In the Russian Federation, the date of the next "election" has already been approved, voting will take place over three days - from March 15 to 17, 2024.If such an "action" is already common for Russians matter, it will be for the occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular for Luhansk oblast for the first time. In the Russian Federation, the date of the next "election" has already been approved, voting will take place over three days - from March 15 to 17, 2024.If such an "action" is already common for Russians matter, it will be for the occupied territories of Ukraine, in particular for Luhansk oblast for the first time.
As part of the election campaign, they started collecting signatures in the occupied territory of Luhansk oblast in December (three months before the vote!), and not for whom you want, but for Putin.
The campaign is carried out by so-called "volunteers", justifying it by the fact that they are self-nominated
in the Russian Federation, to register as a candidate, you need to collect 300,000 signatures:
“In order for a self-nominated candidate to register his candidacy for the post of President of Russia, it is necessary to collect at least three hundred thousand signatures throughout the country.”
The Russians bet on Putin in the occupied Luhansk oblast.In order to draw a grand turnout, appropriate events are now being held.They collect signatures in all possible ways: they go from house to house, create points on the streets and in supermarkets.
How exactly do the Russians conduct propaganda?
Campaign videos
The so-called resources of
"Luhansk People's Republic" launched a series of videos, even from small ones populated areas of Luhansk oblast, where residents actively support Putin and they are ready vote for him.We are not talking about other candidates. So, recently "volunteers" collected signatures in such settlements as Bobrove (Siеvіerodonetsk district):
The key arguments put forward by the residents of the occupied territories to justify their support for Putin are quite similar.
They are similar to already formed theses that viewers have been hearing on Russian television for years (it is no secret that all the time before the invasion, residents of Luhansk oblast could freely watch Russian TV. And they did):
"I like him";
"The real master of the country";
“He does everything right”;
"I don't see any other alternative in the presidential election."
The situation is the same in the old occupied territories. Propaganda videos were recorded in Luhansk, Anthracite, Sorokyno, Dovzhansk, Pervomaisk and others.
The situation in 2014 with the "strong landlord" during and after referendum in Luhansk oblast, is repeated.The Russians don't bother they use tools they have been familiar with for many years.
Authoritative opinion
In the information space of the occupied Luhansk oblast, Russians are trying to show that authoritative and educated people are voting for Putin.In this way, the message is promoted: "If you are smart, you will vote for Putin."
Yes, these are the heads of various organizations:
“Lilia Ilyina, head of the public organization “The Path of Good”, co-chairman of the regional executive committee of the NF LPR, puts her signature in support of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.”
Directors of the schools: Anna Pisarevska, the head of Rovenky specialized school № 3 named after A. F. Burdy:
"I love my country, my Republic and my city. My family, my relatives live here. Today I came to sign in support of our President."
In this post, Russian resources are trying to create the illusion that everything the population under occupation came and signed in support of Russian dictator:
“For more than a week and a half, Deputies, Ministers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, utility workers, social workers, students, pensioners сome to sign in support of the President."
"Convincing" bot comments
Under posts in support of Putin, comments are left by suspicious accounts that have signs of bots, namely:
Almost all were created in one day;
There are no real photos;
Similar comments;
There is no personal data in the user information section.
Let's consider an example of one of these campaign posts. Let's say this one is from January 5
Such comments are under the post from community members:
It is interesting that the comments are all positive, but if you go to these accounts, you can see that they were created on December 20-21 and none of them have real photos.
This trend is observed under almost every channel post. These users also do not have information "about themselves".
According to the Center of National Resistance, despite the coercion of the process of organizing a collection among workers of "state institutions", the enemy collected as many as 5 thousand signatures.
An intelligence review by the British Ministry of Defense says that the Russian occupation authorities almost certainly consider achieving the "right" results in the occupied territories of Ukraine as a priority because they want to give a sense of legitimacy to their invasion.
Therefore, all the propaganda actions described above will be used by the Russian authorities to prove the supposedly "unanimous choice of the people" and, first of all, to justify Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine.
In September 2023, Russia already held regional elections elections in illegally occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblast of Ukraine. Then the whole world condemned these actions of the Kremlin.
