"Mariupol" bloggers-propagandists at the service of "white masters"

Russia has launched a truly large-scale PR campaign to "restore" Mariupol. This is similar to the PR campaign to rebuild Grozny, the capital of independent Chechnya, which was destroyed by the Russians. We can observe how this PR reconstruction slowly turns into a very familiar story about colonizers bringing light to the troubled natives, "white masters" who came to enlighten the dark natives.

A whole layer of propaganda bloggers, both local and foreign, has formed and is grazing on the topic of Mariupol, serving Russian propaganda about Mariupol. They all clearly focus on covering Russia's efforts to rebuild the city.

Almost every one of them made a story about the new Nevsky neighborhood, the development of the waterfront, or the construction of a branch of the Nakhimov Naval School.

The list of messages is also the same for all of them. For example, Mariupol's transformation into a million-strong resort city.

It's an absolutely fantastic idea, given that the entire industrial base of the city was destroyed by the White Masters. But you have to sell people at least some positive story. Another commonality is that at some point, local bloggers start traveling around Russia and demonstrate their sheer superhuman admiration for everything they see.

The old game of the shining imperial center and the shocked "natives" who have come to get the queen's "slippers." Nothing new - only now it's YouTube and Instagram.

Talented young people

Anastasia Kozhevnikova and Timur Seyidov, a pair of propaganda YouTubers from Mariupol, are pretty young, but they already have a significant audience and track record. Both of them have their own YouTube channel, where they never tire of talking about the successes of the occupation authorities in rebuilding Mariupol.

Everything is excellent here: new and renovated houses, a new embankment, etc. Anastasia, however, in one of the videos, talks about her experience of living in destroyed Mariupol, but in a way that makes it completely unclear who shot and destroyed her house.

On his YouTube channel, Timur can sometimes even criticise local or Russian authorities in a kind way. In much the same way as a resident of a European colony who has been educated in a colonial school might lament that "white masters" should come to their colony more often to restore order.

Timur, for example, might say that it would be nice if Russian traffic police officers and their families moved to Mariupol to help clean up the roads.

At some point, some propagandists set off on a big trip across Russia. By the way, the stated reason for the trip is already quite satirical: they want to buy a used foreign car (because their previous cars were burnt down by a shell fired by an unknown person), so they are going to the Russian Far East to buy a used Japanese car with right-hand drive.

It is clear that the sanctions make it impossible to buy a new foreign car in Russia, except for Chinese ones. And for some reason, Timur doesn't like Chinese or even Russian cars.

Of course, they ooh and ahh everywhere on their journey. However, sometimes the subject of their admiration is not entirely clear. For example, when they arrive in the Buryat city of Ulan-Ude, the couple checks into a hotel on the top floor. From there, they shoot the views of this, in their words, beautiful city. And that's it... For some reason, there is no video of a walk through the streets of evening Ulan-Ude and no conversations with its friendly residents. However, they show a monument - a giant head of Lenin in the city center.

And nothing else. All that remains is to take the word of Mariupol bloggers that Ulan-Ude is a city of dreams.

Still, Anastasia managed to get one fascinating interview with the wife of a Russian man who decided to move from Kachinsk, Russia, to Mariupol with his family. In short, this interview is simply an iconic creation of the image of "white masters" who went to the native land to enlighten the natives.

Constant hints that Mariupol residents should be grateful for the reconstruction efforts. But all of this is overridden by one remarkable phrase from a woman who said that her husband, upon arriving in Mariupol, declared "that he would never return to Kachinsk again."

A logical question arises: how terrible must the Russian hinterland be for a person to be willing to move from it to a city completely destroyed by war and not want to return?

Dima and Lilya

Another married couple from Mariupol runs a joint YouTube channel called Dima and Lilya. They have 69,000 subscribers, but it is not unusual for them to see some videos reach 200,000 or more views. According to them, before the occupation, they worked at Azovstal, although even then, they were trying to develop their YouTube channel and filmed videos about their holidays.

They still have an offer of cooperation on their channel. As a reminder of their efforts, there is a series of videos about holidays in Turkey and Egypt. Perhaps, in some other life, where there was no Russian occupation, Dima and Lilya would have remained decent people: they would have worked at Azovstal, earned money on their YouTube channel, and talked about another resort somewhere in Antalya or Hurghada. But the Russians decided to bring the "Russian world" to Ukraine, and Dima and Lilya's lives changed radically.

Here, we see a story published on the channel in the spring of 2022. It features a completely confused Dima and Lilya standing in the middle of war-torn Mariupol and telling us that they are just trying to survive. Eventually, the couple flees the city.

THEY END UP IN ASTRAKHAN, AND IT'S LIKE SOMEONE IS REPLACING THEM

And then they end up in Astrakhan. It's as if someone is replacing them. Endless stories about the wonderful life in Astrakhan begin. Then they return home, but the couple is already clearly articulating the main messages of Kremlin propaganda about Mariupol. In particular, one of its cornerstones is the "rebuilding" of Mariupol. Here, the bloggers clearly follow a list of "victories" of the Russian authorities in this city that was clearly not compiled by them.

Here, Dima and Lilya talk about a destroyed and allegedly restored kindergarten. Well, after all, why wouldn't bloggers talk about the restoration of such an important element of infrastructure? Especially since, according to Dima, he even managed to work a little on its restoration.

But if you do a little Googling, you will find that this kindergarten is a real media phenomenon in the Russian propaganda environment. After all, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin himself came to its "opening". And the event was widely broadcast by the central Russian propaganda media.

The lulling voices of Dima and Lily talk about the "wonderful" embankment, holidays on the Azov Sea, and weather changes. However, they do not tell how it happened, and thanks to whom, they were left homeless and unemployed. Although, given their activity on the YouTube channel, they did find a new job.

Walk Talk from Tula

The Russian propagandist Yevgeny from the YouTube channel with 590,000 subscribers and the pretentious name Walk Talk is apparently a representative of the "white supremacists". At least in private conversations, he introduces himself as "Yevheniy from Tula." He must really be from Tula because he refers to Tula from time to time.

Nowadays, Yevgeny takes on any propaganda orders. But he became popular thanks to Mariupol, or rather because of what the Russians made of it. The first story on the channel tells about his alleged volunteer trip to Mariupol. And even now, he is so concerned about Mariupol's problems that he seems to be stuck there. Therefore, he can still be classified as a propagandist from Mariupol.

To be fair, Yevheny does have some propaganda skills. For example, in one of his videos, he talks about several garbage bins broken by unknown people and installed by the Russian "liberators."

Accidentally or not, during his story, Yevheny meets a couple of elderly Mariupol residents who tell him that the bins may have been damaged by Ukrainian activists who are waiting for the city to be liberated from the Russians and, of course, hate everything built by the Russians. This is how an ordinary story about a few broken bins takes on a completely different color.

However, such a capable propagandist as Yevgeny from Tula has his slip-ups. For example, when explaining why Mariupol residents are very slow to settle in the new Nevsky neighborhood (yes, Nevsky again, it seems that every propagandist in Mariupol has to talk about this neighborhood), Yevgeny noted that Mariupol residents lost all their furniture and household utensils during the war. Now, they have nothing to pawn the empty boxes of the apartments they were given. They also do not have the money to buy all this stuff.

Perhaps this phrase would have gone unnoticed if Vladimir Putin had not visited Nevsky sooner. Of course, they were preparing for his visit, and the owners of apartments in the new buildings were undoubtedly given strict instructions on what to say and how to say it.

But probably the recent atmosphere of Ukrainian democracy and the tradition of criticizing the authorities played havoc with the "unstable" minds of the new "Russians." The owner of the apartment he received, between endless thanks, blurted out that he had received an empty box and was buying everything in the apartment at his own expense.

Putin quickly left the apartment, and various liberal Russian media outlets such as Dozhd immediately recalled that a blogger from Mariupol had already written about problems with the interior of the apartment. Yevhen had to make a live broadcast, explain that his words had been distorted, and quote the very quote that made him famous.

It is interesting that for some reason, he made the broadcast not from the city of his pain, Mariupol, or from his possible homeland, Tula, but from the embankment of sunny Gelendzhik, where he had somehow ended up. But this is another story.

"Peaceful"

Another propaganda YouTube channel, Mirnye, is moving at the same amplitude. This project is run not by some amateur from Mariupol but by a professional propagandist, a "military commander," and an employee of the Russian RIA Novosti, Regina Orekhova.

After all, the fact that she has been systematically covering (in fact, misinforming) the situation in Mariupol for the past two years alone gives grounds to include her in the list of Mariupol propaganda bloggers. It's the same as the others: endless stories about Russian new buildings, every stone laid by the Russians, and a show of grateful locals.

But Regina, probably without realizing it, has made an almost legendary piece that demonstrates how far the "white hoods" of Mariupol, and above all, she herself, are from any manifestation of humanity.

The title of this material is "Shock prices for apartments in Mariupol". And it tells, in general terms, about how profitable it is to invest in destroyed housing, in "ruin" in Mariupol.

As a reminder, we are talking about housing where someone lived, someone died. Regina goes to these apartments, where their owners' belongings are still there, with some people who call themselves realtors and tell them how profitable it is to invest in such housing.

Regina comes with her realtor Natalia to one of these apartments. Everywhere are the belongings of the people who used to live here; even in the children's room, there are children's toys that will never be played with again. "The apartment was not prepared for sale; they didn't even take out the garbage," the blogger is outraged, not even realizing that there may be no one to take out the garbage, that the family may be buried nearby in the yard.

If the world were to hold a competition for the most anti-human, inhumane video, this video would undoubtedly claim the top spot.

But besides this legendary material, Regina has produced many videos about the "restoration" of Mariupol and its happy residents, where Mariupol residents themselves act as passive actors for the propagandists. This is yet another confirmation of the old truth: take away everything a person has, and then you can do whatever you want with them.

TAKE AWAY EVERYTHING A PERSON HAS, AND THEN YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT

Therefore, when Russian media propagandists are waiting at the door for the owners of new homes, everyone understands that they need to answer questions and answer them correctly. And once they start, people are unwittingly drawn into a conversation that is entirely propagandistic in content. Someone tries to praise the housing provided, and someone wants to say a few warm words about those who provided it - about the "white bastards" from Russia.

But even on-camera gratitude and cheap glamour cannot hide the Potemkin-like squalor of the rebuilding of the city destroyed by the Russians.

"...and break the spine"

Maria Chushykina, a blogger and creator of another propaganda YouTube channel, Masha from Mariupol, has long been known in the Russian propaganda market.

She "throws" this propaganda generously and categorically. She follows the "ladder" of a freelance propagandist from Mariupol quite clearly. The Ukrainian Nazis, who did not allow the city to live and develop, destroyed her house, but that's okay; now Russia has taken everyone under its wing and will rebuild everything.

According to Masha's statements, everything will be fine in the city now, and if her car's wheel falls into a hole somewhere on the road, Masha will immediately comment that this road is "left over from Ukraine." Her husband is also a blogger but not as successful as she is, and, according to the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Andriushchenko.

In other words, we are looking at the image of a Russian propagandist who is typical to the point of being uninteresting. Lately, however, some strange materials have slipped through the propaganda trash on her YouTube channel. They are related to the fact that "white gaspada" appeared in Mariupol in the literal sense of the word.

Vyacheslav Datsyk is a well-known person in the Russian beau monde. A professional fighter, a member of the ultra-nationalist movement "Slavic Union" (whose stated goal is to create a Russia led by the titular nation - Texty.org), he once engaged in robbery, robbed mobile phone shops, was detained, placed in a psychiatric hospital, escaped to Norway, but then returned.

According to Masha from Mariupol, Datsyk and his company are currently taking over markets and retail outlets in Mariupol. And in her portfolio, there are videos, for example, with the following titles: "Vyacheslav Datsyk in Mariupol! We'll come with a division, piss all over it and break the spine!".

In this video, Masha and her husband cry that Datsyk called them "bums" while they were honestly helping "our guys at the front." In general, a picture emerges of local criminals being forced to give in to their more assertive and ideologically charged colleagues from Russia.

"They told us that they would break our backs; it's uncivilized at the very least," a representative of the local "elite" complains to propagandists about Datsyk. Ultimately, this is a good reminder to local YouTubers-propagandists what kind of future they should prepare for in occupied Mariupol.

A future where they will remain only service personnel and the rights to any assets will be shared only by real "white supremacists" from the metropolis, even those like Datsyk.

"The fish are coming back"

We have talked about relatively large local bloggers in Mariupol. However, propaganda activity around this city is not limited to them. Smaller YouTubers also contribute to the creation of the propaganda myth about Mariupol. One of them is Igor Korzhov, the creator of The Korzhov Vlog, a YouTube channel, and a former songwriter.

Igor monetized his creative inclinations by singing various Western hits on cruise ships. When the Russians started destroying Mariupol, he was free to go. However, this does not prevent him from inserting somewhere in his story that these houses, for example, were destroyed by shelling from Azovstal.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article about Korzhov and his Cuban wife, Gabi, residents of Mariupol.

"10 months ago, Gabi miraculously escaped from the clutches of Ukrainian Nazis who took her hostage in her own home. The guys went through a real hell, but in the end, thanks to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, they were able to fulfill their dream and move to Russia for permanent residence," reads the article by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Perhaps because Korzhov was not a steelworker in the past, he is somehow much more relaxed about the topic of deindustrialisation of Mariupol and the spread of the myth of its resort future.

"There are more fish in the sea. It's great. This is because the factories are not working; they do not poison the sea, the air, or the city residents. The sea has become cleaner, and so has the city. It's great!" Igor enthusiastically delivers his speech, for which, a few years ago, Mariupol residents would have definitely considered him mentally disabled.

Pro-Russian YouTube plankton

And now, let's move on from the bigger fish of the propaganda biosphere of the "Myth of Mariupol" to its smaller inhabitants, who are also important, like ocean plankton, all those crayfish and fry. They create a kind of information noise so that any enemies of the new, "bright" future city cannot break through it.

A textbook example is the YouTube channel "Survivors. Mariupol". The author of the channel is a resident of Mariupol with the beliefs of a standard "vatnik" who lost everything as a result of the Russians' destruction of the city and is now somehow surviving. On his YouTube channel, he tries to imitate the optimistic tone of his older comrades in arms, although he is not very good at it.

Here, he says that you can earn extra money if you buy a scythe and mow the grass. And despite his desire to radiate optimism, his words conjure up the image of a once-great city that is now overgrown with grass. "There is a big problem with grass in Mariupol now. You can buy a scythe and put up adverts; I think there are many people who want to do it because everything around is overgrown with grass."

But, despite everything, the author still seems sincerely convinced that Russia will not give up and sooner or later everything will be fine, or like in Russia, where, in his opinion, everything is really good. For example, on weekends he goes shopping in Taganrog. According to him, everything is cheaper there, so it is necessary for Russian officials to deal with local Mariupol "speculators". Then life will definitely get better.

On the day of Russia, the channel's car driver buys a cake and goes to one of the squares in Mariupol to celebrate the "holiday." There is no one in the square. The blogger looks around and then honestly admits that he doesn't fully know how to celebrate this day. But then he notices that the cake box is signed in Ukrainian. And then it starts to pour out ideological clichés. Life takes on some meaning for him again.

Mariupol propaganda disinformation bloggers eng russian propaganda