It’s interesting to contrast state owned propaganda outlets like Sputnik with other state owned propaganda outlets like the BBC, VoA, RFE/RFA, PBS. In the modern era there’s so much propaganda in the news space that you need to learn to discern between black propaganda (outright lies) and white propaganda (truth emphasis).

Interestingly with Russian outlets aimed at English speaking audiences… due to the low trust people place in them due to their own biases, Russian outlets typically lean heavily onto white propaganda (truth emphasis) and fail spectacularly at black propaganda (outright lies). The only exception is with western racists, where they’re quite happy to swallow anything if it confirms their world view.

It’s also important to look at where “journalists” (stenographers) are getting their information from. It’s not uncommon, for example, to see a western “journalism” outlet like say, CNN, that directly cites the CIA/Radio Free Asia as their source in the bottom half of the article. That laundering of propaganda through “legitimate journalism” is what causes people to be tricked and manipulated. If, however, you can wade into the propaganda and feel out the black noise from the white noise, you can partially inoculate yourself against the downstream stenographic spread of information. Yesterdays lies are tomorrows journalism. Avoiding propaganda entirely and treating it as untouchable just makes you vulnerable to it.

and yeah, we already know the Ukrainian’s repress Russian speakers and target them for conscription. It’s not really “news”. Sputnik is re-emphasizing something that the Ukrainian’s have already freely admitted themselves years ago and patted themselves on the back for.