On Freedom

by Timothy Snyder

Before and during the invasion, Moscow’s propaganda slandered Ukraine and Ukrainians. The basis of the attack was not evidence or even ideology, but rather estimations of what would arouse negative emotions in consumers of social media. Knowing something about what people believed about the world, Russia could target specific vulnerabilities. Considered in their totality, Russia’s claims about Ukraine were contradictory: there was no Ukrainian language, but the Ukrainian state was making everyone speak it; the Ukrainian state did not exist but was repressive; Ukrainians were all Nazis, but they were also gays and Jews. I was living in Vienna at the time and was in contact with Ukrainian friends and colleagues. The simple fact that Russia had invaded a neighboring country got lost in social media. Americans and others wasted outrage on phantoms even as a real war of aggression began.