The Negotiator’s Testimony: Victims of Their Own Propaganda

Ukraine’s chief negotiator in Istanbul March 2022 peace talks said something which exactly matched my experience of negotiating with Russian army officers in eastern Ukraine:

“They [Russians] are victims of their own propaganda. I found a formula how the Russian [propaganda] really works. First he writes some crazy theories. Then they put this on TV. Then they watch their own TV and start to believe it. It’s like a cycle. It’s like it’s real. And when were talking to these people [Russian government negotiators sent to Istanbul in March 2022 to negotiate Ukraine’s surrender] they really believe that we [Ukraine] is full of Nazis killing people on the streets. 150 million people living in this country [i.e. Russia] and they are watching this TV and believing this thing.”

This was my experience too, when I was dealing with Russian occupiers. They really seemed to believe the nonsense their own propagandists had invented.

Source: Pensees 105

The testimony confirms the closed loop: invent the lie, broadcast the lie, consume the broadcast, believe the lie. The Russian negotiators in Istanbul genuinely believed Ukraine was “full of Nazis” — because they were watching their own Disinfolklore and mistaking it for reality. See Coercive Control.

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