The Kremlin’s poisoned chalice of peace
Moscow pays cynical lip service to peace efforts, blames Europe and Ukraine for Russia’s aggression, and ramps up historical revisionism ahead of WWII commemoration events.
After more than three years of Russia waging an illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, peace has become the talk of the town in recent weeks. Especially, if the town in question is Washington or Moscow. There is no doubt that no one would like a just and durable peace more than Kyiv. But lately it has been Moscow making overtures to peace while falsely blaming Ukraine and Europe for Russia’s aggression. These manipulation attempts are as transparent as they are cynical.
But cynicism is the name of the game for the Kremlin’s disinformation peddlers. Especially as they kick into high gear in preparation of marking 80 years since the end of World War II. Unsurprisingly, Moscow has pounced on the opportunity to continue Russia’s attempts at historical revisionism. It keeps trying to muddle the memory of WWII and to link Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine to the defeat over Nazism 80 years ago. Let’s have a closer look.
Lost in translation
Lately, Putin, who is still wanted(opens in a new tab) internationally by the ICC for war crimes, seems to have discovered a new word in the dictionary – ceasefire. And yet, it would appear that Putin has not done his due diligence to look up the actual meaning of the word. How else could one explain the fact that Russian missiles and drones have kept pummelling Ukraine(opens in a new tab) after he announced a unilateral Easter ceasefire?
One explanation would be that Russia is not in fact very interested in peace and will always try to find a way of saying ‘No!’, while keeping up appearances. It is because Russia’s strange ideas of peace have been to put up a façade and use appeals to peace in the service of war. In fact, Russia wants war, not peace.
Or maybe it’s an Orwellian attempt to redefine the word ‘ceasefire’ by flipping its meaning to its opposite, e.g. ‘bomb civilians relentlessly, deliberately, and indiscriminately’. That would explain why Russia has violated its own ‘ceasefire’ thousands of times(opens in a new tab), raining down bombs across the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions(opens in a new tab) as well as killing civilians in Kyiv(opens in a new tab). So, unlike the Bard’s immortal contributions to the English language, Putin’s attempts to give words new meanings were merely a bluff and a distraction(opens in a new tab) designed to feign the role of a peacemaker.
This time we mean it
The spectacularly transparent ruse of an ‘Easter ceasefire’ seems to have inspired a greater appetite for similar stunts as Putin announced(opens in a new tab) another unilateral ‘ceasefire’ from 8-10 May marking the commemoration of the end of WWII. Meanwhile, Russian troops welcomed the announcement by launching a drone strike that killed a 12-year-old girl(opens in a new tab) in Dnipropetrovsk.
Yet, the pro-Kremlin disinformation apparatus immediately went into overdrive to praise the glorious leader’s noble quest for peace(opens in a new tab). Some noted his fatherly care for the combatants(opens in a new tab) in the ‘special military operation’ while others gushed about how kindly Putin offers ‘goodwill gestures’(opens in a new tab) to an ungrateful Ukraine. But almost universally, the Kremlin’s agents of information manipulation slandered Ukraine(opens in a new tab). From the usual attempts to accuse President Zelenskyy of standing in the way of peace(opens in a new tab) to calling Ukraine ‘terrorist(opens in a new tab)’, to blaming Ukraine for undermining any previous peace efforts(opens in a new tab), to preparing excuses(opens in a new tab) for when Russia inevitably breaks its own faux ‘ceasefire’.
Those meddling Europeans are at it again
Speaking of excuses, the Kremlin is always on the lookout for someone else to blame for Russia’s aggression. Last week, Moscow’s gaze was affixed to Europe once again. Hence the false claims that the EU is sabotaging a peace deal because it ‘hates Russia’, even though Russia poses no security threat to Europe. That last bit sounds especially absurd when prime-time Russian propagandists spend the better part of the evening threatening Europe(opens in a new tab) with nuclear annihilation and openly speculating about which European states would be next in line(opens in a new tab) for invasion.
Nazis! Nazis everywhere!
As the 80th commemoration of WWII approaches, the Kremlin’s mouthpieces are increasingly obsessed with another word. You guessed it, it’s ‘Nazis’. We’ve already covered Russia’s obsession with Nazism and how the Kremlin misuses Nazism as a weapon of information manipulation in our previous articles. It is one of the starkest examples of historical revisionism, like claiming that Russia alone fought against Hitler, dismissing the fact that 6 million Ukrainians fought Nazism and that Ukraine was one of the main battlegrounds in the WWII(opens in a new tab).
Russia has been using the Nazi disinformation trope to smear Ukraine for at least a decade. Now, on the eve of WWII commemoration events, the Kremlin has been pulling out all the stops to paint Europe as promoting the ‘rebirth of Nazism’ as well. According to the Kremlin’s twisted fantasies, Europe is the one falsifying history, desecrating the memory of Holocaust victims and promoting Nazi sentiments in Ukraine. And, of course, Europe’s refusal to give credence to the propagandistic spectacle Moscow is setting up on the Red Square on 9 May only reveals the EU’s ‘fascist mentality’.
All these claims are patently false but they do expose a crucial information manipulation tactic rooted in historical revisionism. The Kremlin will readily re-write any page in the annals of history, no matter how blatantly false the outcome, for as long as it allows Moscow to use history as a tool to excuse and dismiss Russia’s present-day aggression.
- If we know one thing about the Kremlin’s information manipulation and disinformation ecosystem, it is that Moscow likes to recycle its lies with regular frequency. And so, the Kremlin’s twisted tale about Bucha made a reappearance. Russia already tried to hijack the international agenda to spread lies about Bucha at the UN(opens in a new tab). It continues to do so by spreading obvious falsehoods like claiming that Bucha was a macabre fabricated show to justify the war. Make no mistake. This is a deliberate attempt to deflect attention from the war crimes Russia committed in Bucha and elsewhere in Ukraine. In fact, Russia has been systematically lying about Bucha ever since the world learned the horrifying truth about Russian atrocities committed there. The evidence is overwhelming. There are witness testimonies(opens in a new tab) and drone footage(opens in a new tab) of executions. Satellite images show(opens in a new tab) that some of the corpses were already lying on the streets weeks before the Russian withdrawal. Now Russia takes a step even further and peddles its lies about Bucha to accuse Ukraine of prolonging the war. A manipulative tactic as cynical as it is immoral.
- Moscow mules of malfeasance often resort to peddling conspiracy theories. Like claiming that Prussian-German agents are pushing Poland to nuclear extermination. Let’s unpack. Invoking the involvement of an undefined but ominous-sounding group ‘behind the scenes’, in this case ‘Prussian-German agents’, is often a key part in any conspiracy theory. Much like the Kremlin’s weird obsession with ‘Anglo-Saxons’. It also plays on the ‘Elites versus people’ trope that the Kremlin often uses to sow public distrust in authorities. Then the claim also implies that Poland has no agency over its security and foreign policy. This is wrong. Poland is not a pawn(opens in a new tab) in a German or American game. It is a key actor in European security, particularly as a logistics hub for military aid to Ukraine and a defender of NATO’s eastern flank. Finally, the claim also invokes fears of ‘nuclear extermination’ – another go-to information manipulation tactic for the Kremlin.
- The Kremlin’s agents of manipulation also sought to combine two of their preferred tactics – peddling nonsense about ‘colour revolutions’ and smearing EU leaders with absurd accusations. In this case, claiming that Kaja Kallas brought equipment to Moldova to suppress protests. This bizarre claim was made on the backdrop of HRVP Kallas’ recent visit to Moldova(opens in a new tab) to show support for the country’s path to the European Union. The pro-Kremlin claims grossly mischaracterised the nature of EU support. Indeed, the EU provided equipment(opens in a new tab) such as bulletproof vests, protective helmets, special vehicles, software, and communication equipment to the Moldovan National Police in support of strengthening Moldova’s security. Conflating EU support with unfounded allegations of instigating ‘colour revolutions’ is deliberately misleading and manipulative. It is also no accident. Moldova has been squarely in the Kremlin’s disinformation cross-hairs all along the country’s path to EU accession(opens in a new tab). Don’t be deceived.