Kremlin prepares new manual for covering war against Ukraine: Russia saves everyone

ALENA MAZURENKO — THURSDAY, 4 AUGUST 2022, 19: 44

Russian media report that under the Kremlin's new guidelines, pro-government media will talk about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "prophecies" and compare the war against Ukraine in 2022 with the first World War in 1914.

Source: Medusa news website

Details: The Kremlin continues to prepare manuals for Kremlin-aligned media on how they should cover the war in Ukraine.

There have been previous media reports about the manuals prepared by the Russian Presidential Administration in July.

They "recommended" drawing parallels between the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the baptism of Rus [the Christianisation of Kievan Rus, the historical predecessor of modern-day Ukraine, in the ninth century - ed.] and the Battle of the Neva [fought against the Swedes during their invasion of Russia in the eighteenth century - ed.].

In the new guidelines, the Kremlin suggests comparing the war in Ukraine and the first World War.

Quote: "The main thesis is that, both at the beginning of the twentieth century and now, Russia was ‘drawn’ into a military confrontation by Western countries.

The manual explains that the West regularly unleashes wars because of its ‘colonial claims’, and Russia is always forced to participate in the conflict because it stands up for ‘fraternal peoples’, ‘does not abandon its own’ and ‘stands up for the oppressed’. For example, in 1914, the Russian Empire ‘could not forsake’ Serbia."

Details: The manual calls the war in Ukraine a "modern Ukrainian crisis" and not a "special operation".

Russia cites Euromaidan and military operations in Donbas as the starting points for the conflict.

The Kremlin "advises" pro-government media to talk about the fact that after 2014, Western countries decided to "sponsor" in Ukraine "the creation, through the ideology of hatred and Russophobia, of several generations of people who hate Russia and are ready to kill Russians."

According to the manual, Russia’s role is purely peaceful.

A separate chapter of the manual focuses on "Western interference" in Russia's internal affairs.

The manual claims that the West "finances non-systemic opposition, protest movements and anti-Russian media".

The manual says in its conclusion that an "anti-American trend" will soon develop in the world, and presently the United States "will not be able to find serious trading partners, let alone military allies" but it does not explain why this will happen.

According to sources close to the Kremlin, such "historical" manuals are compiled at the Kremlin Expert Institute for Social Research.

These sources add that their production is directly supervised by Oleg Matveychev, a member of the Russian parliament belonging to the United Russia party [the largest party in Russia and holder of the majority of parliamentary seats - ed.], although he himself denies this.

Matveychev is known for his eccentric and offensive statements. In 2020, he said that he had "strangled and [would] continue to strangle opposition scum".

At that time Matveychev was a professor at the Higher School of Economics, but he received a reprimand after this statement and soon resigned from his post. He was elected a member of the Russian parliament for the United Russia party in 2021.

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