moscow Rewriting Biographies Ahead of the Tribunal

The kremlin has launched a new international information campaign. Its goal is to blur the image of russia as an aggressor by shifting the narrative from “russians against Ukrainians” to “good Ukrainians against Ukrainians”. This is not the first attempt by kremlin PR specialists to repackage a full-scale war as a civil conflict in which russia is supposedly merely “supporting a disgraced brotherly people”. Similar messages were actively promoted following the temporary occupation of Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014 – and now they are gaining momentum once again.

Lately, a number of well-known russian media figures and kremlin lackeys have “suddenly remembered” their Ukrainian origins. The phenomenon is entirely logical: according to the 2021 russian census, Ukrainians ranked eighth in terms of population, so some have indeed made careers for themselves in the kremlin’s corridors. However, it is clear that the order to no longer position oneself as “exclusively russian” came from the very top. According to moscow’s official logic, “good” Ukrainians are those who understand and support the rf’s imperial ambitions and have long since become citizens of russia. It is they who are to conduct a potential dialogue with Ukraine.

In late February, during a Security Council meeting, russia’s permanent representative to the UN vasily nebenzia boasted about his “genuine” Ukrainian roots. The message was immediately picked up by the well-known collaborator and current ambassador-at-large of the ministry of foreign affairs of the rf radion miroshnik – who went even further, setting out to prove the authenticity of his own Ukrainian surname. It is telling that it was representatives of the russian diplomatic corps who “highlighted” their Ukrainian origins. And all this – against the background of the “main” russian negotiators, vladimir medinsky and kirill dmitriev, who, as is well known, were born in Cherkasy region and Kyiv, respectively.

The logic of the operation is transparent. If the international community accepts the narrative that “Ukrainians are fighting Ukrainians” and “communicating with each other during negotiations”, this will open the way for moscow to downgrade the conflict’s status under international classification. Lower status means less responsibility: fewer reparations to Ukraine, fewer rulings in international courts. The campaign was launched at this very moment for a reason – against the background of the international community’s plans to launch a Special Tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine by the end of 2026.

valentina matvienko, dmitry medvedev, sergey shoigu, sergey kirienko – each has a drop of Ukrainian blood. But they will likely only recall this once they are in the dock.