1/ The Russian government's aggressive suppression of news about Ukraine's oil refinery drone strikes appears to be backfiring. According to Russian sources, ordinary people don't think fuel shortages are real and are blaming the government instead. ⬇️
2/ News in Russia is tightly controlled, with most people getting their information from state TV and news outlets that are friendly towards the Kremlin. Negative news about the war in Ukraine, or even actual battlefield footage, is often absent from the state-controlled media.
3/ Oleg Tsarev points out the flaws in this approach:
"A friend was traveling to Yalta and shared his observations:
4/ "– Hi. I've stood in gas lines in the Krasnodar and Rostov regions. Everywhere, people blame the authorities and resellers. They basically think there's no problem with gasoline—someone in power is just trying to make a buck."
5/ "Please note: the policy of concealing the consequences of the strikes on our oil refineries leads to such strange conclusions. If they don't show the strikes on the oil refineries, then they don't exist.
6/ "If there are no strikes, but there is no fuel either, then some bastards are profiting off the people. The logic of the masses can sometimes be extremely convoluted.
7/ "There are no good solutions here. Showing the strikes would delight the enemy and stir up panic. Not showing them would give rise to conspiracy theories like these.
Of course, it's better to give the population gasoline and call it a day. But what if that doesn't work?
8/ "I would tell the truth. Even if it's bitter. Always. I wouldn't be afraid that the people won't be able to handle the truth. The people will. But I'm not the government. And it's not for me to make decisions.
In any case, we have what we have." /end
Source:
t.me/olegtsarov/449…
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