The Newest Russian Fairytale

The Kremlin proves to Trump how powerful it is to forbid critical analysis of events.

Courtesy of Theatre Times

It was like watching a Christmas miracle happen before my eyes. I was chatting with a good friend’s mother, who had recently arrived from St. Petersburg, and she told me that many there are “preparing for war with NATO.” This woman does not support the war, but as a Russian and one who spent the first half of her life in the Soviet Union, she is not mentally capable of criticizing Putin. Her reaction to my comment showed me how amazingly effective Russia’s propaganda has been.

“For three years now, Russia can’t even defeat the Ukrainian army. Any conventional war with NATO will be over in a week,” I scoffed.

“Oh, I don’t know. My husband’s friend has served three times on the front for the money, and he says that if the army wanted to defeat Ukraine, it could in a day or two. It’s just that it’s too profitable for too many, so they don’t end the war. A war with NATO, though, would unite all Russians, and it would be a different story.”

Like most Russians, she was against the war in the beginning. Heartbroken because her daughter and grandkids left Russia, her former Putin-is-God attitude slowly changed into a silent disgust for the war — but never for Putin. Criticism was always directed at nameless “leaders.” It was always masked in a “they all are guilty for this.” The Ukrainians were somehow guilty for not just having given up. Over the years that we have kept in touch with her, she never once expressed any sorrow for the Ukrainians — it was like they deserved the punishment. Once, I told her about the suffering of the Ukrainian people and she said what many Russians have told me since the war began: “War is terrible. We all suffer.”

When asked directly if she supports Putin, the answer is usually, “I hate this war. It’s terrible and it has taken my family from me.”

As I worked back to learn more about why she thinks the Russian army could somehow defeat a much-better equipped and professionally-trained NATO, I saw glimpses of how effective the Kremlin has been at hiding its failures in plain sight. Not only has a simply unbelievable amount of Russian soldiers been killed and maimed in Ukraine, but a part of Russia is now occupied by Ukrainian troops. Russian cities are being attacked, albeit not in any way comparable to how Russia is attacking Ukrainian cities, and generals are being blown up far away in Moscow. The Russian army has proven in many ways to be a three-ring circus marred by incompetence, corruption, and now an increasing lack of able-bodied men.

In a nutshell, if Russia moved on any NATO country, and the war was somehow fought only conventionally, the command and control skills of a NATO platoon would be sufficient enough to hold off a Russian battalion long enough before NATO launched an aerial assault that would shock and awe the undersupplied, un-trained draftees. The Russian army wouldn’t stand a chance.

Nonetheless, the mirage that “if we wanted to end the war, we could” is the excuse Russians use to justify why they can’t win: “If only I had shoes to run over this broken glass, I would be able to beat you in the race.” Well, why don’t you have shoes? Russians can’t see the simple fact that if a modern army doesn’t have — and in reality, this is true — weapons, ammunition, and even boots for soldiers, then how can it beat the world’s most modern and largest military alliance? It can’t.

But the Kremlin is now working tirelessly — and effectively — to unite all Russians. Those who support the war wholeheartedly and those like the woman I am writing about are being manipulated to continue to back whatever Putin wants for the country. As the war soon enters its fourth year, the power of the propaganda against Ukraine has significantly waned. By telling Russians that the war can now — and probably should —be spread to a hot conflict with NATO, it suddenly becomes an existential fight for the heart and soul of Russia.

Most Russians would back this bullshit call to arms because they love to feel like they are being offended. As I have written countless times in the past, the one thing that most unites Russians is the joy they take in whining and complaining about everything. They look for — and usually fulfill their prophecies — people and things working against them. There is always a conspiracy or some behind-the-scenes machinations that pick on only Russians — something that we now see happening among Americans who support Trump.

When the lies and bluster of their cowardly gods don’t come true — and they can never come true because they are so off-the-wall and lack any footholds in reality — it becomes necessary to make shit up and blame unseen forces for their failures. The Kremlin has magically again pulled a rabbit from the hat, and by “preparing” the country for a conflict with NATO, it is promising to revive for Russians the glory that their grandparents and great-grandparents enjoyed upon helping to defeat Nazi Germany. Trump has done this sleight of hand with MAGA and his lies about “ending inflation and the war in Ukraine on the day.”

When such lies are backed unquestioningly by Fox News and the entirety of the right-wing media machine, it promises to create a very dangerous and violent world.