Over the past eight years, the Russian government has promoted the idea that the country is surrounded by enemies, enforcing that message in schools, the military, the media and the Orthodox Church.
Now, as Russia masses troops on the Ukrainian border, the steady militarization of society under Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, looms large and appears to have inured many to the idea that a fight could be coming.
Speaking to Russian military leaders on Tuesday, Putin insisted that Russia did not want bloodshed, but it was prepared to respond with “military-technical measures” to the West. State television is portraying all of Russia’s efforts in Ukraine as defensive maneuvers.
Some of the latest propaganda tactics include a $185 million four-year program started by the Kremlin this year that aims to drastically increase Russians’ “patriotic education.” It includes a plan to attract at least 600,000 children as young as 8 to join the ranks of a uniformed Youth Army.
Quotable: “The authorities are actively selling the idea of war,” Dmitri A. Muratov, a Russian newspaper editor who shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said in his acceptance speech. “People are getting used to the thought of its permissibility.”
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