A Year after Invasion, Russian Propaganda has gone Insane to Fuel Putins War | Foreign Correspondent
in the heart of Moscow Kremlin approved propagandists call for nuclear strikes as the war in Ukraine enters its second year Russia is ramping up its propaganda [Music] in Putin's World there can be no descent if some person in charge is suspicious about you in Russia that means you will be arrested for the past year Vladimir Putin hasn't just commanded the invasion of Ukraine he's also LED an information warp at home and abroad in June I was one of several International journalists to be formally sanctioned for critical reporting meaning I can never go back to Russia but that's nothing compared to what's happened to Independent Russian journalists who were forced to flee their country now most have regrouped here to the Latvian Capital Riga to try to counter State propaganda that is no longer just extreme it is verging on insane translations let me sleep this is how Prime Time Russian television portrays Ukraine's President Vladimir zielinski as a satanic drug addict it's as many things [Music] but in Latvia exiled Russian journalists are fighting propaganda with facts this is something that we have to do and we know how to do and we need to fight this war can they win the war of words [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] please in a rented studio in downtown Riga banned Russian journalists are back at work this is TV rain a private station that was closed in Moscow but has reopened in Latvia tonight presenter yakaterina cotricanse is investigating a missile strike on civilians in Ukraine well we're talking about nipro and this terrible attack of Russian forces um there are 45 confirmed deaths only in one building which is uh devastating and uh I mean it's quite it's quite terrible and not easy to talk about but anyways we need to so all the things you don't see on Russian State television oh never never everything on Russian State TV is such a terrible hypocrisy like they like they don't remember that Russia has started this Invasion and and of course they don't say anything about that children and they maybe they don't care I don't know well the prize for independent reporting is exile Russia banned TV rain in the first days of the war after you Katarina kotra can't say delivered this scathing editorial vaina she and her husband tikon siatko the station's editor-in-chief fled Russia the next day to avoid arrest I first met them a month later in the neighboring state of Georgia where they were trying to re-establish TV rain it was clear they were not welcome you know that Georgian government is not happy with us being here they are afraid of President Putin bombing Georgia because we are here because he doesn't like that Russian opposition exists people and journalists they will yeah exist Latvia came to the rescue offering Sanctuary to the journalists who Putin had banned TV rain was granted a license to broadcast their programs from Riga Russia blocked their transmission but they evade censorship by putting content on YouTube Russians are among the world's biggest users of YouTube and the Russian government hasn't yet dared block it after the relaunch we are having approximately 22 million unique viewers monthly and 65 percent of this 22 million viewers are from Russia it is very important even though we are here in Latvia we are outside of Russia the main part of the audience is inside [Music] [Music] Latvia was happy to help undermine Russia's propaganda this small nation of just 1.8 million people is one of Ukraine's most Ardent backers and an historic enemy of Russia roses [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] along with its Baltic neighbors Estonia and Lithuania Latvia endured nearly half a century of Soviet occupation until winning Independence in 1991. foreign er's Museum of occupation not only commemorates moscow's crimes against Latvia but also Ukraine where Millions were starved to death under Stalin [Music] Eagles Levitz is Latvia's president please sit down we lived for 50 years under occupation and we don't want this again and therefore we are on the side of Ukraine we have allowed in Latvia work of Russian journalists to spread free information and I think it's interest of Europe and we have allowed broadcasting companies to work from here foreign War as an echo of its own trauma the January it commemorates latvians killed by Soviet troops in Independence protests president Levitz was among the first heads of state to visit Ukraine and the first to stay overnight in Kiev it is a political support because Latvia is supporting uh Ukraine from the beginning of the war and also for me as head of the state is also a personal issue too because we are taking democracy seriously and therefore we should support a country which is attacked by an autocratic regime and which is based on a imperialistic ideology [Music] [Applause] while Latvia has banned Russian tourists it fast tracked the visas for hundreds of Russian journalists the city is dotted with Russian news programs and investigative websites along with Russia's last Independent Newspaper Novia gazetta its editor Carol martinov was the first to arrive we had like 85 journalists all of them and their families were at risk and I decided to to go to Europe to find Partners to to understand if he can continue our work from here and so what we need to do so you arrived here with a suitcase and a laptop to try to restart Nevada even even without suitcase you know I was so shocked that I I never prepared suitcase what unites them all is a passion to bring accurate news to Russians and undercut the Monopoly of State propaganda we try to help people to stay sane inside Russia because a lot of people I mean millions of people they think maybe I am crazy if everyone talks that war is great maybe something is wrong is with me maybe I'm you know I'm a crazy person and we need to provide them real stories about the war and the consequences and crisis inside Russia to help them you know just to survive in this situation and after that we try to rebuild public opinion on Russia Nevada gazetta's website is now blocked in Russia but it sends out its copy on telegram channels [Music] it's also running a YouTube channel to try to reach more people so are you winning the information war or are you just no we are we are fighting we are not winning but we are not losing propaganda can't deliver its information and its worldview to any single Russian Citizen and we fight for a huge minority of Russians I think it's like like 30 millions of people most Russians however especially older ones get their news from Russia's three state-run TV channels Vladimir saliva once worked for TV rains owners but is now the kremlin's leading mouthpiece problems program evening with Vladimir solovyov runs five nights a week on Russia's top rating Channel his regular co-propagandist is Margarita simonyan editor-in-chief of Russia's International Network Russia today she supports complete State control of information as Russia has been pushed back in Ukraine the rhetoric has become ever more strident at the start of the war State media were pushing the line that Ukraine was a Nazi State the line now believe it or not is that it's run by LGBT Nazis trying to make Russia gender neutrality foreign there was no such talk in 2013 when soloviov's Channel presented a spangle-filled New Year's Eve concert hosted by a popular young Ukrainian Entertainer Vladimir zielinski among his adoring fans Vladimir celopiov himself just love [Music] you foreign [Applause] well I think that the main problem for the Russian government and for the state propaganda that they have to somehow sell the process of demilitarization and denucification of Ukraine but these two words they just don't have any any meaning any any sense because yet there are Nazis in Ukraine but there are also nurses in Russian Federation and in the United States and in Germany and everywhere everywhere and people are just not buying it and so the Russian propaganda switched to the idea that Russia is the the last Fortress of Traditional Values e Putin [Music] the K narratives of State propaganda come straight from Putin's mouth is speeches and interviews he's laid out the tropes of transgender Nazis and an existential fight against NATO and Satan is [Applause] a reinforced at weekly meetings with media officials in the presidential Administration foreign [Music] what is the message how to You Know cover uh different topics how to bring bright picture of President Putin how to explain War how to explain what happens in Russia uh if there are some blacklists you know these people can be on Russian TV anymore not to mention these topics and so on competition members of parliament are now citing cartoons as proof of Western subversion foreign Ty activists and they have gays everywhere and your kids would be sick with uh gayness or or something here in Russia we're still the Cradle of Traditional Values foreign thank you [Music] Russia has close to the world's highest rates of divorce widespread prostitution and it's officially secular but that doesn't stop the Relentless message that they're fighting to protect religious Family Values Russia today's Margarita simonyan portrays herself as a beleaguered mother fearful of NATO troops dictating how she can raise her children um [Music] Putin has rewarded his propagandists handsomely Vladimir salov owned two Villas on Italy's Lake Como before losing them to sanctions protesters dyed his swimming pool blood red [Music] esign [Music] received an order of other for her attacks on Ukraine and ukrainians foreign [Applause] Fox News which makes similar attacks on Western liberalism Russian TV not only Echoes the Network's style it runs anti-ukraine commentary from Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson of course they're promoting democracy that is Ukraine Ukraine is not a democracy it has never been a democracy in its history and it's not now it's a client state of the Biden Administration Russian propaganda may have copied Fox News but Carol martinov believes it has gone much further I think you know the question about Russian State TV programs is the question for some scientists like anthropologists and some doctors because if you watch it for several hours well it hits you foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] this Danish Battalion was sent here three months after the invasion to beef up the alliance's Frontline presence they trained in urban Warfare capturing pows and surviving Sub-Zero temperatures Denmark has fought NATO engagements before but the commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Thomas lunow says this time the feeling's different we're used to deploy soldiers to Iraq Afghanistan it was a war in the distance but now there are war and crisis in Europe and in in that respect it's it's it's more meaningful at least to me as a soldier to be here and protect the democracy and well our common values in Europe Latvia joined the Western defense Alliance in 2004 bringing NATO troops deep inside the former Soviet Union now of course critics of NATO expansion argue it left Russia no choice but to respond militarily but here again the feeling is the opposite latvians believe that if they hadn't joined NATO if they didn't have NATO troops training here Russia wouldn't just be attacking Ukraine they would now be threatening Riga Anderson suggesting Latvia and its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia should be next in line foreign comments like that reinforce a deep-seated belief in Latvia that Russia will always be an imperialist threat many here have also lost trust in ordinary Russians including the exiled journalists any single neighbors of Russia these days is in fear because everyone understands that Putin can attack other countries too and Latvia has this experience of occupation for many decades and so it's totally understandable why not every people here in Latvia trust Russian journalists [Music] I'm Latvian nationalists believe the country has quite enough Russians already one in four people in Latvia is Russian speaking a legacy of Soviet occupation parts of Riga feel like downtown Moscow many don't even speak Latvian so they've been denied citizenship as the months wore on tikon's yadko felt increasingly under scrutiny some of the parts of the society here in Latvia were not happy with us being here do you think there were people looking for you to make a mistake absolutely a lot of them without any doubt part of the society here was waiting for the mistake to happen and it did happen in December a presenter in Georgia was discussing the appalling conditions for mobilized Russian troops and ad-libbed what sounded like an offer to send the maid [Music] she said something about support of Russian soldiers on the front which is absolutely unacceptable TV rain does not support Russian soldiers on the front TV rain does not support Army of Russian Federation the presenter was fired his comments were taken offline it didn't matter five days later Latvia canceled their broadcast license they wanted to help Russian soldiers to kill ukrainians and we cannot tolerate such views in our country because we are a democratic country the revoked our license and they called us the threats to the National Security of Latin Republic which in our points of views um absolutely unacceptable accusations because we're absolutely not a threat to the National Security of Latvia Latvia's journalist Union condemned the decision but the government refused to budge Russian State television of course was gloating TV rain is continuing to send content on YouTube but can no longer broadcast to Russians inside Latvia over the coming months it plans to relocate again the Dutch government has stepped in and granted a broadcast license we hope that we will still be able to keep part of our team here but the main part of our team soon we'll move to Amsterdam to the Netherlands which means you can upset this whole Scandal and collapse of of the situation we were one night looking at each other and saying oh my God I'm so tired yeah I was I just can't do it anymore just I don't have any resources at you know I have two kids I mean I'm tired and Diesel has four kids so I mean it's enough but next day early morning we woke up and we went to work because there's nothing nothing else um we can do as the war enters its second year Russian journalists on both sides are settling in for a long fight is taken to visiting the front lines here is exhorting troops from Russia's Muslim regions to fight harder against the Godless West productiveness Satanism who is Jewish tells them it's a holy Jihad Allah yeah it's crazy but you know if you try to support totally unprovoked criminal War for year you'll find yourself in this hole you know you're just like in Alice in the Wonderland you are just you know Fallen and they don't understand basically what happens I think that propaganda is not control itself they need to you know raise stakes and they are well out of any reasonable like human beings anymore at TV rain they continue the daily slog of showing uncomfortable facts and critical interviews and hoping people back home are watching I think that this year will be terrible the second year of the war because Russia will try to make a country offensive we will see rivers of blood and tens of thousands people would be killed and Russia will lose because ukrainians are fighting on their own lands and ukrainians are fighting with the help of the Western countries a couple years it was a great question very good question I think it's the best question but we don't have an answer foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]
2023-03-05 01:22
