Russia-Ukraine: Why South Africa will not jump into bed with the West: Anyone still waiting for Pretoria to launch a social media projectile at Moscow is sorely disillusioned
Truth is the first casualty of war. One of the oldest aphorisms in the book, it never has had greater resonance than in the case of Ukraine, where the war is being waged as much through social media as on the battlefield itself.
Hence, the Russian embassy in South Africa spews out unconscionable propaganda about the “Nazification” of Ukraine, as if anyone with half a brain would be remotely convinced by the implication that Russia has stepped up to the role that the Soviet Union played in defending freedom against Nazi Germany.
The Russian disinformation machine knows that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has been winning the online war, so the attack has to be personal — to try to dismantle the image he has carefully constructed of the hero leader, by smearing him with Hitler’s brush. This is interesting, intellectually, and a very real part of the conflict. Yet, as the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine approaches, the task at hand is to escape the propaganda in order to think harder about the principles at stake and the lessons that can be learned, especially with regard to South Africa’s place in the world.
Western diplomats and their proxies have been banging at my door — and my conscience — for almost a year now. They expected more of South Africa but, ever since that very firstSubscribe to the M&G today for just R30 for the first three months* to gain access to this story and all our best journalism, subscriber-only newsletters, events and a weekly cryptic crossword.”
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