Putin says sanctions are price Russia must pay for freedom

You can be fairly certain the Kremlin will trot out the same narrative it has in response to previous sanctions – that the West is looking for any excuse to sanction Russia.

Vladimir Putin said last week the West has been waging an economic war against Russia for years in order to undermine its development.

He is trying to tell the Russian people they are, in effect, the victims here and there is no causal relationship to what’s happening in Ukraine.

In his words, Western sanctions are the price Russia must pay for freedom and independence.

The Kremlin’s narrative is that this is not a war – it’s a special military operation designed to defend the interests of Russian-speaking people living in the east of Ukraine.

But increasingly the Kremlin is portraying Ukraine as the real aggressor.

It is trying, Russians are told, to acquire nuclear weapons, it’s trying to develop biological ones, there’s evidence, people here are told, that Ukraine wants to try and use those kinds of weapons against Russia.

Regarding the footage out of Bucha, some Russians are seeing that, but they’re being told that it’s fake news.

It’s very difficult to get access to any other sources of information, even social media channels – many of them have been blocked here.

And so many Russians believe what they’re being told.