Thursday, March 7, 2024

Putin and Russian TV Slander Campaign Against Ukraine.


A lot of people say that Putin lies. People do laugh about Putin's claims about Nazis in Ukraine. 

However, Putin does not just lie, he and Russian TV run an intentional campaign of slander, aiming to ruin Ukraine's image and reputation in the eyes of Russian public as well as global community. The multi-year slander campaign to mislead the public about actual situation in Ukraine and convince them in necessity of the military intervention.

The slander campaign involved near daily reports, most or all of which were completely fabricated by Russian TV personnel. The fake reports would cover multiple instances of the fabricated hate crime, committed by alleged Nazis against Russophone population of Ukraine. Such crimes would include instances rape, gun crime, property damage and murder solely on ethnic ground. 

Such reports would typically feature an interview with an alleged victim or witness of such crime. Victim would usually claim that Ukrainian authorities are unwilling to investigate and prosecute crimes of the alleged Nazis. Some would ask Putin and Russia to interfere and save them from the Nazis.

These reports, that Russian TV was running for years, are completely fictitious and fabricated completely. The report of crimes that did not happened. They feature false victims and witnesses who did not witness of were victims of any crimes but were paid by Russian TV to tell a prefabricated story on camera.

This campaign of a blatant slander, run by Russian TV aimed at ruining Ukraine's reputation and its government credibility. 

Such campaign has two aims. One it to convince public in Russia that a military intervention in Ukraine would be a benevolent act of saving Russophone people of Ukraine from serious hate crime. Second it to dilute the support of Ukraine among global community by portraying it as dangerous and dysfunctional state.

Due to Russian slander campaign Ukraine suffered a significant reputational damage. In addition to losses inflicted by war, that was justified with the slander campaign, there were also a loss of potential foreign investments. Ukrainian economy clearly underperformed compared to many other eastern European states in a similar situation, such as Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia or even Belarus.

Because of that if would be appropriate to refer this matter to international arbitration in order to refute slander. International arbitration should force Russian TV to issue an official rebuttal of all the lies they told the public about Ukraine, apologize to Ukraine and award Ukraine compensation for the damages, caused by the slander. Russian TV should be banned from broadcasting in international community if they refuse to comply with orders of the international arbitration.

Hopefully international community will finally take Russian slander campaign seriously and will finally work to restore the truth and good image of Ukraine.

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