Over the weekend, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a photo of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, on social media.
– No Nazis in Ukraine, they say? Basic facts and tons of archival footage tell a different story, claimed the Russian Foreign Ministry, and attached a photo of Zelenskyj who performs a Nazi salute, apparently as “proof” of the claim.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also asked readers of the message to “think for themselves”, but on the other hand completely ignored the context of the image.
– That Ukraine is both governed and full of Nazis is a false narrative that Putin has used for several years to dehumanize Ukrainians and legitimize the war against Ukraine, says Eskil Grendahl Sivertsen, special adviser with a main focus on influence operations at the Defense Research Institute (FFI).
– We recognize the message “think for yourself” from conspiracy circles and is also reflected in the Russian propaganda channel RT’s slogan “question more”. The underlying message is that you are being lied to, and that you will find the truth here, adds Grendahl Sivertsen.
The context of the clip
After Russia invaded Crimea in February 2014, they increasingly began to sell the story that Ukraine is a Nazi state.
Russia researcher Olga Lautman has previously told the American radio channel NPR that most Ukrainians want nothing to do with the roughly two percent of Ukraine’s population who are nationalists. The proportion of Nazis is probably higher in, for example, the United States, Lautman has stated.
Listen to Nettavisen’s podcast about the invasion of Ukraine here:
The narrative that Ukraine is Nazis is so ridiculous that humor has been made out of it in Ukraine, and that is exactly the context from which Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken the image.
In a stand-up performance from October 2014, when Zelenskyj was a comedian, performed namely the current president a “letter he intended to send to his relatives in Russia”.
– We all have relatives in Russia, and they ask us the same questions: How are things going? Don’t they eat children? Can we help you escape? Zelenskyy says in the clip, to laughter from the audience.
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Zelenskyj further says that he has tried to explain to the alleged relatives in Russia that everything was ok in Ukraine, but that he was not heard. The then comedian then says that to refute an idiotic claim, you don’t need to deny it, you just need to show how absurd the stupidity is.
He then reads out the “letter to the relatives”, in which he brings out several of the stories Russia tells about Ukraine and Europe:
– My salary is low, but it’s going well, because we are allowed to take money and property from Russia, Zelenskyj jokes about one of the Russian conspiracy theories.
– Send “My Struggle”
Eventually, he refers to the Nazi narrative of Putin, making a request to the “relatives”:
– If you have the opportunity, please send me Hitler’s book, ‘Mein Kampf’. It’s impossible to get hold of it here, everyone buys it so fast, says the Jewish ex-comedian to laughter from the audience.
– Sometimes in the morning, I go out on the balcony to get my morning trim in the sun. Like this, says Zelenskyj, and performs the Nazi salute to another roar of laughter from the Ukrainians in the hall.
And this is where the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken a picture of the screen, in order to spread the picture out of context to its hundreds of thousands of followers on X (formerly Twitter).
See the entire clip below (the greeting comes on 4.14)
Does Putin believe in himself?
It is reasonable to believe that Russia’s Foreign Ministry is fully aware of the actual context, but nevertheless they share this. Why?
– False stories must be proven for people to believe them or think that “maybe there is something to this”. Evidence can be real, partly false or completely fabricated, says Grendahl Sivertsen to Nettavisen, and continues:
– Taking something that has happened, like Zelensky’s Nazi salute from a comedy show, and presenting it with a different context is a classic move. The best disinformation has a kernel of truth, says the special adviser.
He also brings out another example of this, namely the video that was spread last year of the Norwegian diplomat scolding the Russian reception staff at a hotel in Murmansk.
– This embarrassing episode was shared with a Russian audience to prove another false narrative that Putin has been telling the Russian population for years, namely that the West hates Russians. Often Russia just makes up the evidence by falsifying photos, reports or witness statements, says Grendahl Sivertsen.
– Does Putin believe his own claim that Ukraine is overflowing with Nazis, or is it just something he says to be able to continue the war?
– There are slightly different associations with the word “Nazi” in Russia than here. In Putin’s version of history, there is a common thread from the “Great Patriotic War”, i.e. the Second World War, to the current war against Ukraine. Russian patriotism and self-image today derives its strength and legitimacy from heroic stories about how Russia, which was strictly speaking the Soviet Union, fought the Nazis from the West, says Grendahl Sivertsen.
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He adds that this is a central part of Putin’s propaganda.
– However, this threat has never gone away, according to Putin, and now Russia must once again defend itself against the Nazis, says Grendahl Sivertsen.
– Whether Putin believes in this himself is a good question. Russian thinking is characterized by an idea that there is no objective truth, but that everything is narrative as part of a power struggle. Then the distinction between truth and lies is not so relevant, and lies are not seen as immoral when the intention is “good”. If you lie long enough, you can also start to believe your own lies, but what Putin believes deep down, only he knows, concludes the FFI special adviser.
2023-10-18 02:56:43
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