At the Red Square, Putin Reiterated the Main Disinformation Narrative – Russia Was the Victim Defending Itself!

Massive salvo of Russian disinformation narratives was “fired” from the Red Square in Moscow directly from the mouth of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the speech delivered at the military parade on the occasion of celebrating 9th of May – Day of Victory over Fascism.

The main Russian disinformation narrative in its original version is old – from the first months of the invasion of Ukraine, dated 24.02.2022 – claiming that Ukraine was preparing to invade Crimea with the help of the West and that Russia only defended itself, hence the required Special Military Operation. But in recent months, the main narratives from Moscow are that a global war was being waged for supremacy of influence and that the West unscrupulously wanted to dominate the whole world. Putin’s main messages today were similar, as paraphrased here:

-The West is the one provoking conflicts and coups, destroying traditional values in order to continue dictating its own rules, which, in essence, are  a system of theft and violence. The goals of Russia’s opponents is disintegration and destruction of our country.
-Any superiority ideology is disgustingly criminal and deadly, but the Western elites are still talking about their exclusivity.
– In the West, monuments are being destroyed, a cult of Nazism is being created, and this fury is also a crime – revanchism of those preparing a new campaign against Russia.
–The West forgot what the Nazi claim to world domination led to; the West forgot who defeated the evil and who stood up to free the peoples in Europe
The Ukrainians became victims of a coup and bargaining dispensable in the hands of the West.

These are just some of the key points in Putin’s speech, which can be partially found in the Macedonian media area. Some media broadcasted live and some conveyed the points of Putin’s speech in considerable details.

Some, as Meta and Deutsche Welle, identified the disinformation narrative points.

The aggressor in the role of a victim…reported Meta in the headline of the news on Putin’s speech.

DW in Macedonian language, stressed from the very subtitle:

While Putin was delivering a speech, Russia launched a series of airstrikes against Ukraine.

The media outlets also reported that between 8 and 10 thousand members of the Russian Forces from the Moscow Garrison took part in the parade, and apart from the museum pieces of T-34 tanks, no modern tanks or air battle groups paraded.

The comparison of the disinfo narratives applied by Moscow shows that Putin has been using this master narrative in its similar form since the beginning of the year, specifically since January, in a speech delivered in St. Petersburg, and later in February in the speech delivered in the Russian Parliament.

Last year, more aspects were dedicated to the reasons for invading Ukraine, thus the weight of the blame was shifted to Ukrainians themselves, who, as described by Putin today, were victims of the coup.

The “Special Military Operation” was bound to come because the war did not start now, but back in 2014 with the Maidan overturn, when extremist structures came to power supported to start a war against their own citizens, states this main Russian disinfo narrative. More can be found in last year’s “Truthmeter” analysis“.

This article was developed within the framework of the project Promoting Access to Reliable News to Counter Disinformation, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, which has been published on the Macedonian-language version of Truthmeter, was produced with the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The contents of the article is the responsibility of the author and do not always reflect the positions of Metamorphosis Foundation, NED or their partners.

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