Milos Zeman, President of the Czech Republic, goes from scandal to scandal. Turns out he is a grandmaster of PR. In Washington, at the American-Israeli Committee on Public Relations conference in early March, he proclaimed “I am a Jew” in English and in Hebrew, receiving the ovation of 16,000 congress participants. The crowd cheered when he affirmed: “We will never have to go for our deaths voluntarily, like sheep to the slaughter” and then praised the effectiveness of Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
However, it would be an oversimplification to argue that Milos Zeman seizes the audience by simply telling them what they want to hear. Czech president often speaks publicly the opinions, with which the Czech public does not agree. And by this he creates new cracks in the society despite his campaign promises. Back then, he insisted that he would unite society as the president. Turns out that Czech society might not be unified with the support of Kremlin propaganda or even by pulling the “rotten skeletons” out of the closet of Czech past.
In late April, a Russian TV channel “Russia 1” showed a documentary propaganda film about the events related to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops on the night of August 21, 1968. Adhering to the tradition of Soviet propaganda, and in accordance with the principles of Dr. Goebbels, the filmmakers insist that the invasion of Czechoslovakia was merely a fraternal aid, which was necessary to prevent a military coup. By showing this film, the Russian channel created a kind of tough situation for Zeman, giving him, as the people say, a taste of his own medicine. And the deceitful documentary was a tough nut to crack for Zeman – after all, he was expelled from the “Communist Party of Czechoslovakia” for opposing that Soviet invasion. He was intimidated and not allowed to work by his profession. Only after the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989 he was able to socially and politically join the “Czech Social Democratic Party.”
The solid Zeman’s backlash was noted by the media, when he said: “The 1968 invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia was not a mistake, it was a crime. Russian television is lying, and that’s the only thing I can say.” This time, the president’s protest was supported by the authorities of the Czech Republic, as well as of the Slovak Republic. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited the ambassador of Russian Federation in Prague for explanations.
Why is Russian TV provoking them and trying to “change the history”? Ukrainian citizens may share their experience with Czechs and Slovaks. Ukrainians witness the same television provocations by Kremlin, organized as “special operational measures” in Russian secret services. The Russians are checking the reaction of politicians and the public, closely monitoring every provocation’s endorsers and opponents, comprehensively evaluating the results and using them in further “operational measures.” Their goal is to destabilize the social and political situation in the country, intimidate the opponents of Putinism and prepare the atmosphere for further artificially created conflicts. Remember the island of Tuzla in the Kerch Strait, towards which Russia had attempted to construct a dam? Remember the huge celebrations of Russian public holidays in Crimea? Remember the Russian Black Sea Fleet provocations and the demand of Kirill, Russian Orthodox Patriarch, to rename the street of Ivan Mazepa in Kyiv? Ukraine was and is attacked by never-ending stream of Russian provocations, which have had its culmination in the annexation of Crimea and the military attack on Donbas. Putinism leads Russian people to war.
Moldova has banned this Russian TV channel on its territory, and Baltic countries did the same. The US and European sanctions against Russia continue, and get even tougher, but this has not yet resulted in the desired change in the Kremlin’s policy. What should we do next?
The international community must unite and create economic, organizational, and personal conditions for providing informational assistance to Russians in Russia and to Russian diasporas in other countries. It should be organized to provide truthful, objective, and balanced information about the situation in Russia itself and about the results of its policy on the international scale. The utilization of the most modern technologies would make it possible to transmit the information and show the Russian population a critical image of itself in a mirror.
Seventy years ago, the civilized world decided to denazify Germany, so that the war would never repeat again. Now the world society has the task to de-Sovietize and de-communize Russia in order not to have a nuclear war started.
