This is how Putin is trying to downplay Ukraine's shocking attack

The Kremlin's propaganda machine is trying to make the surprise Ukrainian attack in the Kursk border region look like the “new normal.”

– It is completely in line with Putin's rhetoric, says Russian expert Per Enerud.

At the same time that more than 120,000 Russians are being evacuated from the border areas with Ukraine after the surprise attack launched by the neighboring country, the country's President Vladimir Putin is visiting Azerbaijan and Chechnya and receiving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow.

– It is not that there are constant crisis meetings where Putin really wants to portray the situation as dangerous. Quite the opposite, says Russian expert Per Enerud, who works day in and day out at the Defense Psychological Agency.

“New Normal”

Aside from accusations that Ukraine is trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant, what is happening in the border area is very quiet, both directly from the Kremlin and through the state-controlled Russian media.

“It's perfectly in line with Putin's rhetoric,” says Per Enerud.

– They work hard to downplay this.

Sources close to Putin’s administration fear the unrest could last for months, the independent Russian news site Meduza reported. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is working feverishly to make the fighting in the Kursk region appear normal.

A source told the news site that the term “new normal” is necessary so that people do not think of what is happening as an aberration, but rather a new norm, albeit a temporary one.

Per Enerud agrees to the following:

– By describing it as normal, you kind of want to make it normal.

“always under attack”

– Since coming to power, Putin has described Russia as always under attack. This is the natural thing in the mythology he has built, and the attack is ongoing all the time, says Per Enerud and continues:

– This attack is a little more severe in some weeks and a little less severe in other weeks.

Much of the reporting in the Russian media is about Ukrainian losses and how the Russians are responding to Ukraine.

Their attack is described as a desperate act of panic, says Per Enerud, adding:

– What is happening now in Kursk is just “ordinary terrorism.”