Putin with Disinfo Narrative – the West Started the War in Ukraine, Russia is Just Defending Itself

The latest speech of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was used to disseminate an old Russian narrative regarding Ukraine – Russia was just defending itself. This narrative was renewed and enhanced with two to three sub-narratives, along with “Nazism” and “Russophobia”. This disinfo narrative about the West being the main reason for the war is a variation of the topic “Ukraine is the main reason to blame” that Putin used in January in his address in Saint Petersburg

 

 

Two days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the address of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was broadly broadcasted by the media in North Macedonia because of two reasons. Firstly, the significance of the specific date – the person speaking and the messages transmitted – and secondly, because of the interest of both the media and the public about the happenings in Ukraine.

Even from the first analysis one can conclude that Putin’s speech used two-three Russian narratives around which a disinformation strategy of the Russian external affairs is being developed. This time, however, the main narrative were used for justification i.e., that the West – not Russia – is to blame for the war in Ukraine:

Russia did everything it could to avoid the war, but Ukraine, supported by the West, planned to attack Crimea”, said Putin. Crimea is an Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia back in 2014.

The people of Ukraine became hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters who occupied this country in political, military and economic terms, said Putin, published RFE in Macedonian language.

This was confirmed in another part of the speech, transmitted by another medium:

At the end of 2021, we officially requested security from the USA and Europe, but we were declined. The threat was growing and until February 2022 everything was ready for military actions in Donbas. All this was contrary to the documents adopted by the UN Security Council. I want to repeat – they started the war, while we used force to stop it, said Putin addressing the Members of the Russian Duma, informed 360 Degrees.

What is new in the address of this narrative – for the purpose of being more convincing – is the claim that Ukraine even before the aggression or the special military operation, as it was called by official Moscow, agreed the delivery of a huge quantity of arms from the West.

We did everything to resolve the conflict with the regime in Kyiv with peaceful means, but a completely different scenario was being developed behind our back. The claims of the Western leaders were fake. They were buying time and were blind for the political murders and repressions of the Kyiv regime in Donbas, said Putin.

Before the special military operation, Kyiv agreed the delivery of heavy military equipment, air defence and nuclear weapons, he said, informed A1on.mk.

This was the news element announced by the Russian Security Service just a few days before Putin’s address through official channels. Obviously, the information that could be deemed the truth should be seen within the context of all information possessed by Kyiv and the Western allies in the course of the whole 2021, especially from Autumn with the deployment of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine. This news was used to enhance the Russian disinformation narrative that Russia was not to blame for the war, but that it was pulled into the war. In addition, this disinformation narrative for the West as the main side to blame is a variation of the theme as Ukraine was the main side to blame that Putin used a month ago during his address in Saint Petersburg.

 

Use of Yugoslavia and Syria in Putin’s address

The second narrative in the address of the Russian President also used for enhancing the main narrative – the West is to blame – is the use of the so-called “what about that”. Namely, Putin reminded about the behaviour of the West in the nearest future, but also in the distant past:

When Russia was trying to find a peaceful solution, they played their dirty game. Their dispicable lies and hipocracy were already seen in Yugoslavia and Syria”, said Putin about the Western countries. He also added: It turns out that they treat their people in such a way – they talked and lied about peaceful agreements in Donbas. They were just lies. We insisted on protecting our own interests.

No other country has so many military bases around the world like the USA. The whole world is covered with their bases – there are hundreds of them”, said Putin, adding that Russia is demanding security guarantees. They declined our demands and it was clear that the threat was growing. Until last February everything was ready for military action in Donbas. I want to repeat – they started the war and we resorted to force to prevent it, informed A1on.mk.

 

Again “Nazi Ukraine”

The third main narrative noted in the initial analysis is the use of Ukraine’s Nazi past, but also the guilt of the West regarding “Russophobia”:

The West invests trillions of dollars in wars worldwide. They use words such as democracy and values and distract people’s attention from the ever-growing economic problems of their countries. I want to remind you that the West enabled the development of Nazi Germany. They want to separate us from our historical territory. They supported the coup back in 2014. They even told us how much money they spent on it. The ideological basis for such actions is Russophobia, he said.

He claims that Ukrainian Army has Nazi insignia on its tanks, adding that: They don’t even hide it. They don’t care because they are trying to fight against us, against Russia. They want to benefit from everything – from both terrorists and Nazis – and even from the devil himself against Russia, informed A1on.mk.

START suspension

Apart from the use of these narratives, the Russian President, at the very end of his address, announced that Russia suspended its participation in the Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty (START), again specifying that the West is to blame for such an action:

They demanded control of our nuclear facilities. I don’t know how to call this except total nonsence, said Putin.

They don’t allow us to check the installations and reject our efforts to assess the targeted facilities. Their aim is to strategically defeat us and they want to enter our military compounds, said Putin, informed “Free Press”.

Part of the main narratives of Putin’s address can be found in the course of February in the disinformation spread by Dmitri Medvedev (the narrative that Ukraine is a Nazi country, and that the European democracies are “Russophobs”) or regarding the “Russophobia” and the “Western Nazism” expressed through Ursula von der Leyen, and pronounced by the Chief of diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, in the beginning of February.

 

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This article has been produced within the project Fact-Checking the Progress of North Macedonia towards the EU, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, originally published by Truthmeter,, is made possible by the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The content of this article is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, NED or their partners.

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