1/ Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov has been denounced again in another memo to the Kremlin, reportedly written by the political strategist and Duma deputy Oleg Matveychev. It calls Solovyov and his colleague Margarita Simonyan "information structures of Prigozhin". ⬇️
@ChrisO_wiki an interesting thread, there's a self-awareness there that's quite fascinating and seeing it expressed so openly at times seems remarkable.
Not that I doubt there many that think like that but it's rare to hear it so earnestly expressed from a Russian source. At least to me.
2/ The memo follows one leaked last month which denounced Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin and other "hurrah-patriots" as a threat to the Kremlin. Solovyov's TV show on the Russia-1 channel was denounced for hosting a nightly "gang rape of the authorities". https://mastodon.social/
3/ The new memo, published by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, is in much the same vein. It reiterates several of the same points as its predecessor, dismissing liberals, the left and 'hipsters' as possible threats. It calls the ultra-nationalist "patriots" assets of the West.
4/ The memo complains that the "patriots" spend too much time highlighting problems with the war effort and creating a false impression of a "fifth column" around Putin who "rule our president". This, it claims, is part of a concerted "patriots against Putin" effort.
5/ It attacks in particular Ramzan Kadyrov, unnamed Russian milbloggers who "carry all sorts of crap in their Telegram channels", the "main propagandist of Russia, Vladimir Solovyov", Konstantin Malofeev's Tsargrad TV channel, Margarita Simonyan, and Yevgeny Federov's NOD.
6/ The memo also attacks a number of individual politicians: retired General Andrey Kartapolov, the head of the Duma Defence Committee, and other deputies who have "made resonant statements about the stolen money that was allocated to the Ministry of Defence."
7/ The "patriots" are criticised in the memo for being disingenuous in their statements about why they are critical of the government's approach. "In fact," says the memo, "this is guile ... Each of them is engaged in personal populism," rather than sincere problem-solving.
8/ As well as attacking propagandists, the memo castigates "a large network of feminist and women's organisations" who it says are preparing a "full-scale female hysteria". These, it says, are "ordinary nervous and hysterical women who are afraid for their children and husbands."
9/ "They are conducting destructive work related to mobilisation, spreading panic and negative rumours against the authorities," the memo says. It claims that Western leaders "plan to pay a great deal of attention to them and pour very large budgets into them".
10/ The feminist and women's organisations are distributing "materials about improper conditions of service and the death of our servicemen" on the Internet. The memo says that the number of such posts has increased "many times" in recent months.
11/ This part of the memo likely reflects increasing concern within the Putin regime about the impact of protests by wives and mothers. In July, the government forced the closure of the Council of Mothers and Wives by declaring it to be a 'foreign agent'.
14/ The memo admits frankly that "society can lose trust only when it is confronted with the fact that the authorities have lied or concealed something. If trustworthy sources do not pay attention to the facts of lying to the authorities or hiding anything, then these facts do not exist for society. Thus, if ... the topic is not scratched, it will not be itching."
15/ "Firstly, only a few, not millions, will find out. Secondly, they learn it from enemies, that is, from sources that most people do not consider to be trustworthy sources. It's one thing when theft in the army, for example, [is discussed] by a fake demotivator, scattered on the web, which looks like enemy propaganda. It's another matter when the same facts begin to be voiced by a current State Duma deputy and such statements get to the top of Yandex [search results]."
16/ Similarly, the memo argues, it's futile for the authorities to publicise the fight against corruption, because it only draws more attention to the problem. "Any attempts to demonstrate that we are the main ones in the fight against corruption, firstly, only invests additional resources in this topic, and the topic becomes ever more burning, and secondly, it still does not work out in practice, because it is "bees against honey".
17/ It's not clear when the memo was written, but it's likely to have been within the last few weeks, as it no longer highlights Igor Girkin as a threat. The mention of Prigozhin is likely to be intended to paint the propagandists with a post-mutiny brush of disloyalty. /end
@ChrisO_wiki ladies and gentlemen, introducing homo sovieticus. Homo sovieticus does not complain aloud. Homo sovieticus does not seek attention. Also, now homo sovieticus is a witch hunter. A gay basher.
I think we can dismiss Oleg Matveychev as a bit of a fruitcake.
He wants the US to: immediately end all sanctions, return the State of Alaska and Fort Ross (California) to Russia, and that the continent of Antarctica be recognized as Russian territory.
Having said that, he may be more sane than his president and any Tankie.
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