Russia’s history textbook rewrites Ukraine war, blames West — journalist

This view was shared by journalist Anna Murlykina on Espreso TV.

“The 11th-grade textbook edited by Medinsky is basically lifted from the propaganda show Solovyov Live. I’m not exaggerating. Any claim made about Ukraine on that show you’ll find it in the textbook. There’s talk of Banderites, Ukrainian neo-Nazis, separatists. It blames the West, says the West controls everything. America is shown as pulling the strings in Europe and trying to destroy Europe’s energy independence. And the author defines this ‘independence’ as Europe buying gas from Russia. In their view, that’s what independence means,” she said.

The textbook also claims that the U.S., to push its own companies, banned the EU from purchasing Russian gas, supposedly to wreck this so-called independence.

“Complete nonsense. And of course, the book repeats Putin’s talking point about the biggest tragedy of the 20th century — the fall of the Soviet Union. What really stands out is that the book doesn’t even try to argue anything. It’s pure propaganda, packed with emotional language that insults Ukrainians, denies Ukraine’s statehood, and doesn’t even follow the usual textbook format,” Murlykina added.

She also pointed out that the book ends with the start of the so-called "special military operation," but presents a goal different from what Putin actually announced.

“From Russia’s perspective now, the war didn’t start because of 'denazification' or to protect Russian speakers, which was the official story early on. Now kids are told that if Russia hadn’t attacked, Ukraine would’ve joined NATO for sure. And then Russia would’ve had to fight not just Ukraine, but NATO itself, and that would have meant the end of civilization. That’s literally how it’s written,” she said.

• On June 24, reports said that Russian propagandists are using Telegram channels in Poland to spread anti-Ukrainian messages and stir up conflict between Ukrainians and Poles.