The Parallel Universe of Russia’s War

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A year on from the invasion of Ukraine, many Russians now inhabit a parallel world that justifies the conflict. How have they been persuaded to support, or accept, a war against a country they had the closest of personal and historical ties with? Assignment talks to some of the persuaders – a celebrated war correspondent, a top talkshow host, a popular singer and poet, and a volunteer fighter – to understand how Russians’ understanding of the conflict has been forged. What are the memories and fears that have been invoked to convince many that it’s Russia, not Ukraine, that’s fighting for its survival? (Photo of Russian war reporter Alexander Kots)

Transcript

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0:00.0	This guy's got a gun in front of me.
0:03.8	Is he following it, mate?
0:05.5	It was a cold, grey morning, almost exactly a year ago.
0:10.4	I was filming at Hastor Mal Airfield just outside the Ukrainian capital Kiev, when we
0:15.2	ran into three soldiers.
0:17.2	He says good-out.
0:18.2	Where is the TV and your BBC?
0:22.2	What's the government's?
0:23.2	A Ukrainian patrol I assumed until I saw their uniforms.
0:27.4	There's a Russian.
0:30.4	Get in the car!
0:40.4	It was a Ukrainian counterattack and the beginning of a full-scale war between two countries
0:46.2	that had been so entwined that just a few years earlier, a popular Ukrainian comic, called
0:51.7	Valodymyy Zelensky, had co-hosted Russian television's New Year's Eve show.
0:59.3	Today, one of those who swayed along in the audience, the Kremlin's top propagandist
1:04.5	Vladimir Savoviev, calls for cities in the country that President Yuliyinsky now leads
1:10.0	to be wiped off the face of the earth.
1:21.5	And yet, many Russians believe, as one of the country's biggest stars sings, that
1:28.7	right is on their side, that they're the ones under attack, fighting for survival.
1:36.3	You're listening to assignments on the BBC World Service, with me, Nick Sturdy, and me,
1:41.0	Tim Hewall.
1:42.0	We've been covering Russia for most of our lives, and in this program, we're trying to
	...

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