Russia’s ‘denazification’ project is only just beginning

Truth, infamously, is the first casualty of war. But the truth, in modern Russia, was critically wounded before it got anywhere close to the staging grounds, let alone the battlefield. And still the disinformation project limps on.

The most recent and blatant example of the Kremlin’s communications modus operandi is its instant write-off as ‘fake’ of photographs and video from Bucha, a quiet town outside Kyiv, now littered with civilian corpses and the broken machinery of war.

Perhaps the invading troops left in a hurry, or perhaps Bucha was meant as some kind of warning, but the perpetrators didn’t care to clear up their handiwork. Reporters have now recorded and shown us pictures of the dead in the street, with gunshots to the heads, their hands bound behind their backs. You can’t look away.

Reporters have also relayed the words of terrified relatives, who say despite the gunfire they buried their dead in back yards under light topsoil ‘so at least the dogs didn’t eat them’.