The information published in the Western media which evokes the Ukrainian counter-offensive or tensions at the top of power in kyiv have not gone unnoticed in Moscow.
For the Russian government and its media relays, the Western press is a “fake news” machine. Except when it can help to establish the Kremlin’s discourse. Thus, the information published in the Western media reporting a failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive or tensions at the top of power in kyiv did not go unnoticed in Moscow. And quickly, the pro-power media in Russia jumped on it, giving credence to the speech and the strategy of the Kremlin, which believes that time is on its side.
And this is particularly the case of the interview at the end of October with the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zalouzhny, in The Economist, widely commented on in Russia. The fact that the highest Ukrainian officer admits that there will be no major breakthrough and that positions are frozen is, for Russian newspapers, proof that what the Kremlin has been saying for weeks is true. Better still, the pro-government media read a weakening of Western support for kyiv. They want as proof the information from the American channel NBC, according to which Washington is trying to convince Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate with Moscow, which he denied.
The Ukrainian president is also described as isolated, in conflict with his advisors in a recent article in the magazine Time, again widely taken up in Russia. The Russian media see this as a weakening of power in kyiv and some newspapers even speak outright of the possibility of a military coup in Ukraine.
In Moscow, we are sure that time is on Russia’s side
The fact remains that all these articles come from media outlets completely aligned with the Kremlin, in the Russian context where saying or writing something that is not perfectly in line with the Ministry of Defense’s press releases can land you in prison. There are also probably analytical biases on the part of the Russian press, whether intentionally or not, which often equate a media outlet with its government. Understand: if the American press publishes something even the slightest bit critical of Ukraine, it is because Washington is letting go of kyiv.
That said, what this sequence also shows is that, when the Kremlin said in recent months that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was a failure and that it was contained, it was telling the truth. Even if he didn’t say everything, particularly regarding the human losses on the Russian side. All this is also part of a strategy increasingly assumed on the Russian side, in the media or among certain politicians, which is that time is on the side of Russia. So, in Moscow, we are convinced that the longer this conflict drags on, the more complicated it will be for the Ukrainians. And the stronger Russia will be in a negotiating position…