Threat of “Peace”
One of the key principles of Russian propaganda is that it constantly repeats itself. That is why it is comparatively effective for various target audiences.
Still, an inquiring mind and good memory can protect every Ukrainian citizen. And you don’t have to be a journalist or expert.
Flashbacks: Useful and Educational
The very next day “Berkut” beat up students on the Maidan, which was followed by one of the largest protests in Ukrainian history, Yanukovych’s government and the forces which supported renunciation of the Association Agreement with the EU pulled themselves together and counter-attacked the Revolution of Dignity, which was just picking up at the moment.
In the evening of 8 December 2013, I wrote a blog about the information special op launched against the Ukrainian people. Hardly had the Facebook communities such as “EuroMaidan” and “EuroMaidan SOS” been created and picked up when communities named “My Za Mir” (“We Are for Peace”) emerged and started producing lots of content.
The community’s main narrative was to depict the protesters as unwilling to work but wanting violence, turmoil and chaos in the country.
Massive investments were allocated to promote those communities, which even affected the national digital market, as context and banner advertising experts immediately came to notice.
In addition, special videos designed to demonstrate the scale of the movement against the Revolution of Dignity were made and placed on apparently bot-like YouTube channels.
They were so obviously botched up that “creacles” uploaded them several times, correcting the mistakes. Still, I have the original, and you’re gonna weep just having a look at it.
First, please pay attention to the legs of the people in the video standing in the first row. Most of them (I mean legs) exist separately from the bodies and still call for “peace.” When I noticed this in the social media, the video was promptly edited.
Second, look at how the actors’ lips move when saying “My Za Mir dot com! Join us!” in Ukrainian (they mean the community’s lending page, myzamir.com, now inactive, but available in cash).
It is rather evident that the actors really say “My Za Mir dot com! Join us!” in Russian. That is, the video was shot in a place where people couldn’t repeat a single phrase in Ukrainian and then dubbed.
Third, it is only around 8 to 10 people who took part in the filming. They were photoshopped to resemble a large crowd so carelessly that you can see a few dozen twins and triplets with the naked eye. This technology was excessively used later in Crimea.
On 9 December 2013, the video was posted on the eponymous Facebook community.
If you look through this page, you’ll see this is the only post to have suddenly been liked more than five times and commented more than thrice.
Interestingly, bot accounts created specifically for this action can still be found on the Internet with posts dated December 2013 (when the investors stopped financing this sham).
I’ll be a bit boastful in saying that those blogs stopped writing as soon as your obedient servant exposed this shenanigan and posted proof of a bot attack.
“Endi Makkalister: Peace is the staff of life!!!”
“Dmitry Astafev: That’s why I like our people — happy and easy-going, not those standing on Maidan — frozen and having no inkling about what they’re actually standing for! The country needs peace!”
“Ekaterina Borisenko: What a wonderful video! We’ll continue calling people for PEACE!”
“Yasya Ukhanova: The video I think is cheering))) I would like to take part)”
“Fedor Dolgorukii: If we weren’t pitched against each other for someone else’s benefit, we’d have all fine and there wouldn’t have so many deaths because of Maidan.”
Sequel: Always Cheaper Than a New Scenario
Then, at the expense of our fellows’ lives, we overcame those manipulations. And, in memory of them, we have to do this once again. Thankfully, the manipulations and the tools through which they’re carried out haven’t changed for years, indicative of the aggressor’s narrow-mindedness and stubbornness.
The “peace” narrative, imposed on Ukrainian society, has the only goal — to persuade Ukrainians to think that they are guilty of the death of their comrades and fellows and that they have to get back on their knees before the Kremlin and beg for mercy — that is, make considerable concessions and compromises.
This narrative was reinforced again when Henry Kissinger — a great friend and colleague of late Evgeny Primakov, a former Russian prime minister and chief intelligence officer, whose son has been banned from entering Ukraine, — was able to offer Donald Trump his plan to resolve the “Ukrainian problem” (understandably, in the interest of his Russian partners).
To this end, Kissinger suggested Trump recognise Crimea as part of Russia and carry on with negotiations on Donbas. The idea can be traced back to August 2014, when two expert groups (from Russia and the U.S.) met on the Finnish island of Boisto to decide on the fate of Ukraine (here’s a research of the meeting).
Back to Square One
Another shot with “peace-stuffed” bullets was fired at Ukraine when Viktor Pinchuk had his article published in The Wall Street Journal.
In the article, we were again aggressively asked to reconcile ourselves to our lot and “compromise” with the rapist of Ukraine’s independence and international law — Putin.
Still, compromise is a two-side process. So I couldn’t help offering the author of a scandalous op-ed in WSJ my own vision of the way to compromise.
Our Brand Is “Peace”
Today, we are seeing yet another episode of the “Peace for Ukraine” series, offered by those who did everything to ignite war with Ukraine. Luckily, the offer is as clumsy as in the previous episodes.
The same bot attack:
The same messages:
The same demands: “Agree to our conditions of stopping aggression — or else.”
Sergey Shoigu, Russia’s defence ministry, has recently announced the largest military drills in the last 37 years, with more than 300,000 military officers participating. What else can it be but muscle-flexing and intimidation on the eve of the elections?
However, the grandest and the most uncompromising war is for your minds andyou’re your future! Don’t give them up without a fight…
