Russia’s relentless TV propaganda has entered a heavily depressed new era.
The trend began last month when audio from a duo of Russian pranksters apparently tricking the Italian prime minister into making an unguarded remark surfaced.
In the clip, which was recorded in September, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov (known as Vovan and Lexus) are posing as African diplomats and a voice that sounds like Meloni candidly admits that fatigue has set in with respect to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: “There is a lot of tiredness on all sides.”
ADVERTISEMENT
For weeks afterwards, the Russian state media has publicized the call, in continuation of the latest propaganda narrative that the West is tired of Ukraine and wants to negotiate a deal with the Kremlin. Russian talking heads proudly assert that Moscow is not interested in any deals and pontificate about invading other countries to continue the expansion of the Russian empire.
This preposterous propaganda is designed to obscure a crucial detail: that the Russians are also sick and tired of an invasion conceived by their perennial leader, with no end in sight.
In recent months, Sergey Mardan, one of the hosts on Vladimir Solovyov’s channel, Solovyov Live, started to wonder out loud why his boss’s relentless coverage of the war and its “heroes” isn’t gaining traction on social media or being picked up by other state TV channels. Solovyov himself noticed the waning public attention and mentioned it last week on his morning show, The Full Contact. He complained that “people are psychologically tired of this topic” and asked his viewers to let him know what they’re actually interested in.
Tired or not, any dreams of a potential reprieve were extinguished when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree boosting Russia’s troop numbers by 15 percent or some 170,000 people. This will bring the overall number of Russian military personnel to about 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed NATO for the required increase and claimed that it would be achieved solely through the recruitment of volunteers and not through conscription or mobilization.
The wives of those who were mobilized in the beginning of the invasion have recently started to express their outrage—not with the evils of a genocidal war against the neighboring nation, but with the fact that their husbands are yet to be relieved through rotation. The women authored a petition and disseminated stickers that said, “Bring my husband back. I’m fucking tired of this.” This movement is currently being strangled, with participating military wives being taken in for questioning and threatened with being potentially charged for “discrediting the army.”
Putin’s decree wasn’t meant to address these complaints but merely to fill the gaps created by Russia’s massive casualties, while the true extent of the losses remains taboo within the country. During his Saturday show on Solovyov Live, Mardan did his best to dispel the notion that the new infusion of manpower was meant to replenish the 300,000 dead—a number he also denied.
Mardan’s guest, State Duma member Andrey Gurulyov claimed that the decree was designed to address the threats Russia is allegedly facing all over the world: from unnamed Western foes in the Arctic; because of the expansion of the Taiwan crisis; an escalation between North and South Korea, Finland and possibly Sweden joining NATO; the war in the Middle East and issues in the Caucasus.
Gurulyov complained about the militarization of the Baltics, Poland and other countries and added that he couldn’t rule out another mobilization. Instead of acknowledging that multiple countries are preparing to defend themselves from Russian aggression, Gurulyov portrayed them as the potential aggressors, encircling Russia and plotting to attack it. He asserted, “Today, our army should be ready for WWIII.”
Beyond the shrinking cadre of soldiers available to bolster Putin’s wars, Russia’s workforce is also being depleted. Last Tuesday, during the broadcast of the state TV show 60 Minutes, Dmitry Abzalov, Director of the Center for Strategic Communications, noted: “Our main problem, the limiting factor, is the absence of the workforce. Next year, our GDP may decrease because we are shorthanded.” Abzalov hinted that the workers were sent to the frontlines or moved to work in the factories producing weapons, equipment and ammunition for the military.
Host Evgeny Popov pointed out that one of Putin’s recent decrees was meant to address this problem, by simplifying the process of repatriation of Russians currently living in other countries. He added, “This is being done because we don’t have enough people.” State Duma member Leonid Kalashnikov proposed importing workers from North Korea.
Head of RT Margarita Simonyan had an even better idea.
Last Sunday, Simonyan appeared on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov and predicted that Russia’s demographic crisis would be resolved in the not-so-distant future, when desperate Americans will flock to Russia to take up the jobs the locals don’t want. Russia’s self-imposed turmoil is so unrelenting that Putin’s mouthpieces are having to resort to increasingly ridiculous suggestions and predictions—but even they find it challenging to obscure the grim reality with a cheerful demeanor.
Last Thursday, the host of 60 Minutes Olga Skabeeva said, “It seems like lately, every day is significant in some way.” Dmitry Abzalov replied: “Things were so good in the past that now, every day seems to have a special meaning.”
