Ukrainian “Crazy Refugees”, Zelenskyy’s Conflicts with Zaluzhnyi, and Russia’s Economic Egregore. Russian Media Monitoring for June 6th-12th

Russia hopes for a crackup among Ukraine’s leadership and is already celebrating the capture of Donbass

Writing about the course of the war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda continues to espouse old points and is behindhand in originality.

The Russian mass media once again celebrate the capture of Donbas and unequivocally promise victory to the Russian army - they say that “The impending inevitable death of the many thousands of the Donetsk group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which will outshine the defeat in Mariupol, will lead to a new aggravation of relations between the parties of the war and the army elite”, “the unfinished remnants of the Ukrainian garrison are no longer capable of resistance.”

Propagandists are cheerfully talking about the alleged crackup among the Ukrainian leadership between the military and politicians: “Now there is a protracted personal conflict between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi, due to the fact that the president does not want to withdraw the Armed Forces of Ukraine from near Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, where a huge pocket has been outlined, in which the most combat-ready units of the Ukrainian army can perish. And Zaluzhnyi, as a professional military man, insists on the withdrawal of troops.”

Also, Russian propaganda continues to squeeze the most out of the so-called testimonies of captured Ukrainian soldiers. The main points are that the state leadership is abandoning the Ukrainian military, everyone in Ukraine is being mobilized by force: “We were supposed to be rotated, but in the end they simply forgot about us”, “The Armed Forces of Ukraine are replenished not at the expense of volunteers”, “The condemned are ordinary cannon fodder, but at the same time perfectly equipped by the West.”

Inflation in the United States is a consequence of Russia’s “curse”

Last week, the Russian media paid a lot of attention to the topic of rising inflation in the United States. Russian propagandists acted cunningly. They tried not to openly rejoice at the economic troubles of their main enemy’s camp (apparently because it could draw attention to rising prices and shortages of goods in Russia itself). Instead, leading Russian media focused on disseminating statements and comments from domestic US critics who accused the current government and President Biden of over-supporting Ukraine:

“The Ukrainian crisis creates more risks for Washington than benefits, and it does not want to participate in it.”

“We saw Congress hastily adopting a $40 billion military aid package for Ukraine. But this is no longer a cold war between the United States and Russia, but quite a «hot» one, and Ukraine is our puppet in it.”

“Americans will spend $5,000 on fuel this year, up 78 percent from a year ago. The price increase is Biden’s fault, not Putin’s.”

“U.S. senator called Biden’s plan to fight inflation a disgrace.”

The topic of inflation in the United States was so important for Russian disinformers that it was decided to include even forecasts of mentalists and fortune tellers: “Record inflation in the United States can really be considered a curse. The fact is that Russia is a state that has the strongest egregore of cosmic power, energy. ... The United States, without any prerequisites, psychologically and economically attacked us. But now we are not answering - our egregore answers. Much of what they send here is returned to them. It can be said that the United States cursed itself. It’s the scariest thing that can happen.”

Are the Poles going to attack Belarus?

We continue to record another surge of anti-Polish conspirology in the Russian manipulative media that write about Ukraine. “Poland deliberately creates a crackup between Ukraine and Europe”, Russian disinformers report. The Poles do not support Ukraine, in fact they want to “drive as many Ukrainian citizens as possible to war” in order to strengthen their position in the EU and “establish the regional leadership of Warsaw”. Poles do this because from eternity they have “the concept of the Jagiellonowie, which implies the messianic status of Poland, aimed at conquering the Slavic neighbours.” Of course, the implementation of these cunning plans is not taking place by itself - everything is overseen by “Anglo-Saxon curators”.

Russian pseudo-experts are beating the alarm: Poles are assembling a coalition “of aggressive Eastern European countries” around them. This will threaten not only Ukraine but also neighbouring Belarus. “Poland in the Belarusian direction will be much more aggressive and may resort to military provocations,” they warn.

Dreams of economic sovereignty

Russian media journalists are actively spreading statements by the Russian leadership about achieving “economic sovereignty.” In particular, Putin’s words are broadcast that “The 2020s will become a period of strengthening economic sovereignty for the country. This means the accelerated development of its own infrastructural and technological base, a qualitative increase in the level of training of specialists, and the formation of an independent and efficient financial system.”

At the same time, they say that “The consequences of anti-Russian sanctions will be deadly for America if Russia gains economic sovereignty”, “EU sanctions will provoke a fire of a world revolution in the economy”, “Western sanctions against Russia turned out to be ineffective and provoked world hunger.”

Also, propaganda continues to assure that other countries are unable to refuse of Russia because of its energy resources: “Some commentators note that everyone who decides to refuse to pay for Russian gas supplies in roubles will still use blue fuel from Russia, but they will buy it at a much higher price on the sly.”

They also wrote:

Russian news actively discussed the legalization of medical cannabis in Ukraine. For example, it was connected with the injection of drugs into the Armed Forces of Ukraine: “The situation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is such that they could not do without the legalization of marijuana in Kyiv.”

They cast aspersions on Ukrainian refugees in Europe: “Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria, forced to look for work since June 1st, are again dissatisfied with the hosts of the country that sheltered them”, “Ukrainian refugees previously smashed the rooms in Bulgarian hotels. Hoteliers demand the reimbursement for the repair of premises”, “In Poland, the Ukrainian «crazy refugees» looted the point of assistance to refugees.”

Well, and, of course, they again promoted the topic that deliveries of the Western weapons to Ukraine turn out to be in the wrong hands: “Part of the weapons that Western partners supply to Kyiv disappears without a trace «due to the chaos reigning in Ukraine»”, “stolen weapons in Ukraine are distributed on the darknet in a closed segment of the Internet. Buyers are offered to get weapons from the territory of Ukraine or Poland.”

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.

disinfomonitor eng