Thread by @navalny

1/31 Truth and free information hit Putin's insane regime just as hard as Javelins.
This is a thread about opening the second front against the war criminal from the Kremlin — the informational front.

2/31 In order to kill Ukrainians, Putin badly needs the war to be supported inside Russia. And the first thing to understand is that there is no 75% support of war with Ukraine in Russia. This is yet another Kremlin’s lie.

3/31 What kind of sociology is there even to talk about when both the question "Do you support the war in Ukraine?" and the answer "no" could result in 15 years of imprisonment for the sociologist and the respondent respectively?

4/31 Look, here’s a State Duma deputy from Putin's United Russia party (a former journalist, by the way!) demanding that a local deputy be jailed for calling Putin a "tyrant" and urging everyone to join the anti-war movement.
t.me/Hinshtein/2108

5/31 And there are dozens of such criminal cases.
A man was arrested in Moscow for standing in the street holding Tolstoy's War and Peace

6/31 Russia has shut down and blocked ALL independent media, including the rather cautious ones, in just a month and a half. Would this have been necessary if the war with Ukraine really had that kind of support?

7/31 However, we must admit that the 24/7 Goebbelsian propaganda on all channels (Putin spends over 110 billion roubles a year on propaganda from the budget alone, and oligarchs chip in too), the shutdown of independent media and the website blockings are slowly doing their job.

8/31 Don't forget that the main propagandist of the war is not TV at all, but the Russian IT giant @yandex. News from their home page (which are full of shameless lies) are the main source of information for 41% of the population.

9/31 The fact is that most Russian citizens have a completely distorted view of what is happening in Ukraine. For them, Putin is waging a small, very successful war with very little blood shed. Our soldiers are heroes and there are hardly any casualties.

10/31 The Ukrainian military are scattering. Villagers throw themselves on our soldiers' chests in tears. All civilian casualties are the fault of the ruthless Nazis and the West supporting them. We need this victory to save more civilians and prevent World War III

11/31 Yes, it can be said that many of those who believe the propaganda are happy to be deceived. They are unwilling to make even the most basic effort to hear an alternative opinion. Many shun the uncomfortable truth. 
But this thread is not for wailing, it's for problem solving

12/31 So, the grand opportunity for all those who are against the war lies in the fact that, despite all the blockings, over 85% of Russian adults still use @Youtube, @Instagram, @WhatsApp, @Google and Facebook (@Meta) every day.

13/31 We need ads. Lots of ads. A huge national anti-war campaign will start with an advertising campaign. 200 million impressions a day to reach every Russian internet user twice. Stories, posts and prerolls. Across Russia, in cities and villages. On every tablet and every phone

14/31 I know what you’ll say now: intrusive advertising is annoying, it would be much better if people spread the good links themselves. That's how we usually operate, but it's not going to work now.

15/31 Here's an article about hundreds of police officers being fired (some with less than a year to retirement) for literally liking my posts.
bbc.com/russian/featur…

16/31 Both @Meta and @instagram show everyone who likes and shares any post. In today's Russia, this is a risk. Up to and including imprisonment. If you are a teacher who liked Boris Johnson's excellent address to Russian citizens, you could be fired.

17/31 If you're a state company engineer commenting on Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunning address, you're sure to get fired. And that would be the best outcome. t.me/AASchwarzenegg…

18/31 This is no exaggeration: Putin's security services have nothing more important to do now than arrest people for liking anti-war posts

19/31 @Google, @Meta have stopped selling advertising in Russia, which seriously hampered the work of the opposition. Our organisation has good media capacity, our 3 YouTube channels alone have 6.5, 2.7 and 1.1 million subscribers, but it’s not enough to run a nationwide campaign

20/31 After all, it is not our supporters that we need to canvass, but our opponents and doubters. And when we could make well-targeted advertising, it worked. We put up a fight against Putin's propaganda and won.

21/31 In the last Duma elections, our candidates won in almost every district in Moscow and St Petersburg, according to the protocols, and were only stopped by large-scale falsifications. And yes, this works not only in Moscow, but also all over the country. We’ve tested it.

22/31 And right now, the goal is bigger than any election. We need to stop the war.
I understand that in a democracy the authorities cannot order @Google and @Meta to allow advertising for some and ban it for others.

23/31 Nevertheless, I urge @POTUS, @StateDept, @BorisJohnson, @EU_Commission, @JosepBorrellF, @vonderleyen, @finkd, @sundarpichai to urgently find a solution to crush Putin's propaganda using the advertising power of social media.

24/31 Even if such advertising is bought for the full commercial price, its cost will be laughable compared to the price of this war.

25/31 One shot from Javelin costs $230,000. For the same money we would get 200 million ad views in different formats and provide at least 300,000 link clicks or at least 8 million views on a video with the truth about what is happening in Ukraine.

26/31 We should give the fair and unbiased media writing in Russian - @meduzaproject, @wwwproektmedia, @the_ins_ru, @mediazzzona, @istories_media, @bbcrussian, @dw_russian, @VOANews -

27/31 the ability to radically expand their audience through direct and well-targeted advertising, taking into account all the capabilities of @Google and Facebook (@Meta).

28/31 200 million impressions a day. About the monstrous real losses of the army. About the yachts and palaces of those who send soldiers to the slaughter. About the massacre of civilians. About Ukraine not being our enemy. About rising prices, poverty, and sanctions.

29/31 About the monstrous lies of Putin and his propagandists. About how we would all be better off without this war, which should be stopped immediately.

30/31 It should be an unprecedented huge national advertising campaign. Just like in a real election. Our candidate Peace versus Putin's candidate War. 
And Peace must win. We can’t allow any other outcome.

31/31 You can read more about our work on our website. You can also support us there - it is only thanks your donations that we are able to continue our operations: acf.international