Mastodawn

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

Your lucky #Caturday again, #CatsOfMastodon with a new episode of #TheGlobalJigsaw - the boss lady deep in thoughts while listening. It is about #Putin 's media marathon: the suffocating of independent thought and media in #Russia in the last quarter of a century and some of the main milestones along the way
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvrk?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
This one is deeply personal - if you can take the time, i would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks

BBC Sounds - The Global Jigsaw - Available Episodes

Listen to the latest episodes of The Global Jigsaw on BBC Sounds.

BBC

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

this episode of #TheGlobalJigsaw on the near complete annihiliation of the free #media and civil society in #Russia is very close to my heart, so here comes a thread, on #caturday, with occiasional pictures sub editor Zhivko and of course the accidental boss lady, for good measure, but first some heavy content:

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'Yes, we growl and bite. Yes, we have sharp teeth and strong grip.
But we are the prerequisite for progress.
We are the antidote against tyranny.'
Dmitry #Muratov , the editor in chief of #Novaya #Gazeta was talking about the silencing of critical voices. Six of his colleagues were killed in the last two decades - for doing their job - covering wars, investigating issues of public interest and trying to hold those in power to account.

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'what's left is this bleak, barren landscape where activism is an offence. And you only do what you're allowed to do. So what kind of civil society is it. It's very difficult not to get a chilling sense of deja vu' - so says my colleague, BBC Monitoring’s Russia editor Vitaly Shevchenko

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'different TV channels were increasingly talking about the same thing and roughly using the same words, so that really is one of my childhood memories.
I remember how they became incredibly homogenous' - Olga Robinson from the disinfo team remembers the early noughties

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'These extremist forces were nurtured from abroad, I am not even mentioning the literal genocide of Russian speakers there . These bandits are not better than the Nazis. We are liberating the Chechen people from this disease. we are trying to minimise the losses of the civilians which are negligible anyway. and one thing we know for sure is that one of the forms of warfare is information war.' Rings a bell? this was #Putin in March 2000, 22 years before the full scale invassion of #Ukraine

We rub them out in the outhouse - #Putin said of #Chechens he accused of terrorism in October 1999. The phrase got picked up by #Kukly, a satirical puppet show on #NTV - the privately-owned independent channel, that was a firm favourite with #Russian liberal audiences - a bit like ‘Spitting image’ in the UK or Les Guignols in France. The show depicted Putin as an evil gnome who a group of villagers mistook for a beautiful young man

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

Talking about this kind of language taking hold, another phrase used by #Putin on #Ukraine in Feb 2022 raised eyebrows worldwide.

'nravitsya ne nravitsya terpi moya krasavitsa' - 'Like it or not, my beauty, you have to put up with it’ he said. Many commentators accused #Russia ’s president of using language that seems to normalise rape. His press secretary had to explain that Vladimir Putin was talking strictly about the fulfilling of the Minsk agreement in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'Vladimir #Putin 's language has everything to do with his ideology and his objectives for #Russia as a state. It's rough. It's difficult to translate, can be insulting. All this talk about killing people in the outhouse. All the sexual innuendo. Some of it with really violent overtones about whether you like it or not always has had to endure it. It betrays a certain attitude to people.' Vitaly Shevchenko

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'this kind of language goes a long way to mobilizing this crowd of people willing to go and fight in #Ukraine for whatever reason. Because it's the kind of language that Vladimir #Putin may have heard in the streets of Saint Petersburg, there's the kind of language that all these convicts who are fighting as part of #Wagner mercenary group in Ukraine, that is the kind of language that speaks to them' Vitaly Shevchenko

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'Over the decades that followed restrictions were tightened further and further until on the 24th February 2022 Vladimir #Putin was confident enough that when he launched his special military operation. There would be no forces, No voices within Russia that would mount a realistic challenge to his move.' Vitaly Shevchenko

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

A short #caturday intermezzo in #TheGlobalJigsaw #Russia thread:
This episode has been subbed by Zhivko - hard at work as you see

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

In 2000 Putin said he can't really see Russia being isolated, it is an integral part of global security European security. He said 'If we are treated equally, we will happily become part of NATO.' Fast forward 20 years, NATO is the devil, literally, if you listen to #Russian state TV, there's a lot of talk of Satanism and #Russia is fighting not just those fictional neo Nazis in #Ukraine, but Satan himself' - Vitaly again

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'the version of #Putin that we saw back then in the early 2000s was a facade carefully maintained by a #kgb operative. that’s what he skilfully did while pursuing this ultimate objective in restoring what he saw as Russia's might. Making #Russia respected again.….The reality at the end of this project is that his credible opponents are either in jail, or in exile or dead'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

So why did Moscow allow some indy media? 'up to a point the #Kremlin was willing to tolerate dissent, as long as it did not feel threatened by it. And I think in terms of Echo Moskvy and Dozhd TV it always felt that… their audiences were not significant enough to pose any kind of genuine threat to #Putin , especially after he crushed a wave of protests in 2011 and 2012.' Francis Scarr

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'Another factor. I think is that. It was perhaps some window dressing for the West and it allowed #Russia to continue to portray itself as a democracy, albeit a flawed one and not attract the same kind of opprobrium that the likes of #China or North Korea or #Iran do in the West. '

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'One of the key objectives pursued by the #Kremlin is not just to shield the #Russian public from undesirable information, but also to make #Russians think that nothing is to be trusted, you can't believe anything and most importantly because of this You shouldn't even try to do anything about it and the objective is creating a very apathetic society where activism is seen not just as dangerous, but also pointless.'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

' it was quite a mind blowing experience of -and probably my first encounter with-, an event that's all about #patriotism, and really hardcore
patriotism. I can't really describe it in any other way… you're in the middle of the woods… And you wake up in the morning to the sound of Russian national anthem and then you all have to go to obligatory morning training exercises to patriotic music with people on stage shouting something'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

#Russian 'children of young primary school age as soon as they start school, effectively … going to be doing #patriotic lessons and #military #preparation in schools, which was a #Soviet era practice… like stripping down #rifles and learning #combat first aid and if people go to university, starting in September of this year, there's going to be a compulsory programme of Russian #ideology taught at university level and also military training.'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'No one escapes #indoctrination in #Russia It starts at a very early age - increasingly militaristic rituals … entering nursery schools, primary schools. Every year #Victory Day generates a torrent of videos. Showing #toddlers being dressed up in military #uniforms, their #prams being decorated as #tanks. Little children do goose stepping soldiers, given toy guns.'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'I went and voted in my school and I do remember being quite shocked at just how many portraits of #Putin there were. And how many quotes on the walls and how many patriotic symbols and #Russian flags. It just looks completely like a different level from what I used to. It used to be just one portrait and the flag and the words of the hymn. '

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

Another #caturday intermezzo:
Zhivko picking the best quotes for #TheGlobalJigsaw #Russia episode

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'history books barely mention #Ukraine. Kievan #Rus is just Rus and there is a lot of talk about #Putin , lionising the actions of Putin.' A new school initiative was actually launched last year, it is called 'talks about the important things and it is extra curricular. Technically, you can opt out, but anecdotally we have seen evidence of both teachers and children being in trouble for not attending them. Including up to being dismissed or having to undergo a psychological assessment'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'it might be something as innocuous as a speaker coming to a school and giving a presentation, but, actually it's a way of presenting #Russia 's view on current affairs… So it is kind of a version of what they used to do in the #military in the #Soviet time really, where soldiers were #indoctrinated and there won't be any attempt to present alternative viewpoints. This is firmly Russia's point of view. And what it means to be #Patriotic in Russia today'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'I would start seeing stickers on cars, saying that we can do it again. We can show the world that we are the victors. It's not about the horror of the war. It's about victory and the fact, the Russians are always in the right. It just turned into the essence, the basis of the ideology of the Russian state … victory day… was taken by the #Russian authorities and turned into a completely different concept of Russian supremacy and Russia's superiority over other nations.'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

'It has been able to create a certain public consensus in Russia, centred around a Kremlin ideology with all that it entails, including the war with Ukraine. If you're critical of it, at least in public, You stand out and few people want that. It's a devastating experience … It's the intellectual erosion that you witness on a daily basis.'

Kriszta Satori Jul 1, 2023

And a big thank you from the boss lady for reading this thread - she looks this rigorous when she is subbing my work 😉

If you liked it, you can listen as well as subscribe to all other episodes of #TheGlobalJigsaw here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvrk

And get in touch at [email protected]

And of course long live #CatsOfMastodon 🐈

BBC World Service - The Global Jigsaw

Looking at the world through the lens of its media. Think of us as your media detectives

BBC

LAF and LOVE Jul 2, 2023

@fulelo We know the adage: “Get them before 6 and turn them into whatever you want!” The ultimate question for anyone wishing to counter this is what educational strategy teaches children to think, reason, discern without a cultural/moral context. MAGA homeschoolers just as dangerous as Putin’s Pre-Ks.

Kriszta Satori Jul 2, 2023

@RevLindsay very good points - critical thinking would be my first goal...

Egalitarian Jul 1, 2023

@fulelo sounds like the USA.

Kriszta Satori Sep 9, 2023

Lorna Woods Sep 9, 2023

@fulelo That looks so familiar (expect mine are black...)

Lorna Woods Sep 9, 2023

@fulelo - that was 'except' -- brain melt going on here