Satanic coven in Paris. Russian Media Monitoring Report, July 22–28, 2024

The French Olympics are trash

On 26 July, the Summer Olympics started in France. Russia, like Belarus, was not allowed to participate because of its aggression against Ukraine. However, athletes from these countries were allowed to join under neutral status. To participate, they had to fulfill several conditions and pass a qualifying round.

Russia decided not to broadcast the Olympics. Moscow is demonstratively offended by the organizers of the Games and pretends not to understand why the International Olympic Committee is punishing the country. The Russians once again point to the hypocrisy of the West, which allowed Israel to participate even though Jews are committing genocide against Arabs: "No measures were taken against Israeli athletes."

The propagandists claim that "sport is out of politics," so Russia has the right to participate in the competition: "The principle of 'sport is out of politics,' which has been sacred for many generations, has been violated. Contrary to the statements of officials in France about the desire for diversity and freedom of expression, those who disagree are being demonstratively and demonstratively sanctioned."

It is worth adding that the cliché about sports being outside politics in Russia does not pass the reality test. Russian athletes often support the war, sports clubs and competitions are funded by state structures, and well-known Russian athletes are usually representatives of Russian power institutions, make open or veiled political statements, and participate in propaganda events and political events. For example, this year, they were Putin's representatives at the so-called presidential election.

Before the opening of the Olympics, Russian propagandists claimed that the event should be ignored, opposed its broadcast on Russian television, and campaigned to minimize any references to the Games. The Kremlin's propaganda machine has experience in this. For example, during football competitions, matches with the Ukrainian national team are not shown; the live broadcast is not so live but is shown with seconds of delay to have time to cut out negative moments or muffle various chants, such as the chant about Putin.

Despite calls for the audience to ignore the Olympics, propaganda is covering it in detail.

Disinformers demonstrate and describe scandals and troubles in great detail. Commentators made a mistake when presenting the team - every ordinary Russian should know about this "sensation": "When the South Korean team sailed down the Seine, the French and English announcers announced them as the DPRK team." The organizers of the Games had problems with logistics, and the Russians should know about this to the last detail.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accuses the organizers of segregation: "Another blatant act of segregation took place on the eve of the Olympic Games in Paris. A black French athlete, Sounkamba Sylla, who professes Islam, was denied the right to participate in the opening ceremony of the Games." "Earlier, Russian and Belarusian athletes were subjected to segregation under false pretenses, then the prohibitive logic spread to the Russian media, and now the discriminatory machine of administrative and political regulation has also affected French athletes."

Russian propaganda has often used this manipulative technique called "the fool himself." The goal is to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the West: you accuse Russia of something, but you have sins of your own. For example, back during the Cold War, when the US accused the USSR of human rights violations, Soviet propaganda responded: "And you have blacks being lynched."

Even before the start of the Olympics, Russian propaganda produced a lot of fakes. France was overrun by bedbugs and rats, Ukrainian soldiers and refugees brought tuberculosis to the country, spectators refused to book hotels, and there would be no one to fill the stands.

The latest fake is that Ukrainian athletes at the Paris Olympics are supposed to wear electronic bracelets to prevent them from returning to Ukraine.

One of the favorite horror stories is about the Seine River in Paris, which the inept French authorities are unable to clean, which poses a real danger to athletes: "The French non-profit environmental organization Surfrider Europe has said that the current state of the water in the Seine does not allow for water sports competitions during the Paris Olympics. According to the organization, none of the samples met European water quality standards.

Even because of the weather, the Games have mercilessly criticized: "The ridiculous open-air opening ceremony forced spectators to sit for hours in the pouring rain, and the organizers had not provided for cloud dispersal or tents."

The most vicious attacks on the Olympics came from propagandists after the opening ceremony. Famous French drag artists performed at the ceremony. These are people, mostly men, who dress up in drag - clothes usually worn by the opposite sex. During their performances, they often behave exaggeratedly femininely, and their images include exaggerated features, such as make-up and false eyelashes, which can achieve a comedic, dramatic, or satirical effect.

Drag is commonly associated with gay culture and the LGBTQ community, but it is not only done by men. In addition, there is non-binary drag, which rejects the division between male and female.

The artists showed The Last Supper, a fresco by Leonardo da Vinci, depicting Jesus Christ, the apostles, and their sorrowful meal on the evening before his crucifixion.

Russian disinformers decided that this was not Orthodox at all and began to claim that it was a mockery of Christianity: "One of the main performances of the Olympics was the LGBT mockery of a holy story for Christians - the Last Supper, the last supper of Christ. The apostles were portrayed by drag queens. Apparently, Paris decided that since the Olympic rings are multi-colored, they could turn everything into one big gay parade."

It is worth noting that Russian propagandists are not the only ones outraged. Some viewers also saw the performance as a mockery of religious symbols and disrespect for Christianity. The French Bishops' Conference (CEF) also stated that scenes of "mockery and abuse of Christians" were shown during the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Far-right politicians hotly debated the show. Billionaire Elon Musk, who often repeats Russian narratives, including those concerning Ukraine, also did not stand aside this time and said that the drag queen show "was extremely disrespectful to Christians."

The organizers had to apologize. They said it was to show the "absurdity of violence between people."

But Russian propaganda is unstoppable: "The opening of the Olympic Games was a deliberate insult to Christianity and traditional values in general... an ugly, fat, anti-sports transgender was deliberately put in the place of Christ."

Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin shouts that France has offended his feelings: "Shame on France. ... The footage that has been spreading around the web demonstrates the complete degradation of European society. They have abused the Bible and offended our feelings, the feelings of Christians around the world."

The so-called political analyst Sergei Markov makes a statement that the organizers of the Olympics and Macron rule the world and want to destroy traditional values: "The authors of the satanic coven at the opening of the Olympic Games are Bernard Arnault and his friend Macron. Bernard Arnault is one of the three richest men in the world. Arnault is the owner of these Paris Olympics because his company LVMH is the main sponsor of these games. ... This is the world of the future Macron and the "emperor of luxury" Arnault presented to the world community: insulting traditional religions, a severed head coven, the dominance of LGBT people, the horseman of the Apocalypse on the Seine. These people rule the world".

The so-called philosopher Alexander Dugin concludes that "the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is the final verdict of modern Western civilization. The West is cursed, and this is an axiom". He calls for taking up arms for the war against the West: "Anyone who does not immediately take up arms to destroy this satanic civilization, which, frankly, has never had an equal, is its accomplice."

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hints that no one will surpass the international competitions that Russia used to host: "Now think back and compare it with the Sochi Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, which were held with brilliance in our country. Switch off your TVs, and don't watch the shameful freak show on the Internet!"

What else they wrote about

Ukraine has stopped the transit of Lukoil oil to Hungary and Slovakia

"Ukraine has shot itself in the foot" is one of the main narratives associated with the news that Ukraine is stopping the transit of Russian oil to European countries, mainly Slovakia and Hungary.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was the first to announce that the transit of Russian oil would be halted. According to him, in June, Ukraine put the Russian company Lukoil on the sanctions list, which stopped the supply of Russian oil. Kremlin propagandists are happy to report that now Ukraine will not receive diesel fuel from Slovakia. Robert Fico voiced the threat. Russian propaganda replicates it and assures that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will now be left without diesel fuel.

Kyiv is called "ungrateful." They say that Ukraine has declared a trade war: "Ukraine, by stopping the transit of Russian oil to Europe, has declared an economic war on Slovakia, even though the country provides humanitarian aid to Kyiv."

Disinformers also do not like the fact that the European Union is supporting Ukraine in this dispute: "EU states refused to support Hungary and Slovakia in the issue of Russian oil transit through Ukraine. They pointed out that Kyiv was acting within the framework of a trade agreement."

They claim that Ukraine is blackmailing the EU, that governments friendly to Russia are being punished for their position, and are agitating Budapest and Bratislava to leave the European Union: "The ban on the transit of oil from Russia through Ukraine to Slovakia and Hungary is an attempt by Kyiv to blackmail the European Union (EU) and punish Budapest and Bratislava for their stance on the conflict in the country."

Good China

On July 24, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in the Chinese city of Guangzhou (indicatively, he was not received in the capital Beijing) and held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. They discussed ways to stop Russian aggression and the possible role of the Chinese side in achieving peace.

Russian propaganda could not ignore the meeting. They wrote dryly about Kuleba's visit, paraphrasing the Chinese minister's statement. "Wang Yi emphasized the friendship and cooperation between China and Ukraine, noting that the two countries have been strategic partners for more than a decade. He also noted that China will continue to maintain communication with Ukraine, strengthen mutual trust and development, and promised to continue to import food from Ukraine and maintain logistics corridors."

The so-called experts picked on the words of the Ukrainian minister. During a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine adheres to the "one China" policy. That is, it does not recognize Taiwan's independence. Disinformers report that this means Zelenskyy is changing his master and flattering China. However, Ukraine has always emphasized the "one-China policy," and this vector has not changed.

Also, Kremlin propaganda should have explained to the Russians that the Ukrainian's visit to China does not change anything and that China remains Russia's partner and friend. To prove this, the Kremlin's information service quoted the words of China's foreign minister as saying that Russia and China are constructive forces in the region: "Wang Yi considers Russia, China and Laos to be constructive forces in the Asia-Pacific."

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The Methodology

To monitor the information published on disinformation websites, we analyzed approximately 500,000 news reports collected from ~ 1,000 Russian websites. The data for the analysis was collected and provided by SemanticForce.

Each paragraph was processed using an algorithm which defines its topic automatically. The resulting topics (i.e. groups with similar content) were short-listed by the topics relating to the war or its consequences for Russia. The number of mentions of a certain topic was then counted for each publication. Our conclusions are based on the respective findings and the quotes from paragraphs referring to each topic.

This article was originally written in Ukrainian. It has been translated into English using AI tools such as DeepL, ChatGPT, and Grammarly. If you encounter an error that requires immediate attention, please inform us via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Your understanding and support are appreciated.

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