Russian propaganda theses about Ukraine
In the very beginning, I want to point out that Russian President Putin, prior to the invasion, performed a Machiavellian strategy of deception, and declared, that information about Russian invasion in Ukraine is merely an absurd propaganda or hysteria.
“Ukraine crisis: Kremlin denounces US ‘peak hysteria’ after Putin-Biden call – as it happened”
“In Moscow, Yuri Ushakov, a senior foreign policy adviser, called the conversation between the leaders “balanced and businesslike” and confirmed “the presidents have agreed to continue contacts at all levels”. But he rejected US claims that a Russian attack was imminent. “Hysteria has reached its peak,” Ushakov said.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/12/ukraine-crisis-russia-invasion-fears-putin-biden-latest-news
“Russia has denied any plans to invade Ukraine despite the build-up of some 100,000 soldiers on Ukraine’s borders.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60370541
Therefore, Moscow has practiced deception in this area.
On November 2021, Russian troops have started to gather at the Ukrainian border.
The West responded by making it very clear, that Russia will face heavy sanctions, if it ever invades Ukraine.
Summing up all of the above, let’s move on to the main theses of Russian propaganda.
1. Ukraine is committing treachery and conspiring with enemies to join NATO and jeopardize Russia
On December 2021, the Kremlin presented a hard line position, and demanded that former Soviet countries must not be admitted to NATO pact,
“Russia demands Ukraine, ex-Soviet nations be barred from NATO”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/17/russia-demands-ukraine-ex-soviet-nations-barred-from-nato
Russia has published draft security pacts, demanding that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet countries and roll back the deployment of troops and weapons in central and Eastern Europe.
This has no legal or moral basis, either the former Soviet republics are independent republics, which have the right to choose who will be their allies, or they are simply not independent sovereign states and simply are Russian backwards and provinces with artificial false independence that must rotate within the influence of the Russian orbit
This is also unprecedented, Kremlin has ignored and violated every international law and exercised unjustified hostility towards a sovereign neighboring country, this is extremely dangerous, if this logic is adopted, and applied, that means that in the future, any country might attack another sovereign country, because that country intends to form military alliances with countries that it considers hostile, therefore there is no more standards for any country to feel safe its sovereignty is guaranteed, tomorrow, any larger country might decide to invade it’s neighboring countries, declaring and announcing that the smaller country has decided to form alliances with other countries, and I declares any of its potential allies as inappropriate, what are the clear concrete accurate standards and criteria for any country to be considered a threat?
Kiev wants to try to enter the European market that means that it is exercising its legitimate right as a sovereign independent state with any market it considers appropriate.
Kiev wants to ally with the Western countries; again, it is exercising its legitimate right to do so as a sovereign independent free state
Kremlin logic is unacceptable, irrational, in fact I see no logic in this behavior, I see only the logic of strength and enforce, and natural positive relations are never built with imposing, enforcing, they are built with sincere positive approaches, an intention to form a relation that evolves within time through trust and mutual respect, through will to treat and be treated as peer to peer friends and therefore allies
If Kremlin’s “logic” is that the West has been attempting and expanding since the end of the cold war some thirty years ago, and that the west had promised not to expand east, yet broke its promise, this is not the fault of the Ukrainian government, state and people, and there is no justification to invade and destroy a country this way.
If Moscow for years had the concern that the western powers were to pressure it further, expand and corner her at its’ very own borders, it should have chosen wisdom, awareness, modesty and be farsighted, instead it chose arrogance, mistreated and pressured its neighboring countries, can anyone deny today that there is a huge wave of discontent, negative sentiments among a huge portions of Ukrainians, Georgians, Armenians, and was it not the Moscow leadership who chose to be extremely hypocrite towards its allies, and chose to mobilize Armenia’s rival Azerbaijan rather than appreciating countries who saw Russia as ally for decades, but today they see the exact opposite, Was it not president Putin who chose to see Armenia as a means of bargain, Ukraine and George as it backyard orbit countries
2.Ukraine is run by right wing extremist Nazis; they are a threat to the Russian ethnic minority inside Ukraine
This certain excuse is one of the most dangerous approaches, first of all this is an out crying violation of the principle of not interfering in the internal affairs of another sovereign country, was not the Ukrainian government elected democratically, is it an anti-Semitic racist rule that persecutes the minorities, if yes, how come the current president is Jewish, who decides who is what, did we see persecution, massacres, mass deportation of Russians and Jews in Ukraine, or simply Moscow has the right to label, decide, determine who are Nazis, and therefore invade countries, if that is was the standard and criteria to be adopted as guidelines to determine the right of countries to invade other countries, the world would not have enjoyed a moment of peace
And since Kremlin now advocates that Ukraine areas of eastern Donetsk and Luhansk region which are largely populated by Russian Ukrainians have the right to be independent and they are free to join Russia, then by this logic, this means that Nagornoa karabagh which is populated by Armenians, have the right to be independent and maybe join the republic of Armenia, then how come Russia did not defend Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh) all these years when under attack, since Moscow and Yerevan have a mutual defense agreement, isn’t this double standards
By this logic then, Azerbaijan and Turkey might tomorrow decide that there is a national movement in Armenia and invade, and if Armenians embrace such approach, they have chosen a very dangerous path that might soon pave the way to such aggression
3. Russia has been negotiating with Ukraine for a long time, but it was pointless
This is another unrealistic justification; negotiations might take a long time and still does not lead to results, The Palestinian cause, Cyprus, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh), all these conflicts have not been resolved since decades, and if you demand something for a period of time that you consider long, this does not mean you are rightful to demand, no one can have everything it demands,
Peter Manoukian
Lebanese Armenian Blogger