Soldiers. The Ultimate Embedded Reporters
Vanya, the coffins keep arriving. We are burying one man after another. This is a nightmare.
The New York Times broke new journalistic ground with its multimedia presentation of audio excerpts from phone calls made by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Vivid conversations convey the soldiers' disenchantment with a war that, in the words of one soldier talking to this mother, "is the stupidest decision our government ever made, I think."
Excerpts from more than 4,000 recordings of phone calls intercepted by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies reveal a demoralized military, unrestrained looting, and the murder of civilians ordered by superior officers. The conversations, heard in Russian and translated, are a remarkable account of war, evoking great novels and films, from Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Pat Barker's Booker Prize-winning Regeneration trilogy to "Johnny Got His Gun" and "The Big Red One." More than that, these recordings will make their way to Russia, countering Putin's propaganda.
Cell phones change everything in war, making soldiers the ultimate embedded war correspondents. For its on-the-ground view of the war in Ukraine, this Pulitzer-worthy effort by the nation's best newspaper should not be missed: ‘Putin Is a Fool’: Intercepted Calls Reveal Russian Army in Disarray
A New Kind of Colonialism
Too often, U.S. media misses the global aspects of a news story. Here, Timothy Snyder, the Yale professor and author of On Tyranny, puts forward his thesis on Putin's global strategy in Ukraine. By cutting off Ukrainian grain exports to Africa and Asia, Putin hopes to blame food shortages on the West's support for Ukraine.
The Propaganda War Started Years Ago
In 2017, Russia's propaganda machine was revving up for war. As author and translator Jenny Croft pointed out in her recent review of I Will Die in a Foreign Land, "the Russo-Ukrainian war did not start with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The conflict goes back to 2014 and the so-called Revolution of Dignity, when after months of protest against a corrupt Ukrainian government strengthening ties with Vladimir Putin, Kyiv erupted in violent clashes that culminated in the deaths of more than 100 protesters and the removal of the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich."
As Croft points out, Ukraine's ouster of the Russian-backed Yanukovich was illusory. Russia retaliated by annexing Crimea and backing pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donbas and Luhansk. These moves were accompanied by propaganda like the video shown above. If you didn't know it was real, you might be forgiven for thinking the videographer was channeling Cabaret. with this ode to Uncle Vova, the affectionate name for Vladimir Putin.
If the ode to "Uncle Vova" (the affectionate nickname for Vladimir Putin) isn't chilling enough, watch this scene from the 1972 musical to end all musicals.
Translation of the Russian Ode to Nationalism
We’ll preserve our Sevastopol and the Crimea for future generations
And return Alaska to the harbor of the motherland.*
The twenty-first century has come, the earth is tired of war,
The world’s population is fed up with the Hegemon.
The European Union has no opinion of its own, the Middle East groans from troubles.
Across the ocean, the President is stripped of power.
As for us, from the northern seas and down to our distant southern border,
From the Kuril Islands to the Baltic coast,
We only wish for peace on earth, but if our Commander-in-chief
Calls us up for the final battle, - Uncle Vova*, we’re with you
And what will remain for my generation
One weak moment and we could lose our country.
Our loyal friends are the Navy and the Army,
Our grandfather’s red star reminds us of that bond.
As for us, from the northern seas and down to our distant southern border,
From the Kuril Islands to the Baltic coast,
We only wish for peace on earth, but if our Commander-in-chief
Calls us up for the final battle, - Uncle Vova, we’re with you
Not a single isle will fall to the Samurai.
We’ll stand firm for our amber capital.
We’ll preserve our Sevastopol and the Crimea for future generations
And return Alaska to the harbor of the motherland.
As for us, from the northern seas and down to our distant southern border,
From the Kurile Islands to the Baltic coast,
We only wish for peace on earth, but if our Commander-in-chief
Calls us up for the final battle, - Uncle Vova, we’re with you
* Does this mean they'll take Sarah Palin? Hmm...
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