In the first months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia took pride in the high quality of its propaganda. Even its enemies and various analysts were forced to acknowledge that this was one of the few high-quality products the country produced.
Four years later, something has broken. It is as if shifting the economy onto a war footing has turned the once-mighty propaganda machine into a rotting pumpkin.
The state-funded, carbon-copy videos urging men to sign military contracts to “protect children’s future” and “influence the country’s destiny” have only one argument: the 204,000 rubles ($2,614) monthly salary for a private deployed to the warzone. The war offers a solution to the financial problems of useless Russian men who have nowhere and no reason to work.
Today’s propaganda is almost too embarrassing to discuss. One video includes a clip from the Russian movie “Brothers 2” in which the hero tells a terrified American that “strength lies in truth.” Not that the American had any choice, with all his guards dead. Spliced throughout are clips of women handing out daffodils to suspiciously clean soldiers sitting on tanks that look as if they have just come from a car wash.
The video ends with the uncreative slogan “Join your own in the SVO!” But the weird symbolism throughout the video is what I remember most. Did those daffodils mean anything in particular?
