Russian aggression against Ukraine is mostly denounced unanimously. However, people in countries friendly to Russia believe that the Russian president has a point and has enough grounds to defend the invasion.
Surveys were conducted in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Vietnam to China, and as people there condemn the atrocities in Ukraine, they still think that the Russian president is doing the right thing in invading the country.
Much of these claims are substantiated due to the media filtration in these countries. For instance, China is not on-airing anti-Russia news, so it is no surprise why its people are reluctant to back the western narrative.
Anti-American sentiments are helping Russia’s narrative worldwide
The situations in countries like Vietnam and Afghanistan can easily be attributed to their tragic history with the United States.
For the very fact that America invaded both the countries and left them miserably, most of the people there would hardly support the western narrative in any case. Even if they are given the news of the western media, they would hardly believe even a tiny bit of them.
Another reason why people in some countries support Russia is the ideological connections that they have with the country.
In the war of capitalism vs communism, a battle that intensified in the cold war, countries where communism managed to penetrate are the ones that are supporting Russia these days.
There is yet another perception that American narratives always get the loudest voice as they have control over the powerful media of the world.
Some people are outlining the hypocrisy of big tech and how they managed to take sides in the war by silencing the narrative in Russia.
American militarization of Europe is helping Russia in messaging war
Another prevailing school of thought evinces that the strategy of the United States to militarize Europe is costing the world the necessary peace.
For instance, many countries in Europe have American nuclear weapons, even though some of these countries have objected to their presence.
And at a time when America has made continuous advancement toward the Russian border by expanding NATO, many countries have raised their eyebrows against American ambitions in the war.
For defending its own sovereignty, Russia has to take countermeasures against the untapped expansion of NATO, and hence the invasion of Ukraine comes, many people opine.
But it can easily be perceived as a messaging war seeing how pro-Russia media is manipulating the minds of the people worldwide.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is all-about messaging war
Chinese media has even claimed that Ukraine is using civilians as human shields and that the Ukrainian president had left the country to avoid getting arrested.
Although China has not been able to endorse the bombing of Russia, majorly for the reason that it can also face western sanctions for doing so, however, it is making a narrative that Russia was rational while attacking Ukraine.
China has some incentives in propagating pro-Russia information in the world. It is widely believed that soon China will also attack Taiwan, and it will have Russia on its side this way.
Secondly, both China and Russia have anti-American sentiments due to the fact that capitalism is not the prevailing form of government in these nations.
Thus they have colluded against America so that both of them get their share of the pie after their respective attacks on their neighbors.
Recently, a Russian journalist was caught and interrogated for displaying a playing card on live television that mentioned an anti-war message, claiming that every bit of information dispatched through Russia is fake.
As the state-controlled media is the only source of information in Russia, so most people are unaware of what is actually happening.
We have already discussed how many Russians do not even know that war is happening, as Russia calls it a “military operation” and not war.
Final Thoughts
Even in countries like India, which claim to be the largest democracy in the world, Russia is more of a holy cow. This is due to the reason that India imports more than half of its arms from Russia, so speaking against it is out of the question.
Most people in India have been extremely critical of American overseas wars. Since the end of the Cold War, America and not Russia has invaded multiple countries.
Russia has its conflict limited to Ukraine, but the United States invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and supported proxies all over the Middle East.
Thus, the opinion exists that, although Russian aggression is not the ideal thing, the United States should be the last country criticizing it.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.