Russia’s Genocide State Media Justifies Ukraine’s War Crimes

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s elite propagandists he wanted to drink champagne in the studio to celebrate the moment properly. The head of the state propaganda agency, RT, Margarita Simonyan, expressed an overwhelming sense of euphoria and added: I waited eight years for this. . . it finally happened. This is true happiness.

With the bloody all-out invasion now in its second year, euphoria has been replaced by a lingering sense of dread, with Putin’s mouthpieces routinely concerned about the possibility of war crimes tribunals. The issue plays on their minds.

Appearing on the state television show, Evening with Vladimir Solovyov In November, Simonian said: Let me tell you that if we manage to lose, The Hague whether real or hypothetical will come even for the street sweeper who sweeps the cobblestones behind the Kremlin. In the same month, Olga Skabeeva, the host of the state television show 60 Minutes, also predicted that if Russia loses the war against Ukraine, every Russian will be held guilty. He argued that a resounding victory was the only way to avoid the Hague tribunals, criminal cases and the obligation to pay reparations.

As the months pass, these concerns have not subsided. During the Solovyovs show on March 6, Vitaly Tretyakov, dean of Moscow State University’s Higher Television School, expressed his concern over statements by prominent Western figures demanding that Putin and other Russians face war crimes tribunals.

Kremlin propagandists have plenty of reason to worry. scavengers and other average citizens rather less so. The uproar over war crimes against Ukrainians (described as animals and worse), descriptions of them as Nazis, and revelry over attacks on citizens’ homes and power grids has not, after all, been transmitted by the people on the streets. From the lowest pawns on Putin’s chessboard to the queens of propaganda like Simonyan and Skabieva, state-controlled media have played a central role in inciting, encouraging, rationalizing and normalizing the Kremlin’s slaughter of their next-door neighbors.

It may be tempting to interpret such vulgar language as nonsense designed for a domestic audience. But the explosions of the propaganda machine often foreshadow or justify serious acts of state violence against Ukraine, including the mass killing of civilians, the mass kidnapping of Ukrainian citizens, the weaponization of migration flows, and the evisceration of Ukrainian politics.

Examples of such speeches are easy to find. They multiply every night on live TV. Before the full-scale invasion, Russian state media favored portraying pro-independence Ukrainians as pigs, with corresponding cartoons appearing on state television, where Ukrainian language, food and traditions were routinely mocked. As of February 2022, the descriptions have descended into the realm of outright dehumanization. During his show in July, Solovyov said: When a doctor deworms a cat, for the doctor it’s a special operation, for the worms it’s a war, and for the cat it’s a cleaning.

In October, RT broadcast director Anton Krasovsky suggested drowning Ukrainian children, setting fire to Ukrainian homes with the residents inside and claiming that Ukrainian grandmothers would gladly pay to be raped by Russian soldiers. He insisted that Ukraine should end up in its current form, with its only surviving strip zoned for pig farming. Krasovsky felt the need to clarify that when he said pigs, he did not mean Ukrainian women.

In October, Pavel Gubarev, a Russian politician who proclaimed himself the “People’s Governor” of Donetsk Oblast in 2014 and later as the leader of the People’s Militia of Donbass, explained that Ukrainians were, Russians, possessed by the devil, and that Russia’s goal was to convince them that they are not Ukrainians. He added: But if you don’t want us to change your mind, then we will kill you. We will kill as many of you as necessary. We will kill 1 million or 5 million, we can wipe you all out.

Months earlier, in May, State Duma deputy Aleksey Zhuravlyov appeared60 minutesdescribe his calculations of the number of Ukrainians who would be re-educated by rewiring their brains, as opposed to the millions who would refuse to give up their Ukrainian identity and who therefore must to be killed At most 5% are incurable. Simply put, 2 million people. . . These 2 million people should have left Ukraine or they must be de-Nazified, which means destroyed.

There is a broad consensus in the state-controlled media that this so-called de-Nazification means mass murder. In April again 60 minutesZhuravlyov and Skabeeva agreed that this process is completed by shooting or beheading.

Nor was there any doubt in the minds of Russian officials that the aim of the invasions was to oppress rather than liberate its population. In an interview with RT in December, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s former ambassador to NATO and former deputy prime minister for defense and space industry, acknowledged that Ukrainians did not welcome their Russian invaders and that it would take a huge effort to change that perception. them It will be many years even after our victory before we can secure the absolute loyalty of this population. Turning this vast territory into Russia will require plenty of manpower, time and effort, he said.

The issue of long-term employment is common. Deputy of the State Duma, General Vladimir Shamanov, former commander of the Airborne Forces of Russia, is appreciated that it would take at least two generations of Ukrainians to be re-educated before they would tolerate Russian rule. Show on 60 minuteson March, concluded Shamanov: Today, it can be clearly predicted that we will have to stay in Ukraine for 30-40 years.

During the same broadcast, military expert Igor Korotchenko assumed, it is obvious that the process of de-nazization of Ukraine will take at least 15-20 years. He predicted that Russian troops would have to remain on Ukrainian soil, with a significant Russian presence for the foreseeable future.

On March 6, Tretyakov, of the Higher School of Television, he emphasized that Russian military bases should be established throughout Ukraine in order to control the mentality of that territory. He argued that Ukrainians have been turned into animals and Russia must plan its actions accordingly.

It is quite easy to understand the connection between the talking points that usually compare Ukrainians to animals, bugs or worms with atrocities such as loofahthe torture and killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war, attempts to freeze and starve civilians to death bydestroying critical infrastructureand violent expulsion of Ukrainians including children to Russia.

Russian academics are happy to explain the logic of Kremlin-directed violence and provide an intellectual gloss. It is explained that the attacks to deprive Ukrainians of electricity, running water and food are part of a larger plan. So the forced movement of millions to Russia is to compensate for its serious demographic deficiencies, while 8 million more have been pushed westward to overwhelm Europe and undermine its economy by creating a refugee crisis. In October, speaking on the Solovyovs show, Andrey Sidorov, associate dean of world politics at Moscow State University, acknowledged that the Ukraine disaster had secondary benefit: We should wait for the right moment and cause a migration crisis in Europe with a new influx of Ukrainians, he said.

And in January, his host Solovyov LiveSergey Mardan, he rejoiced in souls forced to leave their homes and enter Putin’s Russia: See how much the Motherland is spending to solve the demographic problem. . . We have these people [Ukrainians] free, for nothing about five million of them! Five million souls!

In the world of Russian state television, everyone has a soul, but not everyone has the right to live their life. Some things are just more important, says Professor Elena Ponomareva of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations explained in March Solovyov Show: Never let ethics get in the way of doing the right thing. I understand the importance of a humanitarian component. . . but morality should not get in the way.

It’s not hard to imagine those words echoing through a courtroom as the prosecution lays out its case against Professor Ponomareva and her co-defendants.

Julia Davis is a columnist for The Daily Beast and creator of the Russian Media Monitor. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, and Women in Motion Pictures.

Europes Edge is a CEPA online magazine covering critical foreign policy issues across Europe and North America. All views are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.