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The Kremlin does not know where to get the money to restore everything it destroyed, and barely struggles to portray Ukrainian soldiers as “the most brutal monsters.” The Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security collected the main fakes and narratives of Russian propaganda for July 18.
- Putin is not lied to, targets are not missed
- How much will the “restoration” of Donbas cost the RF?
- Why does Kadyrov need his own AD?
- Anti-fake gas mask is no longer required
Putin is not lied to, targets are not missed
Personnel reshuffles in the leadership of the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office were used by Russian propaganda as an excuse to mention the missile bloodshed in Vinnytsia on July 14.
At first, Russian Telegram channels began to promote a narrative about “the relevant decision of Western curators of Ukraine, who could not stand the death of their specialists.”
And on July 18, a new version appeared: “resignations in the SBU and the PGO are Zelenskyy’s revenge for “calibration” (this is how propagandists call a strike by the “Kalibr” — ed.) of the House of Officers in Vinnytsia, which was the first case of striking the decision-making centre.”
IN FACT, if the strike was so good, why did the Russian media keep silent during the day of July 14 about their “high-precision success”?
And the “decision-making centre” at the time of its “high-precision calibration” conducted: theatrical and psychological school-studio “Obraz” (Image), dance groups “Vertykal,” “Natkhnennia” (Inspiration), “Sharm-s,” and “Doshkilnyk” (Preschooler). The premises were rented by the recording studio “Inakshe,” and the eponymous school of DJs under it. There also were: a café, a branch of Privat Bank, Asgard School of Martial Arts, Ju-jitsu Academy, and a shoe store.
Instead of “representatives of Western countries and a large group of high-ranking officials of the Ukrainian Air Force,” 7-year-old Maksym, 8-year-old Kyrylo, and 4-year-old Lisa were killed among other civilian Vinnytsia residents.
Surprisingly, in 145 days of the war, the Russian Defense Ministry, with the voice of Konashenkov boring everyone every day about the success in the “demilitarization” of Ukraine, for some reason, did not name a single name of at least one killed general of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Instead, Ukrainians strike Russian high-ranking military officers aptly and, most importantly, regularly.
And the weapons of the occupiers, which they call “high-precision,” somehow destroy the lives of peaceful Ukrainians. On July 18, the official representative of the Kremlin, Peskov, once again stated that “the military of the Russian Federation in the course of the special military operation do not strike Ukrainian civilian infrastructure by the orders of Putin.”
Instead, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, only a third of Russian missiles were really targeted at military objects. The rest hit the civilian infrastructure, which, according to Peskov, Putin prohibits from striking. There is only one conclusion: they do not miss and do not lie to Putin.
It is estimated that in the total amount of direct losses of Ukraine the largest share accounts for residential buildings — 38% or USD 36.6 bln. As a result of the hostilities, almost 121,000 residential buildings, in which about a million Ukrainian families lived, have already been destroyed and damaged by “high-precision weapons.” The infrastructure comes second in terms of direct losses from damage and destruction — USD 31.3 bln, of which USD 25.4 bln fell on almost 24,000 km of Ukrainian roads. Direct losses to businesses amount to at least USD 8 billion and increase daily. The agricultural sector suffered losses amounting to another USD 4.3 billion.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, at least 388 enterprises, 18 civil airports, 779 medical institutions, 105,200 cars, 1,371 educational institutions, 690 kindergartens, 563 cultural and religious buildings, 23 shopping centres, 28 oil depots have been damaged, destroyed, or seized.
However, in all such cases, Russia does not recognize itself as a war criminal and stubbornly, using three basic approaches, justifies state terrorism against peaceful Ukrainians.
How much will the “restoration” of Donbas cost the RF?
On July 18, the so-called curator of Donbas, the first deputy of the PA of the Russian Federation Kirienko was on the temporarily occupied territory of the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia region. He even managed, according to Russian media, to hide from the shelling in the basement.
Of course, he promised that “Russia will restore everything and everyone will live a long, happy and prosperous life.” In June, Kirienko got involved in a very unpleasant media scandal with a greeting for the day of Russia, in which he announced that “all Russians will pay for the restoration of Donbas.” At that time, “Izvestia,” that published this, reported that the greeting was fake and appeared due to the hacking of employees’ work accounts.
IN FACT, it turns out that it wasn’t fake. At least in the part where he promised the Russians to prepare for the “restoration” of Donbas. Now, Russia is actively counting (covertly, of course) how much it will cost to “restore” the occupied Ukrainian regions. And they are desperate.
Russia will invest about USD 36 billion in the economy of the so-called “DPR” in the near future, according to the promise of its “representative” Khotsenko. The restoration of Mariupol alone will cost more than USD 14 billion and will take 7-10 years.
Amounts are not inflated. For example, the amount of funding under the target program for the development of the occupied Crimea and Sevastopol amounted to RUB 1.37 trillion in 8 years. Every year, Russia channels RUB 400 billion there. And this, let us note, is in the complete absence of destruction of infrastructure facilities. It should be noted that the territory of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts (which still needs to be seized) is twice as large as the territory of the occupied Crimea.
Thus, it can be concluded that:
- It is impossible to cover the amount of “restoration” from the federal budget, which is confirmed by the intention to transfer part of the expenditures to regions, of which only 15 are surplus, all others are subsidized.
- The amount necessary to “get Donbas from its knees” is compared with the pension budget of Russia. According to budget projections, RUB 8.79 trillion is allocated for pension provision.
- They would have to invest the entire National Welfare Fund of the Russian Federation in the restoration of the territories, which lost USD 35 billion in April alone. This will mean no promised increase in pensions and a freeze on the national projects with which Putin went to his last “elections.”
- The additionally occupied territories will continue to require funding for current needs. Before the outbreak of large-scale hostilities and the destruction of infrastructure, Bild estimated that Russia spent about EUR 1 billion per year only on the salaries of state employees and pensions in the so-called “L/DPR.” Considering the growth of the population in the new occupied territories, the costs will increase by another 5-6 times. And this with a complete collapse of the economy and destroyed infrastructure.
This is the two-year budget of fully subsidized Chechnya. For your understanding: approximately RUB 464 billion was officially spent on its restoration programs from the state budget of the Russian Federation. And Chechnya is a region of the scale of Kharkiv and Chuhuiv, the “liberation” of which is as improbable for Kadyrov as for “Roscosmos” to reach Mars.
Why does Kadyrov need his own AD?
On July 18, it occurred to Kadyrov that it would be a good idea to have his own AD system. He explained his desire by the fact that “anything can be expected from the enemy at any time, so we need outpacing tactical measures.”
IN FACT, how to connect the promises of “easily taking Kyiv as well as NATO countries” with a request to have AD in the mountains? Some experts suggest that Kadyrov’s logic reads very simply.
After all, with all due respect to Chechnya, NATO doesn’t care about it. However, in case of internal Russian turmoil, which is quite real, Kadyrov wants to protect himself from the repetition of the second Chechen war just in case, when the carpet bombing of Russian aviation by the orders of Putin actually burned all Chechnya, not his at that time.
Then the service for Putin began for a billion dollars a day. Kadyrov understands well: if there will be Putin — there will be a billion. There will be no Putin – there will be no “Ahmat battalions,” nor Kadyrov himself with his Chechnya. Therefore, it is necessary to seize the moment and try to get the maximum means of counteracting possible threats.
Similarly, in Moscow, after the classification of the bomb shelters, it was decided that, just in case, it was still necessary to check the alert system. The last time it was heard in the capital of Russia was probably during the war with the Germans.
Well, if Moscow decided that it was time to fight the Germans again, and besides them with the Swedes, Poles, and Anglo-Saxons, who are regularly threatened with a nuclear strike, then it is really worth checking whether at least the sirens of the alert are working.
Life changes: someone wanted to dance lezginka under the Kyiv chestnuts, and now asks to close the sky over the auls. Someone wanted to host the second victory parade on May 9, and on July 20, just in case, prepares the residents of the capital to hide from air attacks.
Anti-fake gas mask is no longer required
And finally, we’ll talk about the so-called Ukrainian biological weapons. On July 18, the Federation Council held a regular meeting of the commission to investigate the activities of American biolabs in Ukraine. According to the co-chairs of the commission Kosachov and Yarov, the analysis of the blood of captured Ukrainian servicemen showed that they were subjected to “secret experiments,” as a result of which they were turned into “the most violent monsters.”
IN FACT, it is no longer even interesting to dispel this nonsense. After all, no new colours are added to the picture painted by Russian political “chemists.” Especially since they draw it for their own people. On others, it has not made any impression for a long time.
Even Russian scientists say that they do not consider the diseases found in POWs “atypical for Ukraine.” And statements about “biological attacks” by the United States are generally called hypertrophied.
Let us remind you that during a large-scale invasion, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the first time accused Ukraine of developing biological weapons on March 6: “In the course of a special military operation, the facts of emergency cleansing by the Kyiv regime of traces of a military and biological program implemented and funded by the US Defense Ministry were revealed.”
As evidence of the existence of such a program, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, through Ria Novosti, published “documents” with instructions on the destruction of pathogenic microorganisms and relevant acts on destruction, sent to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and signed by microbiologists of Poltava and Kharkiv Oblast Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that it was allegedly done to cover its tracks.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine then called these statements disinformation and provocation, noting that “after several absurd statements by Russian officials about the alleged creation of a “dirty” nuclear bomb in Ukraine, the Russian disinformation machine switched to the topic of biological weapons.”
Since then, it has never switched from it.
There were episodes about Ukrainian: insects, birds, bats, “Bayraktars,” which under the command of the Americans bring chemical death to the Russians.
There was a scary story about the blood of the “Slavic ethnicity” for Germans, as well as about the readiness of “Ukrainian Nazis to conduct chemical attacks against the civilian population” in: Mykolayiv, Zolochiv, Sievierodonetsk, Rubizhne.
There were accusations of Pfizer and Moderna being involved in U.S. military biological activities in Ukraine.”
There were miraculous pills that turned Ukrainian fighters into versatile soldiers.
Much was also done with a side, but similarly zero effect: from black magic for mortars to the “satanic temple of the Right Sector.”
All this nonsense, starting not even from March 2022, but since 2015, Russian propaganda has been spreading with such “creative” boredom that an anti-fake gas mask is no longer necessary.
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