On April 2, 2023, one of russia’s top propagandists was liquidated in the st.petersburg cafe “Street Bar” – the war correspondent vladlen tatarskyi (real name – maxim fomin). This propagandist became known to the general public thanks to his cynical statement after the announcement of the “accession” of the occupied territories of Ukraine to the russian federation: “We will hang everyone because we have no other chance. We will defeat everyone, kill everyone, rob everyone we need. Everything will be as we like.”
On April 3, the russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee announced that “the murder of v.tatarskyi was planned by the special services of Ukraine with the involvement of agents of the “fund for fighting corruption” banned in russia (founded by a.navalny).”
It was this statement that actually became the official version of the event, as, among others, it was supported and voiced by the press secretary of the president of the russian federation d.peskov: “The Kyiv regime supports terrorist actions and may be behind the murder of v.tatarsky, as well as many other people since 2014 year – that is why a “special operation” is being conducted.
At the same time, the analysts of the American center “Institute for the Study of War” (ISW) came to the conclusion that the elimination of v.tatarskyi is a part of the escalation of internal russian conflicts with the participation of the “Wagner” PMC, and a murder of the war correspondent may be a warning to je.prigozhin.
But despite the whole range of versions regarding the elimination of the tatarskyi, this event became a real “cold shower” for russian propagandists, who had to reevaluate all their activities in favor of the putin regime and think about the fact that they could be eliminated at any moment. However, the vast majority of russian top propagandists took a different path – they decided to “raise the stakes” in russia’s war against Ukraine. Adhering to this idea, the “tatarskyi factor” was used by them as a catalyst for new calls for the escalation of the war unleashed against the Ukrainian nation. For clarity, here are a few quotes:
● margarita simonyan: “Well, what? Shall we forget? Forgive them?”
● tina kandelaki: “When will the country start to respond? Terrorists have electricity, water, railways, restaurants, the Internet, the leaders of the killers travel the country with television cameras.
● ilya jansen: “We need terror that the world has never seen. <…> We need every pro-Ukrainian in russia to be afraid to leave the room. <…> And Ukraine should at this moment burn and wail with the howling of hundreds and thousands of widows in the rear. <…> We need terror that the world has never seen before”
● oleksiy zhivov: “Do you think, creatures, if you kill one, two, three of us, something will change? The only thing that will change is that we will start flaying you alive. <…> I swear, we will finish in Kyiv, and our enemies will hang on poles”
● yegor kholmogorov: “Life in Kyiv and “Khokhlocities” like it must turn into hell”
● oleksandr malkevich: “russian civil society is waiting for a much stronger response to this terror unleashed against peaceful citizens”
With the help of such simple manipulations, the kremlin decided to use even the fact of the death of one of its propagandists to their own advantage. However, will such a game work on the emotions of russians? The answer to this question can be found in the situation with the liquidation of another russian propagandist, d.dugina, which also ended exclusively with a series of odious statements.
Adhering to the authoritative opinion of ISW, one can come to another conclusion – the kremlin has begun to “remove” propagandists who know and can tell many “inconvenient” details from the battlefield for the putin regime.
