi kissing with Putin, and much more – these are only individual stones in the overall mosaic of the Russian influence in Europe. Let us emphasize that it is long-standing influence, born in the time of the Comintern and naive pro-Communist visionaries of the early 20th century.

This week’s article on the Atlantic Council’s website recognizes that the international media unwittingly help Russia cover its involvement in the war in the Donbas. Indeed, when referring to Motorola (Arsen Pavlov)’s death, the Western media presented him as a leader of “pro-Russian rebels.” The reviewer rightly said: “In reality, Pavlov was much more than simply ‘pro-Russian.’ He was an actual Russian. This is not a matter of mere semantics – it is the crux of the entire conflict. Pavlov was one of tens of thousands of Russian citizens who have traveled to neighboring Ukraine in order to wage war.’ This article, published by a foreign website, is an example of people taking countermeasures against the Russian information poison. Such attempts to get to grips with fundamental nuances are still sporadic. This important task requires not only taking an a priori position, but also professionalism that requires a journalist to cross all the t’s.

What can the Ukrainians do to oppose Russia’s manipulative influence formulas, then?

“WE JUST HAVE TO STOP THINKING IN TERMS OF BETRAYAL”

Dmytro KULEBA, permanent representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe:

“Russia can afford sending an endless stream of distortions and outright lies into the information space. Nowadays, the quality of the media is measured by the speed of getting information to the audience. Accordingly, the chances that another fake will make it to the intended audience are growing. The recipe for the countermeasure is simple: we need media literate journalists and proper fact-checking. Media literacy primarily includes analysis of the reliability of the source and the platform which spreads information from that source. It is a particularly significant issue in Ukraine, where, unfortunately, the media tend to pick up Russian news because they are easier to translate into Ukrainian. Such a simple thing as basic knowledge of European languages on the part of journalists would greatly help them in sifting through Russian interpretations. As for the perception of events in occupied Crimea and the Donbas, we just have to stop thinking in terms of betrayal. The Russians are masters of falsification of reality and we need to ignore their falsehoods. It does not matter what pictures they show from Crimea or the Donbas. What really matters is the fact that these are our lands and our people, for whom we must fight.”

“WESTERN COUNTRIES CONTINUE TO LOOK FOR TOOLS TO COUNTER RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA”

Serhii SOLODKYI, deputy director of the Institute of World Politics:

“When we talk about Western or internal Ukrainian destabilizing responses to Russian provocations, we must realize that these responses are, quite likely, part of special operations themselves. I would not underestimate the role of Russian special operations aiming to impose their discourse on the Western public, including through the Western media. I think that direct channels of information influence, such as Russia Today, are actually less dangerous than other, indirect means of influence which have been launched by the Kremlin. These include some of the Kremlin sympathizers among political circles, both on the radical right and the left. There are some leaders of public opinion among experts, journalists, public figures, especially from the camp of former Sovietologists, I mean the people usually called ‘useful idiots.’ Is our resistance to such tendencies effective? It is obvious that Ukraine will not counter it by itself, but it is equally obvious that we have allies in the West who we must cooperate with on developing appropriate countermeasures. These people understand adequately the threat coming from Russia and the Russian special operations and call a spade a spade, which is very important, because the vagueness of definitions provides the background for pro-Russian manipulations.

“Unfortunately, such understanding is not always transformed into action. This is not because our supporters do not want to do anything, but because they do not know what to do, since the media industry is quite a delicate thing, especially in Western societies which are characterized by the freedom of speech and respect for the journalists. Therefore, it is governments that need to act here, and it is governments that are now developing countermeasures to the Russian propaganda that would not damage their main value, which is the freedom of speech. It is really difficult for the West and requires clear articulation of threats and civic unity. To show that the West understands these threats, I can point to an initiative called Strategic Communications. Members of that initiative collect fake news from all European media and debunk them accordingly. They also produce video manuals that explain how to recognize Russian propaganda and manipulation of facts or invention of facts.

“We must give a thought to the reasons for some provocations and speculations becoming well-known to the public, while their refutations fail to become as popular. This is a feature of the human nature, which does not strive for the truth, but rather gives in to something noisy and superficial. Accordingly, the Russian propaganda promotes certain things which all pay attention to, and it takes into account the specific features and weaknesses of the human soul. It should be noted that the Russian propaganda has sown the seed of manipulations long ago, and it is now adding new suggestive scenarios to the well-prepared soil. It is unfortunate that even after Russia started an overt aggression which has led to occupation of extensive territories and heavy losses, many Ukrainians have not developed appropriate immunity to manipulations. Back to the Western media, I myself witnessed repeated errors even in respectable publications, like NYT, which called Serhii Aksionov prime minister of Crimea. However, the Western media are sensitive to comments and often correct their mistakes. And it is not always about manipulations coming from the Kremlin, but also about elementary inattentiveness, carelessness, failure to understand the issues in depth, and therefore illiteracy of journalists. Of course, Ukraine should have people who will respond and send comments to editors. This is a realistic objective, and it must be done.

“But I must say that Western countries continue to look for tools to counter the Russian propaganda. It is not always publicly visible, though. They also ask Ukrainian experts for advice, but, again, our advice is not always suitable for liberal societies. And of course, due to their liberalism, these societies are vulnerable to Russia’s toxic manipulated information.

“I would also like to note that Russia has great experience in influencing and bribing key people in the West. I did a large study on how Soviet Russia influenced Western elites starting in the 1920s. And Western leaders know about it.”