Fuel Crisis and the Final Stage of Propaganda in Rusya: Presenting Evil as Good

Former Ukrayna Security Service (SBU) Major General Viktor Yagun harshly criticizes the state propaganda mechanisms trying to legitimize the fuel crisis occurring in Rusya. According to Yagun's analysis, Russian officials and media outlets have begun presenting the gasoline scarcity in the country to the public as if it were an achievement or an opportunity. In this context, absurd claims are being made, suggesting that people walking more consequently promotes clean air and a healthy lifestyle. This approach is interpreted as a new perception management strategy developed to prevent the public from confronting real problems. The author evaluates this situation as a way out found by a system in desperation that can no longer deny the existence of a crisis.

Yagun reinforces officials' statements with biting sarcasm and examples. According to the striking logic he points out, if fuel shortage is seen as the key to a healthy life, then medicine shortages must be seen as an unparalleled opportunity to strengthen the immune system. Following the same Orwellian logic, power outages could be presented as an excellent method to fix people's sleep patterns, the stress of unemployment as a relaxing process that reduces stress, and rising prices as a perfect diet to get rid of harmful consumption habits. The author emphasizes that these absurd inferences reveal the extremely comical and tragic point that Russian state propaganda has reached. This situation is expressed as a typical indicator of the system's attempt to mask problems with wordplay rather than solving them.

The critic describes this new wave of propaganda as a political psychotherapy applied to society, rather than mere repression or manipulation techniques. When the authorities can no longer provide a normal life to the public, they try to impose that current difficulties actually stem from the overvaluation of normal life. Society is being taught that every kind of deprivation and failure should be accepted as a virtue and should be thanked for. This psychological pressure method aims to make people submit to constantly deteriorating living conditions and accept the current government without questioning. However, it is noted that this strategy is pushing the patience of the public to its limits and has a confidence-shattering nature.

Nevertheless, the article also contains a promising paradox within this dark picture. It is argued that as the Rusya administration's effort to convince the public that "deteriorating living conditions are actually a better life" increases, the system also prepares its own end. No matter how hard the propaganda machine works, it becomes increasingly impossible for people to ignore the money in their pockets, the emptiness in their refrigerators, and the empty fuel tanks of their vehicles. At this point, it is predicted that even the most loyal supporters of the regime will have to stop believing the lies on television and face their own daily reality. It is emphasized that this awakening of society poses the greatest danger to the current political structure.

In conclusion, Yagun makes a striking observation regarding the collapse of empires, starting from a historical perspective. It is emphasized that the collapse of empires begins not only with the depletion of resources or fuel; primarily, it begins when the power loses its capacity to present the absence of these resources to the public as a success story. When officials' ability to produce statements and excuses is exhausted, the legitimacy of the regime also begins to collapse rapidly. This opinion piece implies that the current economic and social crises in Rusya are not merely temporary problems, but harbingers of deeper political fractures. All these assessments reveal that the situation in the region must be closely monitored by international actors and the local population.