Smear Campaigns against Russia
Introduction
Germany is supposed to become “fit for war,” and the Berlin government has allocated astronomical sums for rearmament. This is because Russia allegedly wants to conquer Western Europe after Ukraine, even though there is no evidential basis for this and Putin has never expressed such intentions. Nevertheless, the level of rearmament is such that a third world war can no longer be ruled out. Yet there is hardly any resistance to this destructive policy, nor to excessive regulation, digitalization, and surveillance, which are leading not only Germany down the path to totalitarianism. But what about German sovereignty? And what consequences will the global shift in the balance of power have now that many countries are withdrawing from US dominance?
These are questions answered by writer and journalist Wolfgang Bittner. His book Geopolitik im Überblick (Geopolitics at a Glance) will be published on July 28, 2025, by Verlag Hintergrund in the Wissen Kompakt series. The following is an excerpt.
The media as a Mouthpiece for War Rhetoric
The blame for the Ukraine conflict and the resulting war is being placed solely on Russia, namely its president, Vladimir Putin. Not a word is said about the years of efforts by Western intelligence agencies, government agencies, and NGOs to overthrow the government, even though their subversive activities have been proven. In a reversal of the facts, Washington and Berlin claimed that Putin was constantly violating international law, lying to the world public and provoking the West. Since the Maidan coup, at the latest, the so-called fourth estate has become the mouthpiece for the war rhetoric of the US and NATO, with devastating effects. Four examples illustrate this.
Odessa 2014
After the regime change in Kiev in February 2014, which had been prepared long in advance by foreign forces and brought nationalists and Bandera fascists to power, anti-Russian marches took place in several Ukrainian cities, organized by the Kiev regime and its supporters as “Marches of Unity,” including in Odessa in early May 2014. Pro-Russian demonstrators who did not want to be banned from speaking their mother tongue opposed these marches, and street battles ensued with the nationalists and fascists who had gathered, leaving numerous people injured. When some of the demonstrators fled to the trade union building, their pursuers set fire to the building, killing 42 people who burned to death or jumped out of windows and were beaten to death. The police did not intervene, and the fire department did not begin extinguishing the fire until 40 minutes after it started, even though the station was only a few hundred meters away. A total of 48 people died in the clashes and more than 250 were injured.
The murders were reported rather casually and mostly hypocritically in the Western media, and the Kiev government played down the events. With the exception of one perpetrator who shot a demonstrator, no one was held accountable, because the leadership positions in the police, secret service, and interior ministry had been filled immediately after the coup with nationalists, fascists, and murderers who prevented any investigation, including into the murders on Maidan Square. The police chief of Kiev became Vadim Trojan, former commander of the fascist Azov Battalion, some of whose fighters wore SS runes or swastikas on their steel helmets.
In Odessa, it became clear what the situation in Ukraine really looked like after the violent overthrow of elected President Viktor Yanukovych. While Western politicians and media outlets outdid each other with praise for the new rulers in Kiev, nationalists and extremists linked to secret services and NGOs brought the whole of Ukraine, except for Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, under their control within a few weeks. Fascist gangs and militias terrorized the population, and many opposition members were murdered or fled abroad.[2] Although many people who wanted to join the European Union were initially involved in the Maidan uprising, most of them soon withdrew due to the increasing violence.
In Odessa, as in eastern Ukraine in general, many people spoke Russian. The border with Russia was open, often running through the middle of towns, and no distinction was made between Ukrainians and Russians. This section of the population was terrorized by the Odessa massacre. But the Western media did not report on this, as it did not fit in with the propaganda that the Kiev regime was promoting democracy and Western values.
In this respect, the reporting on the murders in Odessa is an example of how biased politicians and journalists manipulated opinions and spread anti-Russian propaganda through concealment, falsification, and lies. The background was not mentioned. Dozens of people died in a fire, according to most media reports; who started the fire remained unclear. It was said to be an unfortunate isolated incident, a tragedy actually caused by pro-Russian separatists controlled from Russia.
Eleven years later, when asked what happened in Odessa in 2014, Wikipedia still provides the answer in line with the increasing historical reinterpretation: “The fighting began with an attack by pro-Russian activists on a pro-Ukrainian ‘March of Unity’ and ended tragically when a trade union building, in which pro-Russian individuals had taken refuge, was set on fire.”[3]
After the Odessa massacre, the anti-Russian propaganda of the Kiev rulers and their Western supporters became increasingly unrestrained. The staging of the new East-West conflict and the Ukraine crisis by the US was hushed up, and even after Donald Trump took office as US president, it is still not being discussed.
On March 13, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) finally concluded a case that had been pending for years concerning the events in Odessa on May 2, 2014. The court found that the authorities had acted improperly in a manner that went “beyond a mere error of judgment or negligence.”[4] The fire department, police, and other agencies violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights because they did not do everything in their power to prevent the violence perpetrated by “activists for the unity of Ukraine” in front of the trade union building and to rescue people from the burning building.[5]
Furthermore, the court expressed considerable doubts that serious efforts had been made to identify all the perpetrators, even though extensive photo and video recordings of the events were available. However, this is likely to remain without consequence. The Ukrainian government was merely ordered to pay relatively small amounts of compensation to the relatives of the victims and three survivors of the arson attack on the trade union building.
The ECtHR's political bias was evident in the judges' assumption that the “wave of violence” had been preceded by continued “aggressive and emotional disinformation and propaganda” by Russia about the new Ukrainian government. The judgment also refers to the Ukrainian government's claim that Ukraine was threatened and potentially destabilized by the Russian Federation and to the special strategic importance of Odessa. In addition, the massive Russian activities in relation to the events in Crimea and eastern Ukraine had to be taken into account.
Seen in this light, the court implicitly follows the narrative of unprovoked Russian aggression propagated by the US and the EU in the Ukraine crisis. Although its ruling addresses the facts of the Odessa massacre and places the blame on the Ukrainian authorities, it fails to consider what led to this outbreak of violence, namely the arbitrarily created, disastrous anti-Russian situation in Ukraine.
Butscha 2022
If a lie is repeated often enough, after a while it becomes accepted as fact. This is what happened with reports of an unbelievable war crime allegedly committed by Russian forces advancing on Kyiv since February 24, 2022, in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. After the Russians withdrew from the area around Kyiv on March 30, 2022, due to promising peace negotiations in Istanbul,[6] images of a massacre suddenly emerged in early April that shocked the world. The Russians were immediately blamed, and the peace negotiations came to nothing.
In the days that followed, 458 bodies were found, most of them shot, abused, and tortured. They were scattered across the streets, many of them bound. Even before any investigation results were available, there was a storm of indignation that was increasingly fueled and degenerated into unrestrained war propaganda against Russia. Sanctions were tightened, numerous Russian diplomats were expelled, Russia's isolation was intensified, and military aid to Ukraine was expanded.
On April 4, an article appeared in the British Times in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded: “No settlement with Russia until Ukraine holds whip hand.”[8] On April 9, Johnson traveled to Kiev to dissuade Volodymyr Zelensky from signing a communiqué for a peace treaty drafted in Istanbul by a Ukrainian and Russian delegation with excessive promises. The murderous war with further atrocities took its course. The world public was constantly confronted with feigned outrage by Western politicians and journalists based on questionable information from Kiev and US “service agencies” about Russian atrocities.
On April 6, the German Bundestag held an emergency session on Bucha. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “deeply shocked” by the “horrific images” and claimed, despite the lack of any evidence, that “Russian soldiers committed a massacre of Ukrainian civilians, including children, women, and the elderly, before retreating.”[9]
The then Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht was in no way inferior. “Putin accepts these horrific, these cruel acts,” she proclaimed. “Someone who acts like Putin doesn't care whether the corpses are on the streets of Bucha or Tbilisi, Vilnius or Berlin.” A “dehumanization that has crossed all boundaries [...] We see in the glaring light the cruelty of Putin's system,” a system “that subordinates everything to nationalist delusions of grandeur, that knows no boundaries and no inhibitions, a system that tramples on law and humanity [...]”
In keeping with Washington's thinking, the minister demanded: “The Putin system must not win, must not prevail, because otherwise none of us will be safe anymore. And that is why we in Germany must also learn to be much more defensive, much more defensive. And this idea is behind the security policy turning point announced by the chancellor.”
As a lawyer, Lambrecht should have known, just like Scholz, that the presumption of innocence applies until a case has been solved and a verdict has been reached. She referred to the government statement by Scholz, who on February 27, 2022, proclaimed a “turning point” and accused Russian President Putin, who had “cold-bloodedly launched a war of aggression,” of unscrupulousness and an attack “on the peace order in Europe and the world.”[11] It is a scandalous, hard-to-bear speech with which Scholz irresponsibly fueled the agitation against Russia, especially against its president (“This war is Putin's war”).
Bucha, located about 25 kilometers northwest of Kiev, became a pilgrimage site for warmongers. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, EU President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell, and other leading politicians immediately traveled to Ukraine to visit the scene of the alleged Russian atrocities and express their condolences. Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of genocide, while the US and the UK demanded Russia's expulsion from the Human Rights Council.
But there were doubts from the outset about the version put forward by the Kiev authorities, which had been accepted by Western politicians and media without further investigation. The withdrawal of Russian troops was completed on March 30, 2022, but it was not until April 1 and 2 that the first images of the murdered victims appeared. In between, on March 31, the mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fyodoruk, confirmed the withdrawal of Russian troops in a video message without reporting any mass killings or corpses. Ukrainian soldiers and MPs who were on the ground at the same time also did not see any corpses. Thus, from the outset, it seemed likely that Ukrainian forces had murdered pro-Russian civilians. Many of the dead wore white armbands (a sign of those cooperating with the Russian army), some had been shot in the back of the head, and their hands were tied behind their backs.
Vladimir Putin dismissed the reports on Bucha as “fake,” Defense Minister Sergei Lavrov called them “a fake attack staged days after the withdrawal of our troops,” and the Russian Defense Ministry described them as fake and “another staging by the Kiev regime for the Western media.” German journalist Thomas Röper, who lives in St. Petersburg and posted the video with the mayor on his blog on April 3, 2022, concluded that “the reports of alleged Russian war crimes in Bucha are a lie.”
An eyewitness account confirms that this was indeed an unbelievable lie operation. French journalist Adrien Bocquet said he witnessed Ukrainian troops staging the mass murder: "When we drove into Bucha, I was sitting in the passenger seat. As we drove through the city, I saw corpses lying on the side of the road, and right before my eyes, people were loading corpses from trucks and placing them next to those already lying on the ground to enhance the effect of a mass murder."[14]
It is hard to believe, but Bucha is one of countless examples of how the Kiev government, under the direction of the US and its services, has lied to and incited the population. Swiss security expert and former NATO military analyst Jacques Baud rightly wrote that it is important to understand what led to the war. He notes that “the ‘experts’ who take turns on television analyzing the situation based on dubious information” mostly start from hypotheses “that are turned into facts, so that we are no longer able to understand what is happening.”[15] This is how panic is created.
It must now be assumed that the mass murder in Bucha was a staged action designed to prevent a peace agreement in Istanbul and fuel the US proxy war against Russia with the participation of NATO countries.
Shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant
On August 11, 2022, the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant was repeatedly attacked with heavy artillery and rocket launchers, according to Russian sources in towns under Ukrainian control.[16] The plant is located on the Kakhovka Reservoir, which is formed by the Dnipro River and whose dam was blown up by Ukrainian military forces on June 6, 2023.
The Kiev government and the Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom blamed Russia for the attack, while Russian separatists accused Ukrainian forces of wanting to force NATO countries to intervene in the war with repeated shelling that could cause a catastrophe far beyond the region. There was no radioactive leakage and the damage could be repaired, but further attacks on August 11, 2024, led to a fire and severe damage.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed to “common sense” and called for all military action in the area of the power plant to be stopped. But the shelling continued, and although the power plant had been under Russian control since March 2022, Russia was repeatedly blamed, as if its military were firing on its own soldiers and destroying infrastructure within its sphere of influence. The International Atomic Energy Agency was also unable to clarify the extremely dangerous situation due to obvious bias.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated in a speech to the UN Security Council on September 20, 2022: "The criminal shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant by fighters of the Kiev regime, which is creating the threat of a nuclear catastrophe, remains unpunished. This is despite the fact that employees of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been present at the plant since September 1 of this year and it is not difficult to determine which side is responsible for the shelling."[18]
Commenting on the organization's hesitant behavior, Lavrov said: "I would like to remind you that the IAEA's visit to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant was artificially delayed, even though all the details had been coordinated on June 3 of this year and the mission could have traveled there unhindered. Then an inappropriate situation arose when the security department of the UN Secretariat refused to approve the route agreed upon by Russia and the agency. Then it began to claim that the IAEA would determine all the parameters of the mission itself.“ This behavior by Western authorities, which Lavrov described as ”not particularly honorable," delayed the investigations by three months.
In order to inform the Russian population about the nuclear threat, Vladimir Putin stated in a speech on September 21, 2022: "Nuclear blackmail is now also being brought into play. It is not only about the West-driven shelling of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, which threatens to trigger a nuclear disaster, but also about statements by some high-ranking representatives of leading NATO countries that the use of weapons of mass destruction, of nuclear weapons against Russia, is possible and permissible."[19]
The editors of Deutsche Welle, among others, proved that obvious facts about the shelling of the nuclear power plant were distorted by Western media. They reported on March 9, 2023: “According to the operator, the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya is back on the power grid after being cut off from the power supply as a result of Russian attacks in the morning.”[20]
A thoroughly credible report by Russian television documented what the situation was like in Ukraine in 2022/23 and what the Western media did not report. Journalist and Russia expert Thomas Röper translated the following passages: "Ukraine has turned into a wilderness where each district is ruled by its own warlord. Odessa went to Maxim Marchenko, the former head of the nationalist Aidar battalion. He was appointed governor. He immediately mined Langeron Beach. Civilians are being used as human shields. In Mariupol, Ukrainian army soldiers have set up artillery behind a kindergarten. In Kharkiv, they stand with machine guns on the balconies of high-rise buildings. What humanitarian corridors are we talking about? The inhabitants of Mariupol tried to leave the city, but were stopped in shot-up cars and ambushed by the nationalist Azov battalion. The order was to let no one out and to leave as much destruction as possible [...] They abolished visa requirements for foreign mercenaries, released prisoners, and distributed weapons to anyone who wanted them [...] They even invented their own punishment for dissidents: flogging, in which the victims are tied to a tree with tape."[21]
Corresponding images were shown to accompany all the claims. The conclusion was: “Ukraine is a consumable for the US and Europe; its historical task is to harm Russia. That's all.” The television report showed a country in chaos, ruled by criminal gangs such as the Azov and Aidar troops, who set up their positions near kindergartens or in residential buildings, murdered opposition figures, and carried out false flag operations, such as those in Zaporizhzhya.
This did not prevent German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier from assuring Ukrainian Ambassador Makeyev that Germany would support this completely dilapidated Ukraine “as long as necessary,” militarily, financially, and politically, as well as “in the rapid reconstruction.” On this occasion, he prepared his “dear compatriots” for “the new era” that would demand sacrifices from every single one of them: “One thing is clear: we will have to accept restrictions in the coming years. Most people have long since realized this. Everyone must contribute where they can. And this crisis requires us to learn modesty again.”[22]
This was in line with the guidelines from Washington, but not with German interests, which were irresponsibly disregarded by well-paid politicians in Berlin, including the federal president, as was the existential threat to the whole of Europe.
Blowing up the Kachovka Dam
On June 6, 2023, German media reported an explosion in eastern Ukraine that destroyed the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam. In this case, too, which was a tremendous disaster for the people and the country, the Kiev government claimed that Russia had carried out a demolition. The German media reported that Kiev and Moscow were blaming each other.[23] There had already been several attacks by the Ukrainian military on the dam, which tore craters in the road crossing it.[24] But Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of an act of terrorism by the Russians. In his opinion, the aim was to hinder a Ukrainian counteroffensive in early June.
Western politicians unanimously blamed Russia. In a panel discussion, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of a new dimension in the war in Ukraine, saying that the destruction of the dam was consistent with “the way Putin is waging this war.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “This is an outrageous act that once again demonstrates the brutality of Russia's war in Ukraine.”[25] Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed her “horror” and said that with the attack on the Kakhovka dam, Russia was “misusing a civilian object as a weapon of war.”[26]
In contrast, a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said: "This act of sabotage by the Kiev regime has caused enormous damage to the region's agriculture and the ecosystem of the Dnieper estuary. The inevitable silting up of the Kakhovka reservoir will hamper the water supply to Crimea and damage the agricultural land in the Kherson region. What has happened is a terrorist attack directed against purely civilian infrastructure. It was planned in advance by the Kiev regime, specifically for military purposes as part of the so-called ‘counteroffensive’ by the Ukrainian armed forces [...] We call on the international community to condemn the criminal actions of the Ukrainian authorities, which are becoming increasingly inhumane and pose a serious threat to regional and global security."[27]
Fed by the Dnipro River, Lake Kachowka is one of the largest reservoirs in the world, covering an area of 2,155 square kilometers. It was almost completely drained when part of the 3.2-kilometer-long dam was destroyed, flooding large areas of land along the lower reaches of the river. The areas affected were mainly those occupied by Russia, including countless houses and the city of Nova Kakhovka, as well as the Kherson region. The explosion on June 6 also destroyed the hydroelectric power plant that supplied electricity to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. It obtained its cooling water from the lake, and the North Crimean Canal, which was in danger of drying up, was essential for the Crimea's water supply.
The dam, which was built during the Soviet era between 1950 and 1955, was used to generate electricity and for irrigation in agriculture, which increased crop yields in southern Ukraine and Crimea. It also allowed livestock farming to develop and improved shipping on the Dnipro by regulating water levels.[28]
The demolition of the Kakhovka dam, which was a beneficial engineering feat of the century, is a particularly despicable crime against the Ukrainian people, who are supposedly represented by the Kiev government.
Wolfgang Bittner lives as a writer and journalist in Göttingen. He holds a PhD in law and has published over 80 books. He has received several prizes and awards and is a member of PEN. From 1996 to 1998, he was a member of the Broadcasting Council of WDR, and from 1997 to 2001, he was a member of the Federal Executive Committee of the Association of German Writers. Extensive travels have taken him to the Middle East, Mexico, Canada, and New Zealand, and he was a visiting professor in Poland in 2004 and 2006. For many years, he was a freelance contributor to newspapers, magazines, and public broadcasters. His most recent publications include Der neue West-Ost-Konflikt. Inszenierung einer Krise (The New East-West Conflict: Staging a Crisis, 2021), Deutschland – verraten und verkauft (Germany: Betrayed and Sold Out, 2021), Ausnahmezustand. Geopolitische Einsichten und Analysen unter Berücksichtigung des Ukraine-Konflikts (State of Emergency: Geopolitical Insights and Analyses in Light of the Ukraine Conflict, 2023), and the novel Die Heimat, der Krieg und der Goldene Westen (Home, War, and the Golden West, 2019).
Sources and References
[1] Vgl. Eike Fesefeldt, »Tragödie von Odessa am 2. Mai 2014. Bis heute nicht aufgeklärt«, in: LTO, 2. Mai 2020, www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/2014-odessa-42-tote-buergerkreig-brand-ukraine-russland-un-europarat-ermittlungen-emrk/ [abgerufen 2. April 2025]
[2] Dazu ausführlich Wolfgang Bittner, Der neue West-Ost-Konflikt, S. 197–215
[3] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ausschreitungen_in_Odessa_am_2._Mai_2014 [abgerufen 2. April 2025]
[4] Zit. n. Judgment Vyacheslavova and Others v. Ukraine - State negligence in clashes between Maidan supporters and opponents in Odesa in May 2014.pdf
[5] Ebenda
[6] Vgl. https://www.interfax.ru/russia/831942
[7] Vgl. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massaker_von_Butscha [abgerufen 1. April 2025]
[9] Zit. n. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 6. April 2022, www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/aktuelle-stunde-zum-massaker-in-butscha-im-bundestag-dlf-kultur-1dab7f3e-100.html
[10] Zit. n. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1ks1a4Z0U [abgerufen 7. April 2025]
[11] Redetext: www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/suche/regierungserklaerung-von-bundeskanzler-olaf-scholz-am-27-februar-2022-2008356
[12] Vgl. Tagesschau, 6. April 2022, www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/selenskyj-ukraine-sicherheitsrat-101.html
[13] Vgl. www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2022/04/1/7336396/. Sowie: www.kommersant.ru/doc/5293082
[14] Zit. n. https://weltwoche.ch/daily/was-geschah-wirklich-in-butscha-ueber-fakten-und-die-widersprueche-des-westens/
[15] Zit. n. sicht-vom-hochblauen.de, 20. April 2022, https://prosv.at/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/UK-Baud-4-Interview-9.04.-2022.pdf
[16] Vgl. www.dw.com/de/ukraine-aktuell-akw-saporischschja-erneut-beschossen/a-62773137
[17] Vgl. www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/ukraine-saporischschja-126.html
[18] Zit. n. RT DE, 22. September 2022, https://pressefreiheit.rtde.tech/europa/149669-lawrow-vor-un-sicherheitsrat-wir/. Dokumentiert in Wolfgang Bittner, Ausnahmezustand, S. 272
[19] Zit. n. https://zeitschrift-osteuropa.de/blog/vladimir-putin-erklaerung-der-teilmobilisierung/
[20] www.dw.com/de/ukraine-aktuell-akw-saporischschja-wieder-am-netz/a-64926318
[21] Zit. n. Anti-Spiegel, 7. März 2022; www.anti-spiegel.ru/2022/in-der-ukraine-herrscht-das-chaos-und-selensky-lallt-vor-der-presse/?doing_wp_cron=1667614361.9042179584503173828125
[23] www.tagesschau.de/ausland/europa/ukraine-staudamm-kachowka-100.html
[24] Vgl. www.n-tv.de/politik/Moskau-meldet-Beschuss-von-Kachowka-Staudamm-article23699497.html
[25] Vgl. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz9Jqq3YdTA; www.deutschlandfunk.de/die-situation-ist-dramatisch-baerbock-und-scholz-zum-kachowka-damm-dlf-63993b22-100.html
[26] Vgl. www.merkur.de/politik/baerbock-entsetzt-zerstoerung-kachowka-staudamm-92326724.html
[27] Zit. n. https://mid.ru/de/foreign_policy/news/1885611/
«Smear Campaigns against Russia»