Russia has changed its official stance on many issues many times. One can hardly expect anything else from a country whose past is rewritten by every new ruler. Presumably, we\u2019ve encountered a situation when Russia will start admitting its involvement in the war against Ukraine. However, they will be doing it gradually and with the familiar cynicism.<\/p>\n
Putin has been telling stories about the local \u201cpeople\u2019s militia\u201d in Crimea with the uniform and equipment purchased from a \u201csurplus shop\u201d since the very onset of war against Ukraine. However, he admitted later that the Ukrainian military units were blocked and disarmed by Russia\u2019s regular forces; InformNapalm\u2014international intelligence community\u2014covered details of the Crimea occupation operation in its OSINT studies a number of times [1]<\/a>, [2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gradually, Russian \u201cpolitical technologists\u201d seem to start paving the way for the admission of the Russian military incursion in Ukraine. Local separatists, numerous Russian mercenaries, and Novorossia advocates have always been aware of the presence of the Russian regular troops and equipment. They\u2019ve even coined a special term \u2014 Northerly Wind \u2014 <\/em>to refer to this.<\/p>\n Russians \u2014 and Soviets before them \u2014 frequently replace conventional terms with some oblique euphemisms or come up with an altogether new terms. For instance, all Soviet Union\u2019s military operations abroad were referred to as \u201cbrotherly assistance\u201d<\/em> or \u201cinternational duty\u201d <\/em>in spite of their being acts of aggression and intervention in fact.<\/p>\n Military equipment supply to Donbas is referred to as the Voentorg <\/em>(\u201cmilitary surplus shop\u201d); Russian troops are known as Otpuskniki <\/em>(\u201cvacationers\u201d) or Ikhtamnet <\/em>(\u201cthey-are-not-there\u201d) etc. This substitution of terms is a fine psychological move. For instance, the Russian media pushed the term \u201clittle green men\u201d<\/em> upon us, and we have accepted this euphemism instead of referring to the Russian Army.<\/em> Is it mere coincidence or a result of the conscious effort of professional media psychologists?<\/p>\n Putin\u2019s jocular reference to rumors of Donald Trump\u2019s adventures in Moscow is a recent example of such substitutions. The word \u201cprostitute\u201d <\/em>would sound too gross, direct and confrontational, but a comment about \u201cgirls with reduced social responsibility\u201d <\/em>made the media almost ecstatically happy. So, is it mere coincidence or yet another result of the conscious effort of professional media psychologists?<\/p>\n However, let us get back to the Russians\u2019 attempts to make overtures for the admission of the fact of involvement of the Russian military in the War in Donbas. Political scientist Sergey Markov made a statement on Osoboye Mneniye<\/a> show on Echo of Moscow radio. His style of speech is somewhat reminiscent of Zhirinovsky at the early stage of his political career. They play similar roles by voicing ideas that have been hatched by the Kremlin, but are too outrageous to be officially announced.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I believe there are \u201csurplus shop\u201d<\/strong> supplies, there are some \u201cvacationers\u201d<\/strong>. According to my sources, there were two “vacations” of one week each. Do you remember that critical moment with the encirclement at Ilovaisk? Indeed, there were some vacationers there, who, so to say, contributed to tightening the noose at Ilovaisk, and they also helped later with the encirclement at Debaltseve. Otherwise, everything has been done by the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) army which Stockholm Institute of Strategic Studies ranked, I believe, fifth or sixth in Europe in terms of its potential.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n