What is the Russian support of war based on?
Russia uses a wide range of domestic tools to integrate society as well as to justify aggression. This includes an extensive system of control over public opinion. Interpretation of events in Ukraine contrary to the official position of Moscow is criminalized. Political propaganda which is central to Russia's military machine has overtaken state television and media. The task of Russian propaganda is to create an image of Ukraine as a failed state controlled by the Nazis, who are destroying all Russian speakers and plan to destroy Russia, and led by the collective West and NATO. At the same time, the lack of developed civil society institutions in the country leads to the political atomization of opponents of the Putin regime, when the vast majority of Russians do not want to change anything and make the government stop the war against Ukraine.
In "Ukraine on Fire №37" Ukrainian analysts talk about Russia's internal principles that legitimize the war against Ukraine.
Peter Burkovsky, Senior Fellow at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, explained why Russian people back Putin right now, how it was crafted in the last 20 years and whether the war exaltation can last.
Oleksiy Haran, Professor of Comparative Politics at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Head of Research at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, explained why the aggressive destruction of the Ukrainian people is the result of Russian anti-human, anti-Ukrainian propaganda, which has been carried out by the Kremlin for at least a decade.
