The TASS building in Moscow (1979)
An internet rabbit hole found me investigating the website of The Russian News Agency - TASS. Repeatedly, in recent reports concerning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, TASS has bolted on this particular paragraph:-
"When clarifying the developments unfolding, the Russian Defence Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population."
The following quotation was not created by TASS: “In war, truth is the first casualty.” It is attributed to Aeschylus, a Greek dramatist (525 BC – 456 BC) and as events unfold in Ukraine we can see how valid that observation is. "No threats whatsoever"? Yesterday, Ukraine's health minister said that 198 Ukrainians had been killed, including three children but the picture remains far from clear. Thousands of Ukrainians continue to head west to escape the war (Russian: a special military operation in order to protect people, denazification).
In terms of news chatter, imagery and social media input, no war in human history will be as well-covered as this one. Wars of the past often suffered from news blackouts, secrecy and rumour but as it begins, news from this war is inescapable. It's in our faces. Everybody apart from me has an expensive smartphone in their pocket - even in the underground stations of Kyiv.
Of course, TASS shows no pictures from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war that Putin has ignited. Perhaps they are wary of the impact that truth might have upon the Russian people. Best to treat them like mushrooms. Keep them in the dark and feed them with horse shit.
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteThere are already many phhotos of casulaties circulating. Social media just might be the thing to bring Putin undone. Lets hope it is
ReplyDeleteThere's no hiding place.
DeleteAre the Russian people able to see news reports from other countries? Or is their phone/internet access blocked?
ReplyDeleteThere are official attempts to block but they can't keep everything out. However, most Russians only know Russian.
DeleteToo bad that the Russian people are cut off from different news sources. It's sad and scary that one out of control leader can start a war on such frivolous terms
ReplyDeleteIt appears that one madman can change the world.
DeleteAnd, sadly, not for the first time (and probably not for the last, either).
DeleteOur parent's generation experienced that at first hand in 1939.
DeleteWhat is happening now helps us to better understand what happened in the past.
DeleteMy newspaper this morning reported that Putin apparently is furious that Ukraine is fighting back. Seems he expected to roll in and they'd roll over and give it all up. What a fool he is.
ReplyDeleteHe had not done his homework but his army is huge and has the ability to crush Ukraine's forces. But what use is it commandeering a country that bitterly resents your presence?
DeleteI think the Russian population would be well aware of of inaccurate information from official sources and have access to world wide media to see what the world is saying. Putin is playing a very dangerous game with the lives of 'the enemy' and his own people.
ReplyDeleteDoes he care? He is old and mad.
DeleteI keep saying that this war is going to be like no war we have ever had before not only from the viewpoint that we can all watch it unfold on our phones but also the technology of the weaponry and the internet itself. I wonder whether the Russians can access things like the BBC World Service to hear what's really going on - the fact that a lot of them are demonstrating seems to indicate that they do know what is happening although maybe not in as much detail as we do.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the demonstrators are mainly educated liberals who have learnt to doubt. I further suspect that the vast rump of the Russian people are blind to Putin's wrongdoing.
DeleteI don't believe all we're being told, either.
ReplyDeleteOf course all governments manipulate the truth but in this instance I tend to believe most of what we are being told. How can we doubt Clive Myrie and Lise Doucet?
DeleteThey aren't primarily reporting British, EU, US, Ukranian or Russian government statements.
DeleteWhy should they? They are describing what they see and what they hear.
DeleteWhich shows it's always the people who come off worst.
DeleteI am here, as you said the other day on my post. I am reading. I just do not know what to say except that Putin is evil.
ReplyDeleteYou are a good judge of character Ms Moon.
DeleteI find it quite satisfying to see Russians on the streets protesting Putin and this war.
ReplyDeleteLet us hope that the wave of protest becomes too big for Putin to squash.
DeleteI need to remember your last two sentences for future reference. What an apt analogy.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder if the protesting Russians who have been interviewed by foreign news media will suffer any repercussions for speaking out against the government/military.
I agree. If you are a Russian be careful about speaking the truth. Truth is illegal.
DeleteTom Friedman in the NYT wrote about that too -- how this war is going to be different from all the other wars we've experienced, taking place as it is in a modern, westernized country where smart phones are ubiquitous.
ReplyDeleteWhat astonishes me is how some right-wingers (in the USA, anyway) are siding with Putin and Russia in all this. I suppose his authoritarianism appeals to them, and they'll say anything to denigrate Biden and the American response. They also insist none of this would have happened under Trump, which I very much disbelieve.
Trump know nothing about warfare as he successfully dodged The Vietnam War for very spurious reasons. He could have just come clean and said, "I don't wish to fight in Vietnam because I am a coward."
DeleteThere are plenty of other news channels covering the incursion but it would seem that the story is pretty much the same everywhere in the West.
ReplyDeleteI have no suspicions myself.
DeleteI hope to god that Putin is squashed.
ReplyDeletePreferably by one of his own tanks.
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