Victoria Pavlova
The process of the exchange of prisoners looked as strange as possible for many due to the fact that the Russian Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the government, the presidential press secretary remained silent until the arrival of our military in Russia. All information came from Ukrainian and Turkish media. In the current conditions - not the most reliable sources, but there were no others.
The official version of Ukraine, voiced by the head of the presidential office Andrey Yermakov, gives an unambiguous picture: “We exchanged 200 of our heroes for Medvedchuk, who has already given all possible evidence to the investigation. Five commanders - for 55 Russian prisoners who have no interest for us. We are talking about the commanders of "Azov" * Denis Prokopenko, Sergei Volynsky, Svyatoslav Palamar, Denis Shleg and Oleg Khomenko. Also among those released were 10 foreigners, 3 of whom (British Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin and Moroccan citizen Saadoun Brahim) were sentenced to death in the DPR. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation limited itself only to the fact that it briefly announced the release of 55 fighters who were taken to Russia.
There is no information about which of our people was liberated by Ukraine. No names, no merit. The only published name is Viktor Medvedchuk , which acted like a “red rag” on a bull on many media people. This is understandable: earlier TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov emotionally stated that the exchange of "Azov" for Medvedchuk is impossible, and State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin stated that the Azov fighters * are "war criminals, and we must do everything to ensure that they are brought to justice in front of the court".
And so the exchange takes place. Moreover, in the conditions of information hunger, the majority, even pro-government-minded journalists and military correspondents, have the impression that all the captured Azov fighters *, 3 foreigners sentenced to death in the DPR, and 49 more employees of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are given out for one Medvedchuk. Not the best exchange rate.
Igor Girkin, a former military officer and FSB officer, head of the Novorossiya public movement, also known as Strelkov , calls such an exchange betrayal and stupidity.
WarGonzo - a project of the journalist Semyon Pegov, specializing in covering the NWO in Ukraine, also wonders what it was?
Military journalist Andrei Rudenko in his Telegram channel “Reporter Rudenko V” expresses his indignation briefly and succinctly.
Marat Bashirov, the author of the Political Joystick channel, also focuses on the released Azov commanders*
But gradually the rhetoric of the pro-government mouthpieces began to change from bewilderment of what was happening to the justification of the past exchange. Medvedchuk 's name is always left out of brackets. Margarita Simonyan was the first to soften the situation with the rhetoric that a person's life is most important.
Other experts have since joined. Voenkor Yevgeny Poddubny in his TG channel says that silence is the main rule of such negotiations.
The ADEKVAT Z TG channel claims that everything else, except for the return of our guys, is not important, and such an exchange will only support the mood in the troops.
But it must be admitted that the information support for the return of our military was quite specific. While Ukraine in the public field equates the importance of Medvedchuk for Russia to 200 fighters, including “Azov”, and identifies 5 commanders with 55 Russian military, in our information space there was not even agreement on the numbers of the released Russian guys. Evgeny Poddubny , who wrote about 87 people, and Margarita Simonyan , who reposted him, are far from the last people in the information space (Poddubny is the head of the VGTRK bureau in the Middle East and North Africa), but they also did not have reliable information about the exchange. Even Simonyan herself laments the information vacuum.
Why is it so important to provide information in a timely manner and correctly submit information - military commander Daniil Bezsonov explained: in addition to the SVO, there is a full-scale information war for the minds of people.
Volunteer, blogger and military commissar Vladlen Tatarsky offered his own version of how it would be stylistically to cover the event in such a way that no one was left with the opportunity for rumors, doubts and manipulations.
Military correspondents and pro-government journalists may differ in their assessments of the course of the SVO, have different attitudes towards the exchange of prisoners. But the fact that skepticism about Russia's "successes" in the information war is growing in the expert community is becoming more and more noticeable.
*Recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and banned