Putin's illusionary world smashes against reality

This stresses and confuses them. After all, when Russia doesn't know what new equipment may suddenly appear on the battlefield at any time, it becomes much more difficult for them to plan their military operations.

Putin continues to live in a fantasy world of KGB fabrications, where nobody has the right to disagree or contradict him. The Russian dictator, using powerful Moscow propaganda, seeks to convince the world that the Russian Federation is winning the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, the words of this war criminal mean nothing, as he previously declared multiple times that he wouldn't intervene in Ukraine, and the troop buildup on Russia's borders was merely maneuvers. Yet, from the very beginning, Putin's goal has been one thing – the cessation of the Ukrainian state.

He is attempting to convince the Western public that the Ukrainian language does not exist and that Ukrainians have no right to exist because they are all "Nazis." Moreover, this mythical "Nazism" of Ukrainians, as interpreted by Putin's regime, is the unwillingness to Russify, to give up their language, culture, national customs and traditions. Obviously, using similar approaches, one can also label all other independent states that were once forcibly drawn into the USSR as "Nazis."

However, when we talk about Putin's KGB fantasy world, it is necessary to recall the myth-making that has been the basis of his totalitarian regime for 25 years.

"When Moscow started the war on February 24, 2022, few of the Russian dictator's entourage could have imagined the damage that demythologizing the criminal-oligarchic government could do to the Kremlin. A government that state propaganda has given unrealistic force of arms and fictional power."

For almost two years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have managed to destroy myths about the "second army of the world," about Russian ballistic missiles that are "incapable of shooting down air defense systems," and about the "heroism" of Moscow soldiers. Most of them decided to take part in the invasion of Ukraine, hoping to make money from the blood of Ukrainians.

The question is, what will be the next myths to be destroyed by the Ukrainian army? That the Russian Federation is winning the war? That the Russian economy is not being destroyed by sanctions? That Moscovia can become a self-sufficient state that does not need to participate in the world's global economic cooperation? That self-isolation will only benefit Russians? That their country is a distinctive model of civilization separate from others? That this civilization will only benefit from severing ties with the West, which is unable to understand the separate trajectory of development that Russia is following.

Myth-making as a kind of Kremlin propaganda

In fact, mythmaking in the Russian interpretation has become a form of Kremlin propaganda that is being spilled out in huge quantities. Despite its technological backwardness, Russia has managed to use tools that were unimaginable in the past to create a world of myths and realize the political fantasies of the usurper. We are talking about the use of propaganda channels and accessible media, including the Internet, YouTube, social networks, bloggers, professional journalism, state television and media.

“The model of modern mythological Russian propaganda is built in such a way that distorted or completely unreliable information is presented quickly, efficiently and repeatedly. This leads to the fact that propagandists themselves begin to believe in the myths they have created, and then, when developing operational plans for waging war in Ukraine, these myths begin to act against those who created them.”

For example, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, trying to convince everyone of the "strength" and "valor" of the Russian army, constantly voices not only completely false information but also invents imaginary victories. 

This "battle general" of the TV information troops is a clear example of Russian mythological disinformation. He appears on TV several times a day to inform the people in the capital and in the countryside that Putin's terrorist forces have allegedly taken and are holding such-and-such occupied Ukrainian settlements under their control. This regime-coddled war criminal often receives all this information heresy from Putin's own administration. And if he is told that "the Russians are successfully advancing on the Moon and have almost completely driven the Martians out of there," he will not hesitate to voice this as well.

“In this way, a kind of information cycle takes place, when mythologemes invented in the Kremlin return to those who created them through television. Putin, who doesn't like the Internet but trusts TV completely, will watch it in the evening, and in the morning he will perceive all the information nonsense as his own action program.”

Russian propagandists are Moscow's information weapon. The total zombification and dumbing down of Russians by Putin and his criminal regime was made possible by their criminal activities. The ideological front includes not only Konashenkov but also Skabeeva, Solovyov, Simonyan, Kiselev, Popov, Sheinin and Keosayan. All of them have publicly called for the genocide of the Ukrainian people, and therefore they are just as guilty of the war with Ukraine that Russia has unleashed as Putin.

The formula for Ukrainophobia in Moscow is the mythical idea of the messianic Russian superiority

The mythologizing and heroizing of the bloody war of aggression in Ukraine by propagandists helps to mobilize the power structure in Russia to support this war. Moscow's propaganda has become one of the forms of the Putin regime's ability to maintain its position, becoming almost equivalent to economic and military power. Putin's propagandists' mastery of the tools of mass deception and the mythologization of Russian military power help the dictator keep the population of the Russian Federation in line, keeping it from protests, riots and rebellions for now.

Putin's terrorist army is unable to defeat Ukrainians on the battlefield. However, war is not only a physical confrontation with enemy troops, it is also a political action aimed at suppressing the enemy's will to resist. That is why Moscow periodically launches disinformation that Ukraine has almost lost. Therefore, there is no point in helping it, because it is hopeless and just a waste of resources. The main goal of such mythological emissions is to cause a negative response from Ukraine's allies and partners and to convince them that Ukraine is in a hopeless situation and must agree to all the Kremlin's absurd demands.

It should be stressed that, since the Bolshevik coup of 1917, the Russian propaganda machine has more than a century of experience in shaping ordinary Russians' views. During the Soviet era, the state not only controlled all media, radio and television but also the education system and the cultural sphere in order to exercise total control over society and encourage the population to be "proud" of the authority and strength of the USSR.

It is from that period that the Russian population's trust in what they are told on TV has remained. Starting from Kashpirovsky's TV sessions of "mass healing" to Putin's TV speeches, which zombify Russians with the fact that the war with Ukraine is in the interests of the entire Russian people. It is supposed to restore Russia's former superpower status and influence in solving global problems.

“In this way, myth-making propaganda ties its objects to emotionally charged symbols and uses them to infect Russians with a sense of imperial superiority over other nations. Hence the desire to oppose the so-called "Russian world" to Western civilization.”

Putin is acting in perfect tandem with his full-time propagandists. And in his speeches, he tries to convince domestic and foreign audiences that in implementing its genocidal policy in Ukraine, the Russian Federation is acting solely within the framework of international law, while the hypocritical West is engaged in "pressure," "blackmail," and "deception."

Putin's anti-Ukrainian myths are based on the idea that Russians and Ukrainians are one nation, that the Ukrainian language does not exist because it is simply a distorted Russian language, and that Moscovia did not colonize Ukraine, but that it has always been and remains an integral part of historical Russia. The falsification of Moscow's history is more than 300 years old. And so it is not surprising that from the first Romanov tsars to the general secretaries of the Communist Party, to Putin's latest falsification of history, the Russian goal has always remained the same: to destroy Ukrainian national identity at all costs.

The formula for Moscow's Ukrainophobia is very simple: the mythical idea of Russia's messianic superiority, its culture, and its historical mission. And Russian imperial chauvinism is nothing more than racism multiplied by fascism. In this context, the only thing that suits Putin and his accomplices is the destruction of the Ukrainian people and their country, Ukraine.

Russia's war with Ukraine, among other things, is about the historical heritage of Ukraine-Rus', which Putin is trying to appropriate by destroying Ukrainian statehood. The Russian Federation claims Ukraine to support its false argument that Russia is a great power that has existed for millennia. Without Ukraine, Russia cannot claim a "millennial history" because Kyiv already existed for many centuries before a small settlement called Moscow appeared among the swamps and forests.

Moscow brutally and cruelly wants to seize what does not belong to it by force. But recent years have completely shattered the myth that was built on a false idea of Russia's strength and power. All the other imperial myths, one by one, are also beginning to dissipate. And this is an objective reality from which Putin cannot escape.

About the author. Viktor Kaspruk, journalist

The editorial team doesn't always share the opinions expressed by blog authors