“LGBT Transgender Nazis” Are To Blame For The War In Ukraine, Claims Russian State Media
The Russian government, under President Vladimir Putin, keeps a tight grip on the country’s media. Only state-run media companies are allowed to exist and, as such, the Kremlin’s official position is the only news that’s reported and the only opinion that’s heard. Currently, Russia’s citizens are being told that the war against Ukraine is really a war against “LGBT transgender Nazis”, according to a report by Eric Campbell of ABC TV’s Foreign Correspondent (ABC News.)
PROPAGANDA ONCE AGAIN TARGETS LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY
According to Campbell’s report, Russian state media claims that if Russia loses the war, girls will not be allowed to wear dresses, parents will not be allowed to tell their sons they are boys, and Russians will be forced to raise their children as “gender neutral”.
Russia’s propaganda machine is coming under renewed scrutiny from Western media for its relentless attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community. The country’s “anti-propaganda” laws make it illegal to report on LGBTQIA+ people in a positive way.
Russian state media outlets have always been vocal in their condemnation of LGBTQIA+ individuals and groups, portraying them as a threat to the country’s traditional values and way of life. According to ABC News, programs are now making bold claims to citizens that the LGBTQIA+ community are working in cahoots with sinister parties to take down Russia.
Along with vilifying the LGBTQIA+ community, the current propaganda campaign alleges that Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is “the new Hitler”, that Ukraine’s president Zolenskyy is a gay pedophile Nazi, that NATO is run by Satan, and that the LGBTQIA+ community is working with Ukrainian Nazis.
Since the war in Ukraine, Russia’s carefully monitored media outlets have reportedly ramped up their volume of criticism toward the West and towards minority groups such as the LGBTQIA+ community. One example is the program Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, which airs five nights a week on Russia-1, on which the host, Solovyov makes categorically false claims designed to maintain support for the Russian war.
Speaking to ABC, exiled Russian news editor, Kirill Martynov says, “It’s not just madness. It’s a monopoly. When Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine, he shut down the last remnants of independent media, forcing outlets to close before their staff were arrested for spreading ‘fake news'”.
DNA Opinion
The LGBTQIA+ community is, once again, being demonised to support radical political agendas. By positioning Russia as the last bastion of traditional values, the propagandists hope to bolster domestic support for the war. This tactic is familiar: it has been used in Uganda, Zimbabwe and, to some extent, in the Republican-held states of the USA. Creating moral panic distracts and obscures the real reasons for the war and makes alternative opinions almost impossible.
In the meantime, LGBTQIA+ people in Russia are left to face the consequences of this dangerous and discriminatory campaign.
