Russia Wants to Feed Ukraine. Russian Media Monitoring for May 30th - June 5th
Russian disinformers continue to cover every third piece of news about the war and its consequences for Russia. And we analyze the news of Russian websites and review what the enemy is telling its own population about the attack against Ukraine.
To do this, we analyzed almost 25 thousand news from the Russian state media and manipulative websites that are purposely spreading Russian disinformation.
“Mercenary maniacs” are fleeing Ukraine, and “Kvartal 95” oppresses generals
Last week, the enemy’s media wrote a lot about the declining mood and frustration among the soldiers of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: “These people also end up in pockets under artillery and tank fire. Most are disappointed - they thought they were going on a «safari», but ended up in a real meat grinder. Many become crippled and wounded, their psychological mood worsens. They write about this to their friends, and the number of new mercenaries is sharply reduced.” Foreigners in Ukraine are regarded as “cannon fodder” and fooled in every way. “Foreign mercenaries leave the territory of Ukraine and do not want to return there anymore. Life turned out to be more important than money and beautiful photos for social networks,” Russian media write.
Also, Russian disinformers continue to brisk up the fire over Zelenskyy’s conflicts with the military. They write that the Ukrainian army is “one step away from the soldiers’ riots,” as it is no longer going to “carry out criminal, suicidal and stupid orders,” given by “media technologists and PR and advertising experts.” “Western curators” incite Zelenskyy and his team, and the latter at the same time “slander the generals, demanding from them the unquestioning execution of the most absurd orders.”
Russia against the Western threat
The discourse on the Western threat to Russia is only growing. After all, according to the points of Russian propaganda, Russia is waging war not against Ukraine, but against the entire Western world. In fact, it is it (and not Ukraine) that is defending itself: “The West has put a lot at stake and will not rest until it can declare victory over Russia. Russia has nowhere to retreat.”
“During these 30 years of rabid Russophobic propaganda inspired by the West, which adopted the anti-Russian Bandera Galician nationalism, which initially had a very narrow area of distribution in the most Western part of Ukraine, these Russian people were «rewired» into political Ukrainians who hate everything Russian.”
They say that NATO is constantly creating problems on the perimeter of Russia and China, Poland has already begun to “capture” the western regions, the United States expects economic decline and mass protests, and all American weapons will end up on the black market or in Russia: “The United States, with its thoughtless policy, contributes to the leakage of military technologies. Because Russia will receive these types of weapons and learn how to fight effectively with them. So in case of a war between Russia and NATO, the West will experience this thoughtless policy, and the Americans are afraid of the leakage of these technologies.”
But Russian propagandists do not have a common opinion about Germany. They either stand up for it from European pressure and thank it for disrupting arms supplies to Ukraine (“Germany is humiliated again, like after World War I. It is again taken down a peg”). Or, vice versa, it is described with “active participation in the confrontation in Ukraine in the form of «pumping» of Ukrainian militants with weapons which led to the fact that the German army has practically lost heavy types of weapons.”
“Romanization of Moldavia”
Russian disinformers call Moldova “Moldavia” and help to shake up the political situation there in any way possible. They (and after them - well-known for his pro-Russian position, the former President of Moldova Igor Dodon) declare the external governance of the country and accuse the current government of preparing “of the abandonment of Transnistria and forced incorporation into Romania.”
Such considerations reflect Russia’s view of the modern world, in which other states (not just Russia) do not respect each other’s sovereignty and existing borders, and are ready to violate diplomacy and international law norms at any opportunity.
But, of course, in the Russian news, everyone should demonize the United States and fear Russia and Russian anger: “Romanians would like to take Moldavia, but not Transnistria. They don’t want to go to war with Russia, they have very bad memories of World War II, and they don’t want to repeat this story. Maia Sandu also doesn’t want a war. But the Americans are in favour of taking Moldova along with Transnistria.”
The West is initiating a world famine
While the whole world press is concerned about the future famine, provoked in particular by the war in Ukraine, the Russian media are seriously considering “how Russia will feed Ukraine, which never became an agrarian superpower.” Which is quite cynical amidst all the evidence of how Russia steals, exports, and sells grain to third countries from the occupied territories.
The Russians often call the food crisis far-fetched, and that it “burst into the international agenda after the London negotiations behind closed doors of the Foreign Ministers of Great Britain and Lithuania.” At the same time, Peskov is quoted as agreeing with the coming food crisis. However, he explains it with the introduction of “absolutely illegal restrictions against one of the world’s main suppliers, that is, us, and related to the actions of the Ukrainian authorities.”
So, the disinformers’ conclusion is the only one: “The West is the main cause of all the difficulties faced by global food security in general, and the issue of cereals in particular.”
Catastrophic consequences of giving up Russian energy
Russian manipulative media called the introduction of the oil embargo a “circus” and a “crazy decision.” “Russia’s losses are petty,” Russian propagandists assure. And Europe will have to suffer from “high inflation” and increasingly harm itself, getting into the “sanctions hole”.
In general, it is noticeable that the issue of energy exports is of great concern to Russian propagandists. They continue to intimidate the world with the consequences of the refusal to supply Russian gas and paint an increasingly apocalyptic picture: “The situation is developing according to a suicidal scenario, and the rejection of Russian gas will be a strong blow to European countries”, “states will start a «fight» in pursuit of blue fuel”, “Europe is in for a catastrophe.”
They also wrote:
Russian disinformers continue to make considerable efforts to discredit Ukrainian refugees in the EU. Last week, we recorded a cluster of nearly a hundred publications on the subject. “Dissatisfaction with Ukrainian refugees in the EU countries continues to grow,” the Russian media claim. Ukrainians “make beasts of themselves”, and Europeans “beat them and write signs «Ukrainians are not admitted»”.
Methodology
We searched all materials from the Russian and occupation sites, that have been used to traditional monitoring disinformation.
The algorithm is automatically determining topics was applied to each paragraph. Among these topics (groups of similar materials) were those related to the invasion. Then we received data for each material on the site regarding mentions of a particular topic. Conclusions were built on these data and examples of paragraphs on the topic.
Sites: regnum.ru, life.ru, kommersant.ru, naspravdi.info, lenta.ru, pravda.ru, antifashist.com, c-inform.info, kafanews.com, dni.ru, sevastopol.su, newc.info, vz.ru, ruinformer.com, sobytiya.info, meridian.in.ua, newsland.com, xvesti.ru, odnarodyna.org, nefakt.info, pravdanews.info, ukraina.ru, aif.ru.
