In his “state of the nation” speech, Kremlin chief Putin blatantly spread obvious lies. The audience in the hall nods in agreement – representing three quarters of the Russians who support the war of aggression against Ukraine. Because no matter how absurd Putin’s statements are, his people buy everything from him.
Exactly one year has passed since the speech in which Russian President Vladimir Putin openly justified his country’s impending invasion of Ukraine. Back then, on February 21, 2022, the Kremlin chief denied the neighboring country’s right to exist and recognized the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. A few hours later, Putin ordered Russian troops to be sent to the two regions in the Donbass. By then, at the latest, it was clear: Putin’s Russia is not complying with international law, it is playing by its own rules.
On the anniversary of this hateful and groundbreaking speech, which he delivered from a desk at the time, Putin made a public appearance and spoke for almost two hours on “the state of the nation”. Again he spreads out his view of history and the present at length. “They started the war. We did everything to stop it,” Putin claims, referring to the West. The audience nods in agreement, and one has to fear that this nod is representative of Russian society. “Like in Soviet times, the passive agreement with the state, even with its crimes, prevails,” said the head of the Russian polling institute Levada, Lev Gudkov, recently in the Interview with the “Daily Mirror”.
The brainwashing in Russia works so effectively that even completely absurd statements are not questioned and are believed to be true. Because of course the whole world knows that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine. But Putin can claim the opposite – the majority of his people will trust him blindly.
The message: It’s even worse in the West
Putin devotes a large part of his speech to domestic, practical issues such as housing, education and culture. The population should believe that the ruler in the Kremlin takes care of them. Unlike in the West: As in numerous earlier speeches, Putin is again spreading the image of Western societies that are being systematically destroyed by their governments: through “the destruction of families, of cultural and national identities, the perversion and abuse of children to the point of pedophilia “. Priests would be forced to bless homosexual couples. The message: You, the Russians, may not be doing well – but things are much worse in the West.
Because Putin’s speech is not primarily aimed at the audience in the hall. There sit the members of parliament, prominent actors, musicians, clergy, entertainers, business people and bloggers. They are people known and familiar to every Russian. At the same time, they are representatives of Russian society – a society that has been downright zombified by propaganda and has been living in a parallel world for years. For Western viewers, it is absurd how obvious the lies that Putin is spreading from the stage are.
Three quarters of Russians support Putin
Putin knows that his war would not be possible without the broad support of this zombified public. The ruler thanks him for this: “I am proud that the vast majority supported the decision to carry out the special military operation.” It is one of the few statements in this speech that is not a lie. Levada’s polls show that three quarters of the population support this war. The few opponents of the war have fled abroad or have fallen silent.
Putin has nothing new to announce. He neither indicates a willingness to negotiate with Ukraine nor calls the “special operation” for what it is: a war. Nor does he announce another wave of mobilization. Presumably, if it happens one day, he’ll leave that to his secretary of defense. The ruler prefers to leave the spreading of bad news to others.