Russia's War

On the Media

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Putin has rallied the Russian population around the brutal conflict. On this week’s On the Media, hear how the Kremlin’s crackdown on the press paved the way for war. Plus, a look inside the world of Russian propaganda, and how it influences people.

1. OTM Producer Molly Schwartz [@mollyfication] speaks with Alec Luhn [@ASLuhn] and Veronika Silchenko [@NikaSilchenko], freelance journalists for Vice, on reporting in Russia under repressive new laws. And Kirill Martynov [@kmartynov], Editor-in-Chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe, and Katerina Kotrikadze [@katyakotrikadze], news director and anchor at TV Rain, and Roman Dobrokhotov [@Dobrokhotov], Editor-in-Chief of The Insider, on working as Russian journalists-in-exile. Listen.

2. Thomas Rid [@RidT], author of the book Active Measures, on the the long ancestry of modern-day Russian info ops, and Francis Scarr [@francis_scarr], senior digital journalist at BBC Monitoring, on the false narratives that Russian state TV broadcasts about the war in Ukraine. Listen.

3. Anastasiia Carrier [@carrierana22], freelance journalist, on growing up with Russian propaganda and unlearning the Kremlin's lies. Listen.

Music:

String Quartet No. 3 by Henryk GoreckiExurgency by Zoe KeatingWe Insist by Zoe KeatingThe Artifact & Living by Michael AndrewsI Got a Right to Sing the Blues by Billy KyleDance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Pyotr TchaikovskyThe Hammer of Los - John ZornKhovanshchina Overture (remix) Blackbird by Brad Mehldau

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone. For the past six months, the Kremlin has spun an alternate reality about what's happening in Ukraine.
0:10.0	They say that they're following in the footsteps of the Red Army which fought against Nazi Germany and liberated parts of Eastern Europe.
0:16.0	The goal is to activate an emotional response. And whether you use information that is factually correct or factually incorrect is of secondary importance.
0:25.0	They started writing down Russian media. We could see that the law is changing, that everything is changing on the fly.
0:33.0	They can say that journalism is a situation of war. It's like a criminal group.
0:38.0	There is such a moral duty to try to get people to believe that what is happening is wrong.
0:44.0	It's not that people are brainwashed, it's that people want to be brainwashed.
0:48.0	Inside Russia's information war, after this.
0:55.0	From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
1:08.0	It's been just a tick over six months since Russia invaded Ukraine. And over those months we've read, viewed and listened to reports horrifying and heart-wrenching.
1:18.0	Stories about resettlement camps and dignettes of airstrikes on hospitals in a theater in Marriapol.
1:25.0	Hundreds and hundreds of murdered civilians bound in showing signs of torture on the streets of Buccia.
1:32.0	This, of course, is not the version of the story shown on Russian media. Those who don't see past the official accounts, see a different war.
1:39.0	One driven by Putin's virtuous quest to shield Russian sovereignty and Christian values from the depravity of the West.
1:48.0	To mark this grim anniversary, we consider the information war.
1:53.0	Putin is waging effectively against his own people. That campaign is going far better than the one in Ukraine.
2:01.0	First, we turn to journalists in the fight, struggling to deliver the facts on the ground to Russians in Russia from abroad.
2:08.0	OTM producer Mali Schwartz has the story.
2:12.0	On the day that Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Alekloon and Veronica Solchenko headed to downtown Moscow. They took a film crew.
2:20.0	They expected to find massive protests. There were some protesters. There were also lots of riot police.
2:28.0	We were filming a rest after a rest after a rest. People were coming out of the metro and unfurling a banner or holding up a sign.
2:36.0	And as soon as they did that, even before they could get it all the way in the furloughed riot police would have already grabbed them and would be packing them off into a police van.
	...

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