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- Ukraine, Temple of Satan: Russia’s most ridiculous propaganda myths
Ukraine, Temple of Satan: Russia’s most ridiculous propaganda myths
By dehumanizing Ukraininans Russian propaganda tries to avoid sparking sympathy from their audience while showing the destruction of Ukrainian towns
Russian propaganda is seen as one of the most efficient weapons of President Vladimir Putin in his year-long war against Ukraine. Opinion polls show that the vast majority of Russians still get their information from TV. Here is a look at some of the most ridiculous claims made by state propagandists since the beginning of the invasion.
Killer pigeons
In the early weeks of the war, Moscow claimed that the United States was training birds in Ukraine to spread deadly diseases that target Russians. The RIA Novosti state news agency showed maps, documents, and pictures of alleged “killer pigeons” bearing the U.S. coat of arms.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov even said that Russian military authorities managed to capture some of the infected birds from the so-called Kherson Reserve in eastern Ukraine. Earlier on Tuesday, President Putin in his state-of-the-nation address once again mentioned U.S. “bio laboratories” operating across Ukraine.
The story got so blown up in the media that the U.S. State Department had to respond, calling these claims "outright lies" and "total nonsense." Pentagon spokesman John Kirby referred to the allegations as "absurd," "laughable," and "propaganda," while White House press secretary Jen Psaki called them "preposterous."
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Meanwhile, online users shared stories of ordinary Russians in the regions bordering Ukraine poisoning pigeons trying to avoid being “infected.” Given that Russian officials and media insist that Russians and Ukrainians are one nation “artificially divided” by the Soviet leadership, it puzzled many how the birds were trained to attack only Russians but spare the Ukrainians.
Poland and the invasion of Ukraine
Another popular trope of Russian propaganda is that Poland, which has been one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters since the beginning of the war hosting millions of refugees, is plotting to invade Ukraine.
The Russian leadership has repeatedly claimed that Poland is preparing to annex territories in western Ukraine with state TV anchors spending hours on air discussing the alleged invasion with “military experts.” Sergei Naryshkin, the chief of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, was quoted by leading media outlets citing unpublished intelligence that allegedly showed how the United States and Poland intend to “divide” Ukraine.
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The plan, according to these reports, saw Polish "peacekeeping" forces without a NATO mandate entering parts of western Ukraine, where they were unlikely to encounter Russian troops. Warsaw denied the claims as “disinformation.”
"The aim of Russian propaganda is to foster distrust between Ukraine and Poland, to undermine PL-UA cooperation,” said Stanislaw Zaryn, spokesman for Poland's special services coordinator.
Hamster soup
As winter approached and Europe stubbornly refused to freeze and lift up the sanctions on Russian gas as was predicted by Russian officials, propagandist channel RT released a video to comfort its audience. The staged clip shows a European family celebrating Christmas 2021 in a cozy living room full of lights and decorations with a daughter receiving a hamster as a gift from her parents.
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On Christmas 2022, the family is shown in total darkness wearing warm clothes and using the running hamster to light up the tree, apparently due to the lack of Russian energy supplies. On Christmas 2023, the same family looks like they survived the Apocalypse, and the mother is forced to make hamster soup to feed them.
The video that drew a lot of attention on social media recites the months-long narrative of the Russian media that Europe will be plunged into the worst economic and energy crisis in history over its support for Ukraine.
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Zelensky on cocaine
While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was praised by international media as the most influential politician of the year, Russian media have long been calling him a “clown” and “drug addict.” If the first nickname refers to Zelensky’s career as a popular comedian, the latest comes from videos allegedly showing a pile of cocaine on his table.
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Despite the footage being apparently fake, it became a common narrative on social media both inside Russia and abroad. Russian media have been obsessively broadcasting any videos of the president sniffing or looking tired to feed these claims.
Pope and the Temple of Satan
As polls showed that Russians are losing any understanding of what they are fighting for in Ukraine, Russian TV propagandists went from the narrative of “fighting Nazis” to quasi-religious claims. The U.S. is referred to as the “American temple of Satan, located in Salem.”
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Even Pope Francis was designated as Satan’s servant for expressing his support for Ukraine. Last month’s report on Russian state TV showed fighters from Russia’s Chechen Republic, whom the Pope criticized for cruelty against Ukrainian civilians, claiming he “opened the Temple of Satan.”
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Moscow’s troops are in turn portrayed as crusaders fighting a “holy war” against “Satanists.” Ukraine itself was described by guests of Russian political talk shows as “Gollum” in an apparent reference to Lord of the Rings. Another popular narrative is that “the Ukrainian God is the devil.” The Ukrainians are also described as “the unclean,” which is another term for demons in Russian fairy tales.
Experts believe that this trend that goes against every statement of the Russian leadership about the “brotherly nations” and “saving people of Ukraine from Nazis” is aimed at dehumanizing the Ukrainians. It allows Russian propaganda to avoid sparking sympathy from their audience while showing the destruction of Ukrainian towns amid intensified Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure.