The situation has been cleared up: young Lisa lied, Russian Minister Lavrov lied, Russian television lied, Russia lied…
German police have reported that 13-year-old girl Lisa, who was publicly defended by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, made up the story of her abduction and rape. The young girl was, in fact, hiding from her parents and teachers at her 19-year-old boyfriend’s place. However, police are still investigating two of Lisa’s friends – ethnic Turks (one of them is a German national; the other is a Turkish national who lives in Germany). Investigators suspect that the men know her quite well and have had intimate relations with her. However, most importantly, there are no refugees involved in the disgusting scenario presented by racist Russian propagandists!
Lisa hit the front pages after Russia’s First Channel aired the story of her tragic fate. Then, Russians living in Germany together with neo-Nazi and anti-immigrant groups demonstrated all through the country. Lavrov spoke in defense of “our little Lisa”, while the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier countered the lies of his arrogant colleague. The situation has finally been cleared up: Lisa lied, Lavrov lied, Russian television lied, Russia lied.
But, “our Lisa’s story” is alarming in another sense. We saw that Germany – like Ukraine and other former Soviet republics – has a marginalized Russian-speaking community that blindly believes and follows everything that Moscow says. These people left their homeland, but remained its ideological slaves, exported “sovoks”. Many of them live in depressed neighbourhoods, are easy prey not only for Russian television, but also for various neo-Nazi and xenophobic groups.
If a conflict or situation deteriorates, the Kremlin can use these people to destabilize a country. In fact, in Germany we saw the same events as in Crimea and the Donbas, but on a smaller scale. Smaller because Moscow has no claim to any territory of Germany and there are fewer marginalized individuals in the country. But, it’s enough to influence society, remind people once again about “dangerous migrants” and worsen the position of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Only this time the lie was too obvious. In future, Putin’s propagandists will act more cautiously in Germany.
