Russia’s Olympic heroes were singled out before President Vladimir Putin’s speech to the people. Among them: Alexander Bolshunov, who is apparently the only one not wearing the war symbol.
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– To our Russian sports heroes. Thank you. Thank you very much for your victories, says the presenter of Putin’s propaganda show before the president’s speech to the people.
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With the letter “Z” on their chests, the Russian Olympic heroes were on display in connection with an anniversary celebration of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
The only one apparently not had the letter Z on his chest, was the cross-country star Alexander Bolshunov.
– It is interesting how Putin, who claims to denazifize Ukraine, resorts to methods known from Adolf Hitler. At the time, the Aryan athlete was portrayed as overriding, says associate professor Haavard Koppang, an expert in, among other things, propaganda at BI Norwegian Business School.
During the show, the president himself lined up on the podium, in front of a seemingly packed stadium:
– We are people who have many nations. We are united. We have a common destiny. We’re on our land, Putin said, referring to Crimea.
– We know what to do next. We’ll do it. We reach all our goals, the president said to the crowd cheering and waving Russian flags in the show.
Claiming they were pressured to participate
Luzhniki Stadium was used for the finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and can accommodate 80,000 people. In addition to the Olympic heroes, there were several famous artists on stage in the massive muster that marked the 8th anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
British BBC News was at the sports facility on Friday afternoon, where they spoke to participants who claimed that they work in the public sector, and had been pressured by employers to go to the event.
– I will probably stay for a while, I will also go. I do not think most people here support the war, said a man who did not want to be named to the channel.
Schoolchildren at the stadium tell the BBC that they should have been offered a day off from school, if they attended “a concert”. According to the channel, some of them did not know that the event was in support of the war.
– Modern fascism
Ketil Raknes, expert in rhetoric and associate professor at Kristiania University College, says the following about the propaganda show:
– This is modern fascism.
He also sees similarities to Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
– This is not so far from the nationalism we saw growing up in Germany in the interwar period, and now Putin is beginning to approach the classic fascist language.
Raknes points out that nationalism is law, but that Putin’s rhetoric is characterized by a notion that the nation only belongs to a certain group.
– Wants to consolidate power
He refers, among other things, to the president’s previous speech and the way he then portrayed those who do not support his regime.
– Those who do not support Putin are “fifth colonists” and scum. He talks about a national purge, where they will get rid of the unpatriotic. He presents the war as a kind of war for the Russian people, says Raknes.
Raknes believes that Russia is about to become a new North Korea or Iran.
–– Every time Iranians are exposed to new sanctions, they gather people and burn American flags. That is what Putin is doing now: he wants to consolidate his power by saying that Russia exists for the real patriots, he says.
Raknes believes that Putin is only safe as long as he manages to control the Russian people.
– For Putin, it is now about saving the stumps. The only thing he has left is the Russian population. There is almost no one else in the world who supports them, apart from an involuntary China and North Korea.
–– Become a propagandist
Koppang says the definition of propaganda must not be defined too broadly, so that “everything” is included, nor too narrow, so that “nothing” is included.
– In this definition, it is possible to look at this as a propaganda performance. When you see that it is Putin who is behind it, you have recently seen that Putin has to a greater extent become a propagandist, Koppang explains.
Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from most sports federations as a result of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began on Thursday 24 February.
For Bolshunov and the cross-country skiers, they did not receive the message until they were in Norway to participate in Holmenkollen.
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