Thread by @ichbinilya

About to start: the Russian education ministry's Russia-wide "online lesson" about "why the liberation mission in Ukraine was necessary."

The version I'm watching is on the Ministry's page on VKontakte, the Russian Facebook clone. Not sure if it's also streaming elsewhere.

"Today we will talk about what will help us understand what's happening," says this... host?

"The space around us is full of emotions ... it's important not to get lost in all these opinions. It's important to understand that everything is more complicated than it seems."

Now it's talking about Ukrainians as "people living on the borderlands" of old Russia. "We are like mirror images of each other ... same homes, same clothing ... we tell our children the same fairy tales"

🙃

Now they brought up this other guy who's going to be the specialist. The little girl asks: "How did it come to all this?" Note that it hasn't even mentioned WHAT we're talking about. Not a war, not even a special military operation!

This is totally incoherent. The guy says it's "not about Ukraine." She says how? He's talking about "divide and conquer." I guess this is about NATO. Except no specifics mentioned yet! Not about NATO, not the US. Just generalities. "Is this about the Soviet Union?" she asks.

"After the fall of the Soviet Union, many experts started writing that we are not one people ... for example the holodomor, an all-national tragedy, was described as a Ukrainian tragedy."
Little girl: "They really believe everything they're saying?"
Guy: "Yes."

They're saying Ukrainians are brainwashed. That Ukrainians are not allowed to speak Russian. "The Russian language is being exiled."
Girl: "It's hard for me to believe this is all happening! Now will we talk about what's happening today?"
Guy: "No." Now talking about Maidan.

Describing the demonstrators on the Maidan as the instigators of violence. Talking about the poor soldiers and police who were attacked. "No one even remembers their names."

War in Donetsk and Luhansk. The poor locals are under attack by the West. "And no one in the West talked about this."

This LNR/DNR part has been the bulk of the program so far. Local women and children being interviewed about how they've been shelled by the Ukrainians for years.

"Everyone in the media is saying 'save Ukraine, save Ukraine!' But no one sees how we suffer. ... they only hear what they want to hear"

Now to the present day. Hosts are telling the little girl that "those children" have now been evacuated to Russia. Now we're talking about the escalations in February. "Russia tried to solve the problem. The Minsk agreements were reached. But ... the shooting continued."

"We always tried to solve this problem without violence. But now the recognition of LNR/DNR was an unavoidable decision"

First mention of NATO comes in now, 20 minutes in. "NATO is closing in on us."

A brief mention of sanctions. The little girl delivers a little lecture: "We all have to be together and help each other!"

This guy says "We are not striking any civilian areas." An outrageous lie, the most outrageous yet. We've all seen the images. Black is white.

Back to LNR/DNR. 14,000 people died. "Why did no one in the world talk about this?!" says the little girl in outrage. "The world is very strange."

Speaking as an editor, I cannot emphasize how random and unfocused this us. Now there's a weird interlude talking super vaguely about lies in the media. But with a few random specifics: the death penalty in the US is mentioned.

I think it's trying to show broadly that Western values are hypocritical. Mentions US wars all over the world. Says you should be careful sharing emotional things on social media.

Back to today. "In the social media, many are spreading images of war in Ukraine. But really it's from other conflicts. Sometimes it's even footage from video games."

Guy is now giving tips on how to spot social media fakes!

"Our soldiers are NOT touching peaceful citizens," he says. Now they're showing this rocket that struck a building in Kyiv.

"Everyone said it was a Russian rocket. It was not." (They picked a good example, I'm not sure it's proven but it may have been a Ukr anti-air rocket)

And that's it. Suddenly it ends.

I summarize a few thoughts in this other thread.