On the photo above is Shaman, one of the most popular Russian singers-songwriters today. He is singing his most popular song “I’m Russian”.
“I’m Russian, my father’s blood flows in me!
I’m Russian, to spite the whole World!
I’m Russian, I’m going all the way!”
While singing the words “I’m Russian”, Shaman is throwing up his right hand in a gesture, which some interpret as the greeting of the Third Reich.
The following video demonstrates a high-school teacher in Kazan (the capital of Tatarstan) showing the children how to properly raise the right hand, singing “I’m Russian”. This amazing video has English subtitles.
Here is how popular oppositional Russian website Republic.ru is depicting Shaman:
“Shaman (Yaroslav Dronov) is a product of almost a quarter of a century of Putin’s rule. He is from a generation for which the words “Putin”, “president” and “head of state” are synonymous. He just doesn’t know what could be different. His songs – “Let’s get up” and “I’m Russian” – reflect the level of education and the general culture of this generation.”
Today the ideology of most Russians is formed by the official state propaganda.
How official Russian media presents the Russian-Ukrainian war?
Here are quotes from a very typical article first published in the website of Russian nationalistic TV Tsargrad.tv and then republished by many Russian websites. Among others it was reprinted by one of the biggest Russian web portals rambler.ru:
“Just a day separated Russia from the death to which the West sentenced it. It were Americans who woke the Russian Bear, hoping to tear off it’s worthy skin. But they miscalculated. The start of the large-scale bloody stripping of the Russian World was planned on the night of February 25, 2022. However, as they say on the Internet, ‘something has gone wrong.’ More precisely, Russia began its operation a day before the Western murderous armada was supposed to set in motion. Russia ruined the game of the backstage puppeteers (who lead Ukrainian puppets) by striking first – starting on February 24….
“But everything could be different. From mortal danger, Russia was separated literally by a day….
“On Friday, February 24, 2023, it has been exactly a year since the start of the special military operation of Russia in the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. During the year, Russian troops managed to regain the initiative on the fronts, and our country learned to massively produce high-quality military equipment, while the American arsenals are on the verge of devastation.”
Here are some more examples of the typical Russian propaganda.
RIA Novosti, official Russian state press agency introduces a person with a name Noctis Draven as a real US Army officer. In different American Internet sites this person appears as a comic book hero, unknown horror books writer or a young blogger. Quora writes about this person:
“Is Noctis Draven a Putin’s agent?”
Here is the quote from RIA Novosti:
“The American military officer Noctis Draven shared his impressions of the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Federal Assembly:
‘Once I said that I would like to shake the hand of President Putin, I want to abandon this statement. Now I want to hug him as a brother. Only if one is living in America, where our media and leaders constantly lie to us, one can truly appreciate such a statesman as President Putin, he wrote on Twitter.
“According to Draven, he loves his country, but in the next life he would choose Russia.”
Here are some headlines of articles in Russian media:
This is a screen shot of the page of a very popular Russian newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda”:
Translation:
“SAVE OUR SOULS!
“Millions of Americans dream to move to live in Russia.
“American citizens turned to the State Duma with a request to help them to move to Russia.”
“In the USA there was proclaimed the abolition of the traditional family and Christ.”
IZVESTIA, one of major national Russian newspapers:
“TOTAL COLLAPSE:
“The internal destruction of US had been predicted.
“Why American civilization had been predicted to disappear.”
The website of the National TV company TVC:
“THE COLLAPSE OF VALUES:
“The United States is on the verge of civil war.
“Violence is not just encouraged, but promoted by the American authorities.”
STOLETIE.RU, website of The Russian “Fond of Historical Perspective”:
“IS THE MELTING POT READY TO EXPLODE?
“Issues with migrants, national and political strife threaten the integrity of the United States.”
The following text is an excerpt from an article reprinted by at least 10 Russian websites:
“AMERICAN PRIEST ANNOUNCED THE DESIRE OF THOUSANDS OF CHRISTIANS TO MOVE TO RUSSIA.
“Thousands of Christians in the West dream of moving to Russia.” This was stated by the cleric of the Church of the Epiphany in the village of Krasnovo, Yaroslavl region, the priest Joseph Gleason, who emigrated from the United States to the Russian Federation. Previously, Father Joseph lived in the US state of Texas then he served in the church of Antioch Orthodox Church in Illinois. In 2017, with his children, he moved to a place near Rostov the Great, getting a job as a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church.”
For years majority of Russians were getting most of the information from state TV. Minority had chosen getting information from oppositional press and Internet. Since the start of the war against Ukraine, working for oppositional media became dangerous. It is dangerous even reading oppositional press. According to the non-governmental organization Data.ovdinfo.org from 02.24.22 to 02.15.23 about 20,000 Russians were arrested for different forms of anti-war protests and 447 political criminal cases were opened.
It is not surprising, that according to surveys today 74% of Russians still support the war in Ukraine.
Russians who are angry and indignant at the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine represented by 11%.
