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An interesting side-aspect of the war is the degree to which it is local Russian press which, from the first, has been leading the way on covering RU casualties. I wonder if there are wider conclusions to be drawn about the limitations of the state censorship regime but also 1/
I inevitably draw parallels with the Soviet Afghan War, as I did my PhD research on that, and although today's Russia is not the USSR (though it'a arguably getting closer by the day...) and the wars are different, one key parallel is the struggle between propaganda and reality 2/
I'm not surprised that right now many RU accept the official line and thus the war as a whole, but what my research highlighted was that it was simply easier to accept the official line - even while you know it is being fed to you by liars - when it doesn't seem to affect you 3/
However, as soon as it does - such as when your boy is about to be drafted, or comes home from 'training' shell-shocked or injured - then things change very quickly. What's more, disbelief in the official line is very 'contagious' once people have the courage to talk openly 3/
Then, as now, local media plays a disproportionate role. Closer to its audience, more inclined to speak to their interests, and even when overtly hailing 'fallen heroes' implicitly recognising the scale of the conflict - and also granting wider permissions to talk about it 4/
So although it's easy to focus on the national media, more tightly controlled by the Kremlin, the locals will have a real role - especially as the spring conscription season looms 5/end
Thank you for all the work you do. I loved your book on the vory
Thank you!
Just reading (and enjoying) your work on Storm-333. Do you think there is any parallels with what the Russians attempted in the first day of this Ukraine invasion?
To an extent, yes - I do think they believed (or at least, Putin believed) they could just grab Zelenskyy and install a puppet, and that at least a certain proportion of the Ukrainian state apparatus would accept this. A ludicrous notion.
Very interesting considerations. Do we know to what extent information on casualties has started to trickle down in local newspapers?
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