Russian propaganda continues its efforts of undermining the support of Ukraine by its Western allies. On April 2 2024, Russian propagandist, editor-in-chief of RT Margarita Simonyan reported the Embassy of Poland to Russian Federation has returned the book that justifies the illegal annexation of Crimea.
The United Nations General Assembly also rejected the referendum and annexation, adopting a resolution affirming the “territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders”, and referring to the Russian action as a “temporary occupation”.
Simonyan specified in her Telegram post that this book has been sent to 146 embassies in Russia. Below the aforementioned post she added a vote with a question “Why didn’t they even start reading the book?” with three suggested answers:
- “They don’t want to know the truth”;
- “Diplomats are prohibited from reading such books”;
- “They don’t know how to read”.
So, a journalist, editor-in-chief of RT media company, that has reach of 100 million readers and viewers (as reported by RT itself) posts a manipulative piece of information and a vote with three almost identical options that mock Polish diplomats? Well, Russians seem to have a different view of standards of journalism.
Russian state-owned media have been pushing its imperialistic and anti-Ukrainian messages for decades on end. Combined with other influence operations, bribery of local and federal foreign politicians, financing of whole political parties, the post listed above represents another small element of Russia’s large-scale operation aimed at the deterioration of societies of Western states, harming the unity of EU and NATO, as well as disrupting the supply of military and financial aid to Ukraine.
