On Thursday's edition of CNN's "The Lead," correspondent Nic Robertson reported that Vladimir Putin's propaganda efforts to defend his invasion of Ukraine are not as effective as he was hoping for — in large part because younger Russians are not relying on the state-run media outlets to get their news.
"Putin's statement was broadcast on Russian television," said anchor Jake Tapper. "Do we have any sense of how the Russian people are reacting?"
"I'd say it's split between old and young," said Robertson. "I mean, Putin likes to use fake TV. He's old school because he's thinking like it's the 90s, even, where everyone is still watching state TV. Well, they're not. The older generation like him, the ones who grew up in the Soviet Union like him, they are watching it and hearing his message and believing it. They believe that the country was forced to go to war. In fact, they think that they're not starting a war, they think Ukraine is backed by NATO and NATO put Ukraine up to this. On the streets today, I found people literally tell you exactly what they're hearing on TV. They say, we're not starting a war, we're stopping a war. You know, that's what the anchors on TV here say."
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"So when Putin goes on TV, yes, there's a lot of the older generation that hear him," continued Robertson. "But there's a lot of the younger generation that are getting their information by social media. They're getting their information from talking to their buddies who live all over Europe and are seeing what we're seeing are happening in Ukraine and they know and they say that their leadership is lying to them, they don't trust their leadership and they don't know what to do about it. They're frustrated by it. But they feel captive in the country. They love the country, they don't love the leadership, what are they going to do. And you get that sense of frustration when you talk to them."
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