Provocation Narrative Form

This sense of being under siege is an essential component of the Russian strategy of purporting to be the rescuer of the damsel whom Russia itself had led into a state of distress.

We will see in later chapters how Russian Disinfolklore managed to convince Ukrainians in Russia-occupied Ukraine that it was Ukrainians who were threatening them, not the Russian occupiers.

In occupied Ukraine, as elsewhere, the Russian Big Bad Wolf managed to manipulate the minds of its victims into becoming blind to the real threat (the Russians).

Russian Disinfolklore even convinced Ukrainians to fight against a mythical threat that Russian Disinfolklore had conjured into being.

Source: Routine: Provoke the Distress, then Purport to Salve It

This is the provocation logic in its richest narrative form — not the compressed formula, but the full fairy tale: Russia is the Big Bad Wolf pretending to be the rescuer of the damsel whom it itself threw into distress. The passage shows the most terrifying outcome: victims turned against themselves, Ukrainians convinced to fight against a threat conjured by the very power occupying their land. The provocation logic does not merely deceive — it recruits the victim into perpetuating the deception.

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