Trump and Putin at a meeting in Helsinki in 2019 (Photo: Getty Images) Author: Yulia Akimova
Trump's favorable attitude toward Putin has influenced Russian propaganda. Read about how the Russian people are being “sold” another thaw in Russian-American relations and what tools the Kremlin propaganda is using in the article by RBC-Ukraine journalist Yulia Akimova.
Content:
- Heading to Kursk
- Not quite external control
- “Putin is cunning and I am nearby”
Over the three years of Russia's great war with Ukraine, the Kremlin's propaganda has transformed many times. There have been hundreds of versions of why Vladimir Putin decided to attack Ukraine, as well as predictions of crushing victories, all of them absurd to varying degrees. One of the few things where the agenda has remained true to itself all this time is the ideological war with the United States.
The United States confidently occupied leading positions among Russia's enemies. At various “victory” parades, tanks with the inscription “To Berlin” were invariably followed by missiles with the inscription “To Washington”. Until a certain time, the Kremlin was sure that there was no person in America with whom it made sense to talk. Until Donald Trump won the presidential race.
He immediately made it clear that he sees Russia at the negotiating table. Since the start of his presidential term, he has effectively pulled Moscow out of diplomatic exile. In American rhetoric, Putin has suddenly transformed from a “bandit” and “dictator” into a “good guy” with whom one can do business. Therefore, even if Trump's words contain criticism of Russia's actions, the Kremlin reacts to this with restraint, preferring not to comment at all.
Russian propaganda, picking up signals from its superiors, is also restructuring itself to suit its current course. America has suddenly ceased to be an enemy, which has led to a number of other statements that contradict what the Russian media had previously broadcast. Ukraine is no longer under the external leadership of the United States, Putin has started talking about transferring mineral resources to the Russian Federation, and Kursk has become a top topic, although it had been actively hushed up before.
Heading to Kursk
When Ukrainian troops entered the Kursk region in August 2024 and quickly took control of part of the region, Russian propaganda kept silent about this story. It was unclear in what direction the events should be presented – the Kremlin’s position remained unclear until the very end. Even at his meetings, Putin, if he mentioned the Kursk region, did so very superficially.
The algorithm of Russian propagandists is quite simple. They either receive direct instructions on how to cover a particular topic, or they are guided by the circumstances, trying not to improvise too much. In the situation with the Kursk region, Russian media had to guess about the Kremlin's mood, so they broadcast information in the same way as Putin himself – superficially and without much interest.
Only the most radical propagandists and so-called war correspondents allowed criticism of the Moscow military leadership for the Kursk failure, but then they also went quiet. But everything changed when Donald Trump said that he dreamed of ending the war, so he would talk to Putin.
In an effort to improve “negotiating positions,” the Russian leadership transferred rear-echelon troops from the front to the Kursk region, gathering about 60,000 soldiers in this direction. In a few weeks, the Russian troops managed to take control of most of the territory controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. During the operation, Putin allegedly even came to the Kursk region. The Russian dictator, in a ridiculous military uniform, walked around the control center and talked to the military.
Russian military in the Kursk region (Photo: Getty Images)
All Russian media immediately reported on the “brilliant liberation operation” and distributed footage of Putin in camouflage. The Kursk region became the number one topic and was discussed by literally everyone. Propagandists suddenly became very concerned about the fate of the region's residents. One of the Kremlin's mouthpieces, Vladimir Solovyov, in an uncharacteristic style for him, spoke about the “brave children” from Sudzha and trucks with humanitarian aid. The media, which did not raise this topic in August 2024, already in March dubbed the operation the “Kursk miracle” and squeezed everything they could out of it.
When Trump announced that about 2.5 thousand Ukrainian soldiers were surrounded in Kursk, the Kremlin did not even have to give its media a signal. Despite the fact that the Ukrainian Defense Forces are still in the region, the “Kursk miracle” is presented to the Russians as a victory, and the presence of Ukrainian troops there is hushed up. As well as whether they were surrounded at all or not.
“Nobody in the media is particularly talking about the fact that control over Kursk region has not been restored. Russians are deliberately avoiding this topic. As Putin once told a schoolboy – Russia never ends, so who knows in Moscow some village on the border of Kursk region, some territory that is not controlled by Russia,” said Andrey Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, in a commentary to RBC-Ukraine.
Russian propaganda has many options and tools in its arsenal. In the case of Kursk, the media can successfully “lose” an important topic, but will immediately make a legendary story out of it if there is something to brag about. It cannot be said that only Russians use this option – all media without exception emphasize the important. But the emphasis, or rather the lack of it, is not equal to complete oblivion, as happened with Kursk.
Donald Trump contributed to the fact that the Kursk issue reappeared on the Russian agenda to some extent. Because of his efforts to force the negotiations, Putin decided to take a more advantageous position in them faster. And Russian propaganda, it seems, for the first time relied on the US leadership as an important source when it came to the “encirclement” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Not quite external control
Another tool that Russian propagandists have mastered to perfection is the ability to change direction very quickly. Moreover, the point of view that is presented today as something self-evident could have been completely opposite a month ago.
When Washington established communication with Moscow, as far as it was possible, the propagandists had to abandon several basic theses. One of them is Ukraine, which is under the external control of the United States. In general, the topic of “external control” in Russia has been discussed for a long time – in fact, since Viktor Yanukovych fled from Kyiv in 2014. Having lost their own lever of control over Ukraine, the Russians immediately accused the United States of being the new “masters” of Kyiv.
Russian politicians, officials and propaganda never tired of repeating this. Their words were happily picked up by various Gauleiters, traitors and accomplices of Russia – Medvedchuk alone used the phrase “external control” five times in his comments to journalists. Naturally, the idea that Ukraine in principle can and does possess subjectivity seems blasphemous to Russian propaganda and its audience.
It became much more difficult to sell the “external management” theme when Trump appeared in the White House. After just a few weeks of his active communication with Ukraine, it became obvious that at least the US had nothing to do with “external management”. Otherwise, it is unlikely that the scandal in the Oval Office on February 28 would have happened, it is unlikely that Kyiv would have insisted on its “red lines”, and Zelensky would have said that Trump was under the influence of Russian propaganda.
Moreover, Ukraine does not immediately agree to the agreement on mineral resources. And this is the same Ukraine that, according to the Kremlin, has long been effectively sold to Washington with all the mineral resources that exist there. And while the propaganda is confusedly trying to figure out what to do with this, Putin comes out to the media and says that he himself is ready to talk to Trump about Russian resources.
Zelensky and Trump at a meeting on February 28 (Photo: Getty Images)
“And what can we say about Europe and Ukraine in this situation? After all, there was a well-thought-out scheme – the Americans rule everyone, stand behind everyone, the Ukrainians are not independent, the Europeans are not either, everyone is implementing America's cunning plans. Now we need to come up with a new scheme – the Ukrainians are becoming subjective, they do not agree to Trump's proposals, and the Europeans are becoming subjective,” notes Russian opposition political scientist Ivan Preobrazhensky in a commentary to RBC-Ukraine.
So far, according to Preobrazhensky, the Kremlin has not yet decided how to explain the current situation to Russians. And, most likely, propaganda will do what it has done many times before – forget that it ever spoke about this. At the same time, the position is already taking shape in Russian society itself.
According to Russians, Volodymyr Zelensky himself is undoubtedly a “puppet” in the hands of the collective West (although it is unclear whether the United States now belongs to this collective). Ukraine is now turning from a territory completely controlled by the United States into a “wild field” where mythical Nazi battalions do not obey the president and are ready to continue the war while peace-loving Moscow fights to end it.
“Everyone has their own scheme – for some there are Nazi battalions, and some think they are very smart, like, “Yes, I know that there is propaganda, but the Ukrainian army does not listen to Zelensky and the Americans, look at what the American newspapers write, how they used to cooperate, but now they don't.” This picture of the world is emerging, it does not fall apart, you can build some kind of idea on this scheme,” adds Preobrazhensky.
Most likely, it is this position that will soon begin to be overgrown with Russian “analytics”. Propaganda will be regulated under it and will give Russians what they want to believe, because if we admit that Ukraine is a subject, it will be more difficult to justify the invasion.
The same scheme works with the issue of a truce or peace in general in any context. At first, propagandists actively played along with the Kremlin and the militant minority that really wanted “Kyiv in three days.” This is where Margarita Simonyan's statements in the spirit of “what about that Ukraine” came from. The Kremlin was counting on a small victorious war that would not affect the majority of Russians. But three years have passed and, according to Preobrazhensky, any social survey conducted in Russia shows that people want the fighting to end.
In this situation, propagandists also count on self-regulation, around which they will form their position. Since the Kremlin, relying in this regard exclusively on Putin, does not yet understand whether it wants the war to end, the media has its own small, but carte blanche. In other words, if a truce takes place, people will explain it to themselves, and propaganda will help them formulate their own thoughts.
“They will wait a little, see how the people react, conduct research, focus groups, closed surveys, get a general picture and return it to the people. Why the Kremlin is doing this – I don't know what the answer to this question will be. He achieved all his goals, Putin deceived everyone, because we have awesome cooperation with Trump, and what do we care about this puny Ukraine, we are now going to divide the whole world. It doesn't matter what the version is, the main thing is that people want this to happen,” Preobrazhensky added.
“Putin is cunning and I am nearby”
If we analyze the current mood of Russian propaganda, we get the feeling that another thaw has occurred in relations between the US and Russia. Stories about starving Americans and old people dying without health insurance have disappeared somewhere. For some reason, US troops are no longer participating in the “terrible crimes” in Donbass, and American military bases have stopped supplying “Ukrainian Nazis” with new weapons of mass destruction.
Of course, in today's circumstances, it is advantageous for the Kremlin to build friendly relations with the United States. Trump extends his hand to Putin and offers to talk, to hear his position, playing up to the Russian dictator's pride. At this time, the Kremlin vertical begins to seethe. The propagandists, acting according to the swarm system, first self-regulate and work intuitively – no one scolds Trump much, but no one praises him either, his statements are careful. Then negotiations between the Russian and American sides begin and finally, the media are “downloaded” with guidelines.
Putin's speech at Luzhniki (Photo: Getty Images)
“Signals are starting to come in. One of them is a meeting with the heads of TV channels of Alexei Gromov, Putin's former press secretary and deputy head of his administration, who is responsible for classic propaganda. Surely, at this meeting, he is distributing lists of those who need to be called to receive comments on the issue of Trump. Those who correctly commented on the situation from the Kremlin's point of view, that is, those who praise Trump and the United States, were chosen there,” Preobrazhensky noted.
They are trying to instill at least “moderate Trumpist” sentiments in Russians, and the propaganda is segmented. For the majority of the population, Trump is a peacemaker who has finally heard Putin. The “Putin Squads” of several elderly women, absurd in their essence and form, are already congratulating Trump on his victory. There is also content for those who still want to openly ridicule Americans.
“Right now, Russian propaganda is ridiculing Trump's team and Trump himself. Starting from Rush-fascists like “Rybar” (a popular Z-channel, – ed.), ending with the Solovyovs and various others. They laugh at Witkoff, they laugh at Rubio, they shout that they will not cease fire, and so on. They ridicule and glorify their negotiating team. They are trying to show and increase Putin's rating and Putin's policy internally due to the fact that they oppose Trump,” notes Andrey Kovalenko.
There is also a parallel strategy – to talk about Putin and Trump being best friends, and Russia and the US, as two large states, will finally divide the world into spheres of influence. In short, the average Russian has a lot to choose from here.
However, there is no talk of America suddenly ceasing to be an ideological enemy. No matter how much propaganda calls the States almost an ally of the Kremlin, neither the media themselves, nor the Kremlin, nor the Russians believe it. It is simply advantageous for Moscow to talk like this in today's reality, and society, accustomed to relying on television in these matters, happily broadcasts it.
“Many people think that those at the top know better. If a decision has been made to be friends with Trump, then it means we need to be friends with Trump. Putin knows what he is doing, he is smarter than me, he is the president. He said that I have a good relationship with Trump. He is playing some kind of game, but if he says that Trump is good, then Trump is good. Putin is cunning and I am with him,” Preobrazhensky added.
In the event of any excesses on the part of the US administration, it would be easy for Russian propaganda to quickly reorganize. And here they will start from Putin's statements. If at some point the Russian dictator declares a “knife in the back” from Trump, stories about Americans dying of hunger will return to the Russian agenda. And Trump will be added to them – this time in the role of Russia's worst and ancestral enemy.