Russia’s Ministry of Culture on Tuesday announced the creation of agitation and propaganda brigades in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense to boost troop morale during a Russian military campaign in Ukraine. “In several places we have to visit the boys during rehabilitation, in others we organize big concerts, give speeches in squares or travel through the regions”said Culture Minister Olga Luibimova in statements to public television.
Luibimova emphasized that the artists who will integrate these brigades will come from different regions, artistic genres and ages, although he did not name specific names. He also underlined that Russian artists will go to the ministry to “participate and contribute to the cause as they know best and like to do”.
Several propaganda brigades have already visited the garrisons and military polygons where the reservists received military training as part of the partial mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin. Russia has acknowledged the deaths of at least 6,000 soldiers on the battlefield, despite other Russian and foreign sources citing tens of thousands of casualties among those killed and wounded in action.
The minister denied that she had ordered a blacklist of anti-war writers whose works would be requested from libraries, including Boris Akunin, Liudmila Ulitskaya, Joanne Rowling or George Orwell, among others. Recently, Selfira Tregulova, director of the largest art gallery in Moscow, the Tretiakov Gallery, was replaced by the daughter of a Federal Security Service (FSB) general who worked with President Vladimir Putin, a former member of the former Soviet secret service. services (KGB).
In August 2022, Russian deputies and senators established an Investigation Group on Anti-Russian Activities in the Field of Culture (GRAD), similar to the commission created by McCarthyism to prosecute communists in the United States after World War II. Russian deputies and senators criticized various cultural personalities for promoting Western values and trends, which contradict the traditional morality promoted by the Kremlin leader, who is highly critical of the defense of sexual minorities and non-traditional marriages in the West.
These policymakers also urged cultural institutions to counter Western culture after the United States and European Union imposed sanctions against Russia over its military campaign in Ukraine and efforts to persecute Russian culture in the West.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has so far led to the flight of more than 14 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than eight million to European countries – according to the most recent data from the UN. which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). At the moment, at least 18 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and housing.
The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russian security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending arms to Ukraine and impose political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN presented 8,101 civilian deaths and 13,479 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, emphasizing that these numbers are far below the real ones.
Source: DN
