How russian propaganda fosters a false prestige around participation in the “smo”
ussian propaganda is spreading the message: “A war veteran trained under the “Time of Heroes” program has become the head of a russian region for the first time.” This refers to yevgeny pervyshev, appointed by putin as the governor of the tambov region.
This appointment highlights that putin’s much-publicized program is largely a propaganda effort. Before the full-scale invasion, pervyshev was the mayor of krasnodar and a stateduma member, already part of the russian political elite.
During the war, he served only a year in the Cascade unit, reserved for officials and kept away from the front line, primarily using his service for personal PR.
