Inside Putin’s classroom propaganda push

I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven AM. This year, a documentary filmed at a school in Russia won an Academy Award. It's hero a primary school teacher Pasha Talanken. After Russia invaded Ukraine, mister Talancan found himself trapped in the job of teaching propaganda to students. He filmed it all until he was forced to flee the country, and what he captured offers a rare glimpse into Putin's Russia Today.

Well, unfortunately, it started event before the war Commonstone twenty two. We got the Russian military present and getting more and more active in Russian schools, and the Russian Army formed several special organizations to talk to kids, and for several years we've seen kids in uniforms are praising the Russian military.

Yeah, I feel proud. We have to march to follow in our grandfather's footsteps. They fought for our homeland. If it comes to that, we'll fight for it too. Of course, it's closely tied.

We have the history of the Russian war against the Nazis during the Second World War. So it's a huge thing because this is essentially as a Russian ayrgy of these days, it's not only about lessons. So they have the lessons they call it the lessons about the important things, but also they have visits of the veterans. And while back in the day they invited veterans of the Second World War, but these days they invite the veterans of the what they call the Special military Operation in Ukraine.

Community telegramar we threw grenades and fired dummy shots.

People who are fresh from the bottlefield.

They are taught to come to schools and to talk to kids, sometimes to teach them how to use weapons.

And of course it is an inductrination.

And I was reading they even have a grade for ideological conformity these days.

Yes, exactly.

And the problem is that as the Kremlin understands very clearly that there are no other real ideology in Russia these days. Nobody obviously believe in communism, and that's long gone. Where it's not official ideology, it's prohibited by the Russian constitution. So the place is taken by the idea of the Russian military might that the Russian army has been always on the good side of history, and now the Russian army is fighting evolved in Ukraine.

So what impact is all of this having on the kids.

I think it's a bit more complicated than it seems, because of course there are kids who might believe in this propaganda.

It's obvious.

But in countries like Russia, where repressions are part of an everyday life, we can say what people find in these lessons is basically directions what you need to say if you want to stay on the good side of the Kremlin, what you can discuss and you cannot. So it's mostly about directions. It's some sort of guidelines of how you can behave and obviously for lots of people who do not want to become troublemakers, they just accept it and it became a second nature.

Andre the internet used to be one of the last places left in Russia where you could try and get around this state control using VPNs in Telegram. But since the first of April, Telegram was totally blocked. The VPNs are now being shut down gradually. So what is going on in that space in Russia?

Unfortunately, right now there's offensive on the internet, and Internet freedom seems to be unstoppable. It's not only bart an attack on a particular service like Telegram you mentioned, it's about an introduction of a completely new system.

Russia has unveiled what it's calling a super app that combines messaging other functions. Max As, the app it's called describes itself as a new digital platform for solving everyday problems. It's owned by a Kremlin friendly oligarch I.

Would say, it's an ambitions to change social behavior. For instance, instead of black lists, websites and services blocked by the authorages because they are considered to be dangerous or harmful, now we have the concept of the white lists, so you can basically use or access only the services which are approved by the authoragies. And it's very damaging, of course, because we all understand that the white lists are by definition a limited and source.

In Russia, digital controls are tightening. People can get fined simply for a search query on the Internet for materials branded as extremist by the Ministry of Justice.

It's also about constant problems with mobile internet, a big problem, not only in regions as it was before, but now in big cities like Moscow, Saint Peters Book and it affects everyday life.

You cannot actually pay.

By your card, you cannot order a taxi, you cannot use lots of things online, and of course it creates a lot of revances. People are getting very, very frustrated, but at the same time they understand that they are absolutely.

Defenseless.

So when it comes to the war in Ukraine, what is it these days that Russians are being told about it? And on a street level, are people even really following what's happening there.

Well, it's an interesting thing because on the one hand, I've got the ficial propaganda is very strong, and every way you have some discussion about the war, and the Kremlin is for instances promoting the idea that during the next elections to the Russian Parliament Duma, veterans of the war would be given an opportunity to actually to come into the Russian Parliament, and it's being praised by Kremlin propagantists.

You just try not to think about it.

And the usual thing you counter when you talk to someone who are now is in the country, Let's not talk about it. It's too uncomfortable. I don't want to talk about it. We don't think about it, so we leave our lives day by day, and that's.

It coming up. How Putin is pain for frontline soldiers Andre Your real specialty as a journalist is in Russia's security and intelligence services. And in twenty twenty three we had that failed mutiny attempt within the armed services led by Yevgeny Progossian.

The uprising by the head of the Wagner Mercenary group put the country on a knife edge, but with a convoy of his fighters closing in on Moscow, Yevgeny progoes in seemingly blinked.

But these days it does appear that Putin is totally entrenched and the Palace coup would look or appear impossible these days. Is that how you'd read it?

Also, well, it looks like putting Lord some lessons from twenty to twenty three, and thus the fall are The problem is that Russia has some people within the army as a security services who are not extremely happy with what is going on on the Bottlefeld. Most of these people would want this war to become bigger, not smaller. Unfortunately, but even these people now they do not have a real platform to talk about their ideas.

Now.

One of Russia's best known human rights campaigners are like all of has been jailed for two and a half years by a quarter in Moscow. It's all of who is seventy It was found guilty of repeatedly discrediting the Russian Army.

Most of the people who there critical of the way the war was conducted are either in jail or killed.

Vladimir Kara Murza was found guilty on alleged charges of treason for criticizing the war in Ukraine. In what was widely viewed as a show trial. The opposition activists has spent years speaking out against the Russian president and even survived two poisonings.

You cannot really come together and discuss what is going on because everybody knows that the FSB made Russian Security Service is omnipresent within the military, and not only within the military, it's also got for the government, for the ministries and federal agencies. Almost every way you see someone being arrested and accused of something like deputy ministers, governors,

The first basic thing.

If you want to uganize something like a kuduitai, you need to have some trust. And this is exactly what it's like in these days now.

Putin has always made it very clear that his ambition is to restore the greatness of Russia. But with the world focused on the Middle East, Trump in power, do you think Putin actually thinks he's now getting what he wanted Because NATO is divided, we have an expanded Russia. He has a freer hand in Ukraine, higher oil prices or is it more complicated.

I think it's a bit more complicated, because yes, on the one hand, it looks like while we have the US president attacking nature, this is exactly what Pudder would love to hear, and of course we have all prices and problems. It creates more opportunities for Russian oil companies, and we already see that. We see how some really big countries are getting back to talking to Russian companies because we understand that they cannot get oil from, say,

But around a quarter of the world's oil supply comes from Golf countries, much of that now impacted by the Iran war, but almost twelve percent more comes from Russia. To keep that flowing, the US has already lifted sanctions on some Russian oil.

On the other hand, the Russian military is not extremely

What about the military, because this month there's a major deployment of Russian soldiers to the front. There's been these mobilizations going on for years to try and get Russians to join the military. It's often referred to as a meat grinder on the front line. So is it getting harder and harder for the state to get new recruits and why would people want to join?

Well, unfortunately, what this see that there are still some people who want to join the army because of money, and especially in poor regions. It's completely changed the picture because it's not only about soldiers and being paid, it's also about military contracts. Lots of Russian military facilities are not in Moscow but in the regions, and now they're getting money because of the war, so it's beneficial for

Andre last month you were sentenced in absentia to four years in a Russian penal colony for your reporting on the war. Now, luckily you live in London and you're safe. But I've read your book where you talk about your old friends in Russia, some of them journalists. They're still living there and they basically appear to have taken the side of Putin. So why do you think that is?

It's a very difficult question, to be honest, because we've used to be very close and at some point most of them chose to side with the Kremlin. And I would say, it's not only about fear and survival, it's also about ambition. Most of these people are extremely ambitious and they believe that in the country like Russia, you can achieve something only if you serve the dictator.

And they chose that.

We also already see me and my coll of Arena Borogan that Unfortunately, after the book was published, our friends and of course we send a book to them because we believed it would be fair, they got even more aggressive and some of them actually cheered a sentence I got and asking for more, maybe for our high treason charges. So I don't see any space in your room for reconciliation right now. It feels like a real civil war.

Andre It's been fascinating to speak with you.

Thank you, Thank you.

Also in the news, the Federal Court has been told Woolworth's used subtle magic to mislead customers into thinking the price of pantry staples had been slashed when it had not. The a triple C's case against the grocery giant kicked off yesterday. Like Coals, which faced court in February, wool is accused of faking discounts by artificially increasing product prices, then lowering them and advertising it under its Prices Dropped program.