We Are Still Underestimating Russian Propaganda. As someone having grown up in Soviet-occupied East Germany, I know very well the power of Russian propaganda. Our teachers, newspapers, media and history books were very successful in lying to us. We were not told about the Hitler-Stalin Pact — which led to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union beginning World War II together, only later to collide. We were told the Soviet Union defeated Hitler, without mentioning American economic and military aid, especially D-Day, without which any Soviet efforts would not have been effective. We were told that Ukrainians and Belarusians are basically Russians that somehow are confused. We were also told that Nazi Germany was responsible for the Katyn Massacre, in which the Soviets eliminated vast numbers of the Polish political, military and cultural elite.
These strategies continued beyond the Soviet Union, with only a brief reprieve in the nineties when Russia actually attempted to become a democracy, until Putin stopped all that. Putin lied about the Chechen war, about having invaded Crimea and Donbas (Ukrainian territories whose people overwhelmingly voted to be part of Ukraine), about having real elections, etc. We know all that. We know about Russian propaganda troll farms. We know that RT and Sputnik are all lying. We know all that. We know that NATO never threatened Russia. We know that NATO membership is only a threat to Russia if Russia is deterred from invading a member country which it feels entitled to invade.
We know that Putin, before his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, demanded a complete rollback of not just NATO expansion but a return of all territories that were once under Soviet control, which would include not just former members of the Soviet Union (such as Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc.), but also Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosova, Bosnia, Albania and East Germany. We know all that. Putin and his propagandists also clearly state, all the time, that Russia needs to extend from Lisbon to Vladivostok and has a right to all of Europe. We know all that, or rather, we could, if we listened.
And yet, we are still underestimating Putin.
Putin is leading a murderous, rapist, genocidal campaign against Ukraine. He is allied with Iraq, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, North Korea, and somehow also China (although China is pretending not to). He is allied with Syria’s Assad, and has committed the same destruction already in Syria and Chechnya which he is unleashing against Ukraine.
We are helping with weapons and aid, and he threatens us. Since when does a murderer and rapist get the right to call out the one helping the victim? Putin is escalating, we are responding. Putin threatens nuclear war, which he will never be able to do because he would be losing his last allies.
Our legitimate and needed assistance of Ukraine is morally right and just, and completely legitimate. Any support of Ukraine is legitimate. Russia must be defeated, and Ukraine completely liberated and allowed to join NATO. Anything else only shows Western weakness against an aggressor that is not done yet wanting more.
Russia can be defeated. Its economy is smaller than Italy’s. It needs North Korea’s help. Its economy is done. The Rubel currency is done. We cannot stop now. Putin is gearing up his propaganda because this – and senseless destruction and killing of Ukrainians – is all he has left.
Let us not stop in our commitment to help the victim. This aggression needs to be stopped. We all need peace, real peace, which can only come with the defeat of the aggressor. Don’t believe Putin’s lies. He can be defeated.
Ceterum censeo Ucrainam esse defendam. Слава Україні!
Erratic Attempts 