Beyond the narrative of military intervention in Ukraine controlled by the state media, the Russian society closes the external noise of a world deemed threatening. A reflex that touches deep springs.
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Do the Russians know? Do they have access to the same information as we? In the same images of Maroupol, Mykolav, Kherson, Ukraine, who are sufficient to give a very different picture of the one presented on Russian television, if not causes, at least the conduct of “the special military operation” triggered by Moscow. February 24th. This question is on all the lips, placed at all correspondents in Russia.
Initiatives to wear the “truth” are launched: telephone call campaigns or e-mail shipments, publication of European newspapers in Russian, short wave radio broadcasts … All this is reminiscent of the Soviet era. At the time, each word, each free or outgoing testimony of Soviet Union was a victory, an end in itself. Alexandre Soljenitsyne wanted to believe, while the refusal of the lie was enough to overthrow the story, or at least save the soul of Soviet Russia.
The question is always legitimate: Access to information remains today a major issue, and the Russian power has had the priority of blocking foreign social networks and to close the few independent media that continued so far. there to do an exemplary job. In Moscow and elsewhere, fear, even paranoia, is perceptible, much more present than “normal”, that of ordinary repressions.
But the question is as incomplete, and not just because the Russian society is deeply divided on the subject. With regard to a significant part of the population, it would be more just to ask: what do you know the Russians of the situation in Ukraine? Because the information remains accessible. Difficult, certainly, but dozens of telegram canals remain active, the means to get around the blocking of sites are numerous. A private virtual network (VPN) is worth a hundred samizats – the name of these clandestinely printed texts circulating under the mantle in the USSR.
However, a finding is needed: many Russians do not want to know. Greater world does not believe in the euphemism of “the special operation”, but beyond the agreed formulas, the need to know stops. The narrative patiently constructed by power, that of an eternal Russia assaulted, takes place of explanation. For many, blindness is a choice, or a means of survival.
“You can not”
Examples abound sentences that can be heard ten, a hundred times in a day: “Anyway, it’s too horrible”; “Anyway, we will never know the truth”; “We can not do anything, it’s not us who decide” … It’s also this girl who says she has erased her phone’s information sites so as not to see her troubled tranquility. It is this mother who repeats “but no, everything will go well” to his son about to leave Russia. It is these international sanctions that we comment on the desired without ever tackling the events that are the cause.
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