Kremlin prepares Russians for protracted war with NATO – ISW
21 April 07:57
The Russian government is militarizing Russian society in order to justify the invasion of Ukraine and possibly prepare it for a possible future protracted conflict with NATO. This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), reports "Komersant Ukrainian"
It is noted that Russian authorities are voicing narratives aimed at increasingly militarizing their own society in the long term.
ISW cites an interview with Russian state journalist Pavel Zarubin as an example of this campaign. On Sunday, April 20, he asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to comment on the EU leadership’s recommendation to European leaders and officials to refrain from attending the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow.
In response, Lavrov accused the EU of fomenting “neo-Nazi ideology” in Europe and said that Russia “will do everything possible to ensure that this ideology does not raise its head again” and will destroy Nazism “once and for all”
ISW called such statements by the Russian foreign minister part of a multi-year information campaign by the Kremlin, which appeals to the USSR’s victory over Nazi Germany and the broader “Great Patriotic War” myth to smear Europe and NATO.
Experts say these efforts are aimed at reinforcing negative sentiments among the Russian population and attracting support for the militarization of Russian society in the long term.
“The Kremlin has already used this myth to convince Russians that their social and economic sacrifices in support of the war against Ukraine can ensure total victory,” the report said.
The institute recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Kremlin officials regularly use the vague term “denazification” to refer to the change of power in Ukraine and the establishment of a pro-Russian puppet regime.
Analysts also recalled Putin’s statement that the Ukrainian government is allegedly controlled by Nazis as a pretext for a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“The Kremlin is increasingly using similar tactics against Finland and former Soviet republics, including Estonia and Moldova. Moscow is trying to justify its attempts to control independent states and prepare the informational ground for possible future Russian aggression,” ISW believes.
We shall remind you that the press secretary of the Russian dictator, Dmitry Peskov, said that Vladimir Putin had not given a command to extend the “Easter truce”.
