As I understand it, Putin can’t live a day without trying to justify his failed invasion of Ukraine.
Initially, the pretext was some sort of “de-Nazification” and “demilitarization” of the neighboring nation. Then it was allegedly about preventing Ukraine and NATO from invading Russia and terrorizing it with bacteriological weapons, including via pigeons and bats. In a while, Russia brought up the issue of fighting against U.S. hegemony. Then it was about “saving the ancient people of Donbas.” Now a new thesis is a “nuclear threat” coming from Ukraine.
The topic of the Ukrainian nuclear threat had already been used by Kremlin propaganda in earlier days, to intimidate the Russians – that’s despite the fact that it’s Russia that constantly threatens the whole world with its nuclear potential. The concept of this psyop is pretty much identical to that of “Ukrainian biolabs threatening Russia” – lacking evidence and basing claims on conspiracy theories.
But, even in the absence of any evidence base, Russians still believe in it. Instead of evidence, Russian audience these days craves for shocker content – perhaps to distract themselves from their own degradation as they are sinking in a moral swamp.
Russia designs new “threats” to the Russians not only to shift their focus away from their empty fridges, explain the sense of massacres in Ukraine, and justify hundreds of coffins coming into Russia every day from the warzones in Ukraine, but also in order to mobilize human resources, which it desperately lacks. They need these resources to compensate for the losses of the Russian occupation contingent, supporting the killings in Ukraine from their old coaches, while choosing not to rush to military draft offices to join the ranks of the “valiant” Z-troops.
And therefore the current rhetoric of Russian leaders today is all about excuses and intimidation. After all, speaking through the mouth of propaganda is the leadership, which has lost at the very onset of its blitzkrieg and is now drowning in the blood of own war crimes.
But the thing is, no kind of lies will help those who have already drowned. After all, it’s not in Russia where they’ll be tried. In Russia, they will rot.