- Ukraine knows how to exploit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weak spots.
- Its invasion of Kursk undermined Putin’s image as a strongman protector of Russian security.
- The attacks have the potential to erode Russians’ support for Putin, an expert said.
It’s hard to overstate just how dangerous this is for Putin. A large part of why Russians tolerate him is because Putin Make Russia Stronk. Take that away and what has he got left?
This act by Ukraine physically pierced the echo-chamber that is Russian disinformation. The viral media from this event is going to reach pretty far into Russia, and is definitely karma delivery a hefty slap as a wake-up call.
Idk how many Russians do you think actually know the war jumped borders? If I were Putin that would be very controlled information
It’s being openly discussed on state media, this isn’t a secret.
That’s not how Russian information control works. As the internet age became a thing they quickly realized that they simply don’t have the resources to prevent people from accessing information. Instead their model is to tell the truth and a lie at the same time. Literally, one state run paper will print a true story, the other will print a totally fabricated version of the same events. What this does is it undermines the idea of “truth” as a meaningful concept. It’s the whole “alternative facts” / “fake news media” thing. You don’t prevent the information existing, you just train people to pick and choose the version of reality they like best.
In appearing to “make russia stronk”, he entrenched himself, so it will take some effort to remove.
It’s the dictator classic: use lies to get to power and when people discover they were lies all along, it is already too late.
The entire government, I suspect.