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People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one
Instead of publishing articles refuting previous reports, the United States and European media simply picked up the next story about “bad Russians”.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Kremlin in Moscow on April 26. (AFP/Vladimir Astapkovich)
T
his principle exploited by the leadership of the Nazi Germany is still widely used these days to manipulate people around the globe.
Since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Ukrainian and major western media outlets have been circulating fake news about the “atrocities” allegedly conducted by the Russian troops. Among the most striking narratives fabricated by the Kyiv regime are of course sightings of “mobile crematoriums” burning bodies on the battlefield and mass acts of rape happening elsewhere on territories under the control of the Russian forces.
The case of the “mobile crematorium” was quickly abandoned when the only video evidence of its existence appeared to be footage of a working mobile waste incinerator from the 2013 news story. Instead of publishing articles refuting previous reports, the United States and European media simply picked up the next story about “bad Russians”.
For the last three months, we have heard many chilling tales of sex crimes and abuses taking place in the regions controlled by the Russian troops. The only source of all these materials was always the Ukrainian Human Rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova who savored the gruesome details of sexual offenses during her interviews and press briefings.
Dozens or hundreds of rape victims appeared in the briefings of Denisova on a weekly basis: a 16-year-old pregnant girl and her 78-year-old grandmother, a 45-year-old man, “who just went to fetch water” and even a 6-month-old child.
The story of 25 women held hostage in a cellar in the city of Bucha was one of her favorites. According to Denisova after several weeks of numerous sexual assaults, nine of those women got pregnant. All the victims were very diverse but had one thing in common: none of them were shown to the public or testified to the police. I will repeat – none.
However, the western media ate up those shocking stories from a person with clear sexual deviations with a great appetite and without questioning any proof of these stories.
Gradually the public started to doubt the authenticity of these fairy tales, asking Denisova for any proof. She had none. The lack of evidence became so obvious that the Ukrainian government had to react.
Just before the dismissal of Denisova, representatives of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People’s Party started to criticize her. The reason in their own words was an "incomprehensible" concentration of Denisova 's media work on the details of “sexual crimes in a perverted form” and “child rape”, which she had no evidence for.
Denisova was fired on May 31. The question is, will you see this piece of news in the western media? Or will they confess to spreading fake news? The answer is clear – they would rather save space on their pages for the new terrifying stories about “bad Russians”.
Now after reading this news, which everyone can double-check in the Ukrainian news outlets, I have only one question for the readers: will you believe other “shocking news” about “atrocities” of “Russian bad guys” published in Indonesia with reference to western news outlets?
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The writer is the Russian ambassador to ASEAN.
