Analysis: Russian propaganda changed its tune, but so has America

CNN

06-03-2025

It's a sign of these extraordinary times that even the Kremlin's old propagandists are scrambling to change their tune.
Across state-controlled Russian media, disparaging references to 'the collective West' and 'Anglo-Saxons' – thinly-veiled diplomatic code for US-led states – have been quietly dropped. Instead, it's just what the Kremlin calls 'the old world' of Europe, without its US partner, being singled out for criticism.
On his top-rated news show, Dmitry Kisylov, a prominent state mouthpiece who once boasted how Russia could reduce the United States to a smouldering pile of radioactive ash, is now talking about a 'great troika,' dominating the globe: China, Russia and the US.
'Now the European war party wants to further escalate the Ukrainian conflict,' Kisylov tells his millions of Russian viewers.
But 'if we simplify it, everything now is decided by the great troika - Russia, China and US - that will form the new structure of the world. The European Union as a single political force no longer exists,' he adds.
It is a bleak vision already being played out on the battlefields of Ukraine, where the Trump-administration, determined to end the bloodshed, is piling pressure on an embattled Kyiv.
To the alarm of the Western allies, US President Donald Trump has made breathtaking concessions to the Kremlin, most recently suspending US military aid to Ukraine – to the glee of the Kremlin. Trump has also rejected the idea of future NATO membership for the country, which has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022, and have US security guarantees.
By unilaterally starting negotiations with Russia over the heads of Ukraine and Europe, Trump has begun a controversial process of bringing Moscow in from the diplomatic cold, sowing disunity among Washington's traditional allies. Both are longtime Kremlin objectives.
Trump's public humiliation of Ukrainian President Zelensky during a recent visit to the White House underlined for many Russians just how seismic the US shift has been.
At times, Kremlin-controlled media struggled to reconcile the shocking events.
'On the one hand, Trump speaks about peace, and politicians close to him say they're interested in Ukraine's success,' observed Igor Naymushin, a reporter for Russian state media.
'But on the other, from Washington it looks like he's giving Russia all the cards and tools to successfully continue the special military operation and directly achieve success on the battlefield,' Naymushin added, using a common euphemism in Russia for its actions in Ukraine.
In Russia, the heavily-controlled media reflects the mood of the Kremlin, as do the words of Russian officials now driving home US-European divisions while flip-flopping on Washington's historical record.
'I do not want to be anti-European,' claimed Sergey Lavrov, the veteran Russian foreign minister. 'However…. all the tragedies of the world originated in Europe or happened thanks to European policy. Colonization, wars, crusaders, the Crimean War, Napoleon, World War One, Adolf Hitler. If we look at history in retrospect, the Americans did not play any instigating or even inflammatory role,' he insisted in an interview posted on the official foreign ministry website.
Beyond the flattery, however, it's hard to see what the US has extracted from Russia in return for Washington's geopolitical about-face.
Privately, one Russian official told me the US-Russian economic cooperation deals being discussed behind closed doors may have appealed. Such deals are Putin's 'Kryptonite' for a transactional Trump, as one Russian commentator put it.
'Trump is like Superman, and our President (Putin) has found his weakness,' said Nikita Danyuk, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation to Russian state media outlet Channel 1.
'As soon as Trump hears 'rare earth metals', it doesn't matter if those metals are there or not. He forgets about anything and is ready to accept any terms. It's truly a grandmasters game by our President,' Danyuk said.
Other pro-Kremlin figures, like Olga Skabaeva, a state TV presenter, highlight the free hand the Trump administration appears to have granted Moscow.
After a senior Ukrainian official, Andrey Yermak, posted a social media calling for Russia to 'stop its daily shelling of Ukraine, and immediately, if it really wants to end the war,' Skabaeva responded: 'This morning Yermak woke up and thought he was Trump…'
'But he forgot that Trump does not set any conditions for Russia and Putin. Only for Zelensky and Ukraine.'
Little wonder the Kremlin's propagandists have been falling over themselves to praise the United States.
They have changed their tune. But America has too.