Russia calls Ukrainians Nazis to convince its population to continue war - StopFake director Deynychenko

My first question is how the Russian propaganda machine chooses its topics. Where is the logic and all that?

Yeah, the logic exists. Of course, these fakes have something in common. And the audience that these fakes are aimed at is common. This is a foreign audience. We know that this week President Zelenskyy is on a tour to France, the UK, and Brussels, and of course Russian propaganda wants to create certain circumstances and information noise around this visit. All of these fakes are meant to remind the audience that the so-called 'Zelenskyy regime' are Nazis, they support Nazis, they don't allow Ukrainians to speak their native Russian, and the Russian minority cannot speak Russian. And, of course, nuclear threats. Every time Western countries are about to provide us with a new batch of weapons, Putin and Medvedev remind the West that the Kremlin has the ability to use nuclear weapons. They threaten Western countries with nuclear war. So the purpose of all these fakes is to spoil the intentions of the Ukrainian government to find new weapons.

And the image of the President of Ukraine as well. 

Of course. 

Other fakes made by the Russian propaganda machine, which the Kremlin spreads on a daily basis, may be successful among the public in European countries. Is there any success in what they are trying to do?

The Russian propaganda machine is very creative, and every time they fail or are not very successful, they try to invent new ways to reach people. They create new narratives to influence people in Russia, Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States. They are very creative. Of course, our project and many other people who are fighting Russian disinformation and propaganda are following them, trying to track their activities and look for effective ways to intervene and stop the spread of lies about Ukraine, and not only about Ukraine, but also lies that the Russian propaganda machine produces on an industrial scale.

Is there any mechanism to not just check fakes, but to punish Russian media for producing these fakes? Can we simply put propagandists in jail?

Yes, I think that the ultimate goal of all fact-checkers and the Ukrainian authorities is to punish those who produce this information, who deliberately spread lies in an attempt to stir up conflicts in Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States. But, of course, our project and fact-checkers in other countries collect evidence. We have more than 50,000 pieces of evidence that we can present to international courts. And I hope that the day will come when all these media personalities involved in this criminal activity will be brought to justice, because this will be a very important lesson for future generations.

Why is Russia trying to dehumanize Ukrainians by referring to us as Nazis?

They are trying to convince their own population that Ukrainians are Nazis, so let's go and kill them. They want a lot of people in Russia to leave their jobs, their families, pick up their assault rifles and go to Ukraine to kill Ukrainians, because otherwise it will be very difficult to explain to Russians why they should support this war. So, this is the only way they can do it.

By the way, Russian officials are trying to explain why they invaded Ukraine. There is no logical explanation for what they are doing, because they keep shifting the main goal of the invasion of Ukraine all the time. 

Yes, it is true. At first, they spread information about biolabs or nuclear weapons possessed by Ukraine, but later they started inventing new reasons for war. Of course, it was complete b*llsh*t. No one believed that Ukraine had invented mosquitoes that could bite only Russians. They are trying to come up with new explanations why this war should be continued by Russia.

And the last question for today. Who are these Europeans and people from other countries who can accept all these fakes? 

There are different types of people. There are people who write these stories on their Facebook and Instagram accounts. Some of them are useful idiots who believe conspiracy theories and other nonsense, but there are people who do it for money. They do it because Russia supports some political parties in the European Union and invests a lot of money to support them in the media, so these people help Russia to promote this nonsense.