party and war During the New Year celebrations in Russia, the strange mixture of wanting to have fun and win on the battlefield was in the air. Added to the giant illuminated 'Z's in the central streets of major cities were the appropriation of Ukrainian songs and Western-oriented messages from the special program welcoming 2023 on public television.
Between lights and sparkles and the applause from the last performance of the night still ringing, the presenter of the show went to the camera to give the toast. "For the last year the West has tried to destroy Russia. They did not realize that in the composition of the world, Russia is the supporting structure...". Pause for laughter and applause.
"Yes, gentlemen. Like it or not, Russia is spreading." More laughter and applause from a diverse audience that included several generals, according to the clip selected and published by Julia Davis, who is in charge of following Russian television for the Russian Media Monitor.
At another point in the New Year's Eve gala, a woman sings a Ukrainian folk song. But not just any, but Chervona route, whose author Volodymyr Ivasiuk is suspected of having hanged KGB agents in 1979, during the Soviet Union. He wrote her songs in Ukrainian (a forbidden language under the Soviet regime) and due to her popularity, he was forbidden to sing anymore.
Next to the singer of the program, dressed in a cabaret outfit, some dancers try to emulate the movements of traditional Ukrainian dance.
Minutes before, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the same channel to enter the homes of Russian citizens. The president dedicated his traditional New Year's speech to the war, which he presented as a fight for Russia's survival, and for which sacrifices are required. Russian soldiers, he said, were fighting "so that the security of Russia can be guaranteed."
For months, the Kremlin presented the conflict as a limited campaign that would not affect the lives of most Russians. But in his speech, delivered in front of grim-faced soldiers in combat gear, Putin put the war squarely at center stage.
Likewise, the Kremlin leader also highlighted the division between those who support the so-called "special military operation", with which Putin refers to the invasion of Ukraine, and those who do not. "It was a year that he put many things in their place and drew a clear line between courage and heroism, on the one hand, and treachery and cowardice, on the other..."
