One of the striking things about the war in Ukraine has been the constant stream of lies emanating from the Putin regime. Some of its fabrications have been so preposterous that it is impossible to imagine anyone actually believing them. Moscow has claimed, for example, amongst its many blatant falsehoods, that Ukraine is ruled by Nazis and drug addicts, that Russia’s military onslaught on Ukraine is not a war, that Russia has not been bombing Ukrainian cities, and that the well-documented massacres of Ukrainian civilians, including at Bucha, were faked.
At one level such Russian lies could be seen as an instinctive human response to accusations of wrongdoing and guilt. They could be considered to reflect a psychology akin to that of Bart Simpson’s famous refrain: “I didn’t do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can’t prove anything!”
However, the comprehensive misrepresentation of reality by the Russian government is also a deliberate strategy designed for very specific purposes. Who, then, are the targets of the strategy, and what it is designed to achieve?
The first obvious purpose of the lies is to bolster a false domestic narrative about every aspect of the war
First, of course, the most fundamental objective of the misinformation strategy is to mislead the Russian public about the aims, conduct and progress of the war. It seems that most Russians, for the moment, support Putin’s war. This is hardly surprising in a country in which the state effectively controls the media and in which opponents of the war are simply locked up.
However, even in the absence of free speech the Russian public would become restless if it began to realise that Putin himself instigated this war of aggression, that the Russian military has been responsible for incessant attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets, that Russian soldiers have – to put it mildly – behaved ignobly, and that the Russian armed forces have suffered far greater losses and setbacks than the regime can ever admit.
The first obvious purpose of the lies, therefore, is to bolster a false domestic narrative about every aspect of the war.
The second purpose of the Putin regime’s justification of its actions, however implausible, is to provide ammunition and cover for the significant minority of countries around the world whose governments wish either to sit on the fence regarding the Ukraine conflict, or even, in a small number of cases, to voice support for Putin’s war.
It is highly unlikely that the Chinese and Indian governments, for example, actually believe the Kremlin’s propaganda, but it helps to create a smokescreen of obfuscation behind which they can hide, vis-à-vis their own public opinion, with at least a modicum of comfort.
Third, even the most ludicrous of Putin’s claims provide grist to the mill of his “useful idiots” in the many countries around the world, including Ireland, whose governments, supported by a large majority of their people, unreservedly support Ukraine, its people and its democracy.
It is not only in Russia, of course, that lies play an increasing role in political discourse. Everywhere language as the embodiment of truth is challenged
“Useful idiots” are people who make propaganda for a cause they don’t fully understand and who are used by the leaders of that cause. The value to Putin of having such people sprinkled around the democratic world is that they can be quoted to the Russian public, through state-controlled media, with a view to giving an utterly false impression of international opinion.
Naomi O’Leary has recently published some excellent research in this newspaper on how a few Irish politicians, peripheral figures in this country, are accorded heavyweight status and extensive coverage in autocratic countries whose governments like the somewhat bizarre cut of their jib.
There is perhaps one other, less self-evident, reason for the Putin regime’s barrage of untruthful nonsense. Russian officials, including its diplomatic representatives, are human beings with families. They find themselves obliged, unless they were to take the very courageous decision to resign, to defend their government’s gratuitous war, including its massively negative impact on Russia itself, the indiscriminate attacks on civilians, as well as what appears to be a growing litany of war crimes.
It must be difficult for such officials to look themselves in the mirror with any self-respect, or to answer the questions some of their children must surely have, unless they can convince themselves that there is an alternative account of reality based on an appealing fiction rather than painful facts.
The daily stream of nonsense from the Kremlin propagandists surely also plays some role in helping to keep up the morale and self-respect of those who must serve the Putin regime.
It is not only in Russia, of course, that lies play an increasing role in political discourse. Everywhere language as the embodiment of truth is challenged. An egregious recent example, amongst so many, was the US Republican Party’s description of the violent assault on the US Capitol as “legitimate political discourse”.
All democracies, including our own, must be vigilant. The best defence against totalitarianism and populism is the truth.
Bobby McDonagh is a former ambassador to London, Brussels and Rome