Vladimir Putin gave a speech on Friday morning in a crowded Moscow stadium. But according to the BBC, several participants in the event were forced to go there.
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At least that’s what BBC Moscow correspondent Will Vernon argues in a series of tweets he shared shortly after the rally.
According to him, the images captured and which show a cheering crowd while the Russian President boasts of the success of his military operation in Ukraine are a good example of “Putin’s propaganda”.
Will Vernon claims that several public sector workers reportedly went to Luzhniki Stadium after being pressured by their employers.
A participant interviewed by Will Vernon and who works in the Moscow metro confessed that in his opinion “most people there do not support the war”.
Russian students are also said to have told the BBC correspondent that they were offered a day off if they agreed to go to a “concert”. Some of them were therefore surprised to find themselves at the heart of a rally supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.