Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Well I’ve seen plenty of fly on the wall documentaries over the years, but rarely one that’s so fly in the ointment. The ointment in question being Vladimir Putin’s overt manipulation of school children in Russia to make sure the pupils and their teachers all dance to the tune of his “special military operation” in Ukraine. Pavel “Pasha” Talankin is a teacher in a town hitherto known as the most toxic place on the globe - Karabash. Famed for it’s copper industry, this place pollutes like nowhere else, but Pasha has an affinity for his hometown. He was born here, went to school ...

If one were a tyrannical despot who recklessly launched his country into a questionable “special military operation” (i.e., unprovoked invasion) in a neighboring nation and needed to win over the unquestioning support of a skeptical populace, what would you do? That’s the question Russian head of state Vladimir Putin had to address when his country’s forces invaded Ukraine in a mercilessly brutal offensive in February 2022. To gain the backing of his people, Putin launched an extensive Soviet-style propaganda campaign that required coercive compliance with its stated objectives, regime...