From The Daily Signal (Heritage):
Russian propaganda specialists, political technologists if you will,
are flooding the Internet with redrawn maps of Ukraine, shrinking the
country to half its actual size.
On the new Russian maps, all that’s left of Ukraine is western Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine has been renamed Novorossiya (New Russia).
The brain behind the Russian propaganda surge is former KGB man,
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin is counting on the power of
images over reality. It is classic propaganda with a new set of tools.
In this week’s Atlantic magazine, author Peter Pomarantsev writes,
Nobody who lives in that part of the world today ever
thought of themselves as living in Novorossiya and bearing allegiance to
it—at least until several months ago. Now, Novorossiya is being
imagined into being: Russian media are showing maps of its ‘geography,’
while Kremlin-backed politicians are writing its ‘history’ into school
textbooks. There’s a flag even a news agency (in English and Russian.)
There are several twitterfeeds. It’s like something out of a Borges
story—except for the very real casualties of the war conducted in its
name.
The new fictitious maps fit with the Russian propaganda surge against
Ukraine since demonstrations started in Kiev last November. Directed by
the Kremlin’s new propaganda office, Russia Today, portrayals of Ukrainian demonstrators
as neo-Nazi thugs were common in the Russia and even penetrated Western
media. The reward for the Russian government was hesitation on the part
of Europeans to deploy effective sanctions against Russia.
(via springtimeofnations.blogspot.com )
But the Russian propaganda machine, which draws on Soviet era traditions, has other elements as well. According to the Wall Street Journal,
the office of Russia Today television, which in 2005 was renamed RT,
has plans to grow its Berlin-based staff from two to at least 30. In
late August, the Russian government publically announced a $39 million
budget increase for RT in order to open a channel in French. This will
complement RT’s existing English, Arabic and Spanish services....MORE
