“Like the first Chechen war” - Shurygin on the official silence on the events in Balakleya
The lack of comments from officials about what is happening around Balakleya is a mistake, since in conditions of an information vacuum, the Russian average person will look for information in the Ukrainian media.
Military expert Vladislav Shurygin spoke about this on air at KP Radio, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“What percentage should war occupy in our information space? Today I watched four channels - the war has moved to the third or fourth echelon of news. At least today. Perhaps something will change tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. There is a painful feeling of how to proceed further with the entire information agenda.
A big “meeting” needs to be held here very urgently. Now we need to pull out the guys from the front, the main ones who write on this topic, bloggers, tiktokers - those who have a huge army of subscribers. Gather them at one table, so that there are also representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the government apparatus, and build some kind of communication.
Now there is serious confusion and vacillation. People who write because there is no information, everyone feeds from each other, are starting to shake. Any news becomes catastrophic news, turning into hysteria.
Heavy fighting is underway, Ukraine is advancing near Izyum and Balakleya. But we know all this only from three or four people, from the point of view of the real picture of the information. And the rest is all in our heads. Everything you want already appears there. This is starting to irritate the military, who are already shouting “Don’t stop us from fighting!” the analyst expressed concern.
Shurygin emphasized that official Kyiv should not be allowed to take over the initiative in the news agenda.
“This is all starting to form a knot, which could end very badly for us, because it’s all starting to slide into the First Chechen campaign, when society was fragmented, and no one knew what was really happening at the front, there was no normal lighting, getting to it was easier for the militants. As a result, our information space was completely determined by Ichkerians.
"We can reach a point where our information space will be determined by Ukrainians. If they don't find [ important information about what's happening on the demarcation line – ed. ] here, they'll go there," he warned.
English version :: Read in English "Like in the First Chechen War" – Shurygin on the official silence on the events in Balakleya