The Kremlin set up phone polls to check how Russians perceive propaganda shortly after the war started. They found out that Russians mostly do not understand what ‘denazification’ means, Proekt cites four sources in the Kremlin.
“It was a real mess, we were searching for words but did not come up with anything fitting,” the source says. The polls indicate that Russians only want to hear of the ‘upcoming’ victory.
“So they decided to cut down on using this word in TV propaganda. They cannot just get rid of it completely, though, as it was one of the goals President Putin spoke about,” Proekt says.
Vladimir Putin first applied the word ‘denazification’ to Ukraine on 24 February, the day he started the invasion. Dmitry Kiselyov, Putin’s top TV lackey, spent seven minutes of live air time explaining the meaning of the term. In April, however, he barely used this word.