Steve Rosenberg, State Propagandist-in-Chief for the BBC in Russia, posted this…
Here’s Steve. Note he has three phones. Oh sorry, four. Uber-connected professional.
Steve’s piece is a shining example of propaganda narrative at work, wherein Steve interviews local Russian residents of Belgorod and then blatantly inserts words they never spoke; Steve’s words.
Steve hears the opinions of local Russians but then counters them, evidently in an attempt to drown those out with his own; Steve’s opinions.
“Everyone I speak to at the market tells me they live in fear of Ukrainian shelling. But they omit to mention that it was their country that invaded Ukraine.“
“Conversations here run similar to those at the market, with most people telling me: yes, security only became a problem after the invasion, but, no, they don’t blame the invasion itself. It’s as if there’s a psychological firewall preventing people from connecting the deteriorating security situation to the decision of their president.“
With a startling lack of irony, Steve writes “In addition to the slogans on the street, there’s also the propaganda on Russian state TV. From morning till night news bulletins and talk shows assure viewers that Russia is in the right; that Ukraine and the West are the aggressors and that in this conflict the very future of Russia is at stake.”
“The messaging works.” Says Steve. No shit, Steve. It’s why you do the work you do.
For Steve, those Russian civilians that he ‘interviews’ simply do not use the correct words, or express the right opinions and it’s his job to put them right.
“References to Hitler are not accidental. You hear them all the time on Russian TV. To spark patriotic fervour and boost public support for the “special military operation,” the Kremlin paints the war in Ukraine in similar colours as World War Two: as Russia fighting fascism, battling to defend the Motherland from foreign invaders.
The reality is very different. In 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In 2022 Vladimir Putin’s Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”
Says Steve, declining any mention of facts and events that led up to the February 2022 decision to start the ‘special military operation.’ Natch.
Facts and events such as western (EU/NATO) expansion and intent, the US-orchestrated colour-revolution and coup of February 2014 that illegally deposed Yanukovych, the 2014/2015 massacres of anti-Maidan protesters in Odesa and across the Donbas, or Ukraine’s brutal eight-year military suppression of the eastern oblasts of Ukraine that led to 14,000 deaths, nor the draconian ethnic suppression mandates from the Kiev government against free-movement, pensions, language and culture.
Not to mention the in-your-face existence of fascists throughout Ukraine, documented (in stunningly ironic detail) by the BBC themselves, alongside numerous ‘western’ media outlets in a stream of ‘special reports’ over the eight years prior to 2022, and the continued video/photographic evidence of neo-nazis serving in the military and governmental structures of Ukraine throughout the ‘special military operation’ including Valerii Zaluzhnyi, current Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
And, of course, the deliberate, duplicitous abrogation (by the US, France, Germany and Ukraine) of international agreements undertaken with the Russians (such as Minsk, that sought to end conflict in Donbas and autonomise the region while retaining Ukrainian statehood)… all with the stated intent to strengthen and militarise Ukraine to ‘western standards’ in keeping with long-planned US (in particular) geopolitical planning that intends the dismantling of Russia and the overthrow of Russia’s government. All of which is extensively documented and admitted (by Zelenskyy, Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko et al).
Does Steve know all of this? Of course he does, but his purpose is to tell a story and voice a narrative from the dominant western perspective. Truth, facts and evidence be damned.
Steve quotes Evgeny, a local Russian, who we are told ‘set up a support group for Ukrainians who’ve crossed into Russia to escape the war.’
This local, inserts Steve, has an ‘opinion of Ukraine [that] chimes with the controversial views of President Putin.’
“We’re one people,” Evgeny tells Steve. “Ukrainians are Russians. They’ve just forgotten about it.”
But rather than listening or even to allow his audience to absorb the weight of Evgeny’s words and actions, off goes Steve with his own narrative insertions…
“A year of war and fierce Ukrainian resistance suggest the opposite: that now, more than at any other time in its post-Soviet history, the Ukrainian people value their sovereignty and independence and are determined not to be forced back into Moscow’s orbit.
Meanwhile, Moscow continues to portray Ukrainian officials as neo-Nazis and Western governments as Nazi sympathisers: another reason for the Kremlin’s frequent references to the 1940s.
Under President Putin, the national idea is constructed around World War Two – what most Russians refer to as the Great Patriotic War: both the Soviet Union’s victory in that war, and the enormous human cost of that victory. It is a hugely emotive subject.”
Steve sweepingly speaks, of course, for the ‘Ukrainian people’ as though he truthfully reflects their collective desires and wishes for the future. This despite the glaring fact that there is and has never been such a thing as unity amongst Ukrainians on such issues.
It would be truthful of Steve to point out that between 60,000 to 100,000 troops fighting against the Kiev government are Ukrainians and that ‘the people’ whom these soldiers represent (almost 4 million) have their own ideas regarding ‘sovereignty and independence’ and are quite clearly determined not to be forced back into Kiev’s orbit.
Steve is also aware that the collective Russian opinion (that World War Two is viewed as ‘The Great Patriotic War’) is most certainly not a recent propaganda trick, let alone a ‘construct’ of Putin, but rather an historical national consequence of unimaginable Russian losses – some 27 million dead – suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany. That ‘the west’ does not understand the sensitivity of the Russian populace regarding WW2 is shown by the gifting to Ukraine of German Leopard tanks, marked with the Balkenkreutz and named after a big cat. If anything, the German tank move was a gift to Putin as far as garnering public support goes; he evidently doesn’t need to engage in ‘constructing’ any propaganda when ‘the west’ make such kindergarten mistakes in judgement, optics or tone.
Referencing another local, Steve tells us that…
“Olga’s husband isn’t at home. He’s volunteered to fight in the “special military operation”. She accepts the official view – the version of events that much of the world dismisses as the Kremlin’s alternative reality.”
“Russia didn’t provoke this war,” Olga tells me. “A Russian will give you the shirt off his back. Russia didn’t attack Ukraine. Russians are peace-loving and generous.”
Olga is simply mistaken. Obviously. Steve puts her right and tells us that it is the Kremlin, Putin and Russians that are floundering in an ‘alternative reality’ dismissed by ‘much of the world.’
For ‘much of the world’ read ‘Western countries.’
Yet he’s simply not listening to the realities attested to by the very people he’s interviewing. Not his job, evidently.
Which is no surprise, as Steve did the very same when he interviewed Sergei Lavrov…
Steve will insert any western talking-point into his questioning, even when he asks questions of Putin himself…
Why bother interviewing people, Steve? Why not just write as yourself, in your own words and stating your own opinions? Clearly. Honestly. Why dress up your own narrative (suspiciously indistinct from that of virtually ALL western governments and media outlets) with the views of those you clearly believe lack your own shining veracity of mind and unerring capacity to understand reality?
As a vocal supporter of European ideals, democracy and freedom of speech, I’m sure Steve would be interested to hear questions posed to Macron, Sunak etc by Russian reporters made available to western audiences… only… Russian media outlets have been banned in the west… which, of course, leaves Steve free to dominate the ‘narrative landscape’ with his deceitful, unscrupulous and disingenuous verbage.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if Steve stopped inserting himself and his beliefs occasionally… and even lovelier if the BBC themselves reported issues dispassionately and with objectivity, thus allowing their audience to gain an understanding of world events taking into account full context, nuance, evidence and multiple perspectives?
But then that wouldn’t be propaganda, now would it?
As an example of Steve’s ‘the message works’ concept, take the sabotage of the Nordsteam pipelines; a terrorist action by any definition, and arguably an actual act of war. Despite a detailed expose (by Seymour Hersh) showing that the US and Norway did the dirty deed… and all available evidence contradicting the dominant claim that ‘the Russkies diddit,’ national governments (including, incredibly, Germany) and western media outlets – and Steve, of course – are sticking to ‘the message.’
Now that really is propaganda in action. And sure, Steve… it evidently works.