New Kremlin guidelines: war in Ukraine as baptism of Russia, with Putin as Nevsky

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — MONDAY, 1 AUGUST 2022, 16:54

The administration of the President of the Russian Federation has prepared guidelines for pro-government media and politicians, where they recommend drawing parallels between the war in Ukraine, the baptism of Rus [Russia] and the Battle of Neva [Battle of the Neva which took place on 15 July, 1240 - military engagement in which the Novgorod army defeated the Swedes on the banks of the Neva River; in honour of this battle Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, the Novgorod commander, received the surname Nevsky].

Source: Meduza

Details: The newspaper has two guidelines, prepared in July by the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, in its possession.

The preamble of the latter guideline states that "baptism became the basis for the strengthening and unity of the Russian state for hundreds of years to come," and today "representatives of all the peoples of Russia have united again in confronting the godless."

The document states: like the baptism of Russia, the war in Ukraine laid the grounds for the "state foundations" of the country - as well as "the foundations of Russia's development for centuries to come." "Russia has again become capable of fulfilling its mission of protecting the oppressed," the text states.

At the same time, the Kremlin suggests that the war was started by the "collective West", which is allegedly convinced of its "own exceptionalism", as well as the "inferiority" of the Orthodox.

A fight against the godless is declared in the document as one of the goals of the so-called "special operation". The Kremlin also suggests that the Ukrainian military should be called "godless" as well -  they alegedly "make sacrifices and commit ritual murders", and "many Ukrainian Nazis are open Satanists and followers of misanthropic cults."

The Kremlin finds even more analogies between the war in Ukraine and the Battle of the Neva.

First, the authors of the document explain that the "collective West" has been trying to divide Russia for many centuries. However, the guideline says, all Western attacks end the same way: "Society unites around a national leader and, demonstrating courage and heroism on the battlefield, repels the invaders." The Kremlin "recommends" emphasising that this allegedly happened both after the victory in the Battle of Neva and after the start of the war in Ukraine.

One of the chapters of the document is called "Strength is in truth!", words which are attributed to Alexander Nevsky.

"The truth was with the Russian soldiers - they were defending their home and therefore the victory could not fail to be ours," the authors of the document write. In the paragraphs about the "special operation" nothing is said about defence of the home, but it is mentioned that the Russian soldiers are also "sure of their rightness, because they are continuing the work of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers - finishing off Nazism."

The Kremlin notes that now the West, as before, wants to destroy Russia for the resources it needs. But if these resources once were the population, now the West allegedly needs minerals.

"The leadership of Russia and Vladimir Putin personally prevented an attack on Russia. A decision was made to start the [special military operation], which made it possible to avoid a repeat of 22 June, 1941 with the invasion of Nazi troops into the territory of Russia,"  whereby the authors compare the actions of the Kremlin and the Soviet leadership.

Meduza has already identified several publications in which statements from the guidelines are used. For example, the text of "Gazeta.ru" entitled "Baptism of Russia and special operation in Ukraine: what do they have in common?". This contains paragraphs simply copied from the Kremlin "manual".

A similar text appeared on the pro-government website FederalPress. The pro-Kremlin Regnum has also written about the similarities between the Neva battle and the "special operation". At the same time, in early June, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published an article entitled "Goat's Face. Satanism and occultism have become the ideology of the Ukrainian Nationalists."

According to two Meduza sources close to the Administration of the President of Russia, the Kremlin is currently trying to find "models" that could explain to Russians the reasons and goals of the invasion of Ukraine. Meduza sources did not rule out that similar documents with instructions about other historical events will appear in the future.

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