Most of the Russian media spread the news claiming that Germany has recognized that Crimea is forever Russian. But this is manipulation. Propaganda media refer to an interview with German MP Sarah Wagenknecht, who said: the war must end, it's time to look for compromises - and Crimea can become such a compromise. Then she remembered that Russia is a nuclear state, and that the Black Sea Fleet has been in Crimea for many years - and all this, according to Wagenknecht, will prevent Ukraine from returning Crimea. Firstly, these reflections are the personal opinions of one deputy, and not the entire German parliament, contradicting both the statements of Olaf Scholz, and the position of the German government, and numerous EU bodies, whose position is supported by Germany. All of them unanimously call Crimea Ukrainian, and are not going to recognize its annexation.

Secondly, Wagenknecht is a representative of the German Livi (Die Linke) party, which constantly promotes pro-Russian messages. Representatives of this party assured that the “referendum” in Crimea was legitimate; traveled to the Russian-occupied Donbas and assured the German parliament that Azov was a “neo-Nazi battalion.” But, as StopFake testifies, even this party has not officially declared that it recognizes Crimea as Russian. Thus, the Russian media again used their favorite trick: they took the personal opinion of a sympathizer of Russia in Europe, in this case, the German woman, and they pretend that this is the position of the whole country.

They also allegedly have a big request for literature in Russian. This is reported by Russian media on anonymous telegram channels. This is not true.

In fact, the occupiers are destroying Ukrainian textbooks and teaching methodology books, books on the history of Ukraine, books by Ukrainian writers, and the Ukrainian language is being made an optional subject in schools. Even fairy tales and illustrated children’s books with almost no text were destroyed. As the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center writes, the Russians decided on their own about the language of instruction in schools.

Since May, the occupiers in the Kharkiv region have emphasized that education in schools will be according to Russian programs and Russian standards. For this, delegations of teachers from the occupied territories of the Kharkiv region traveled to Russia for the so-called retraining. At the end of August, propagandists reported that the United Russia party set the task of developing a plan for the phased Russification of schools and kindergartens in the temporarily occupied Vovchansk,Kharkiv region. In particular, the subject “History of Ukraine” will be replaced by “History of the Russian Federation”. Classes taught in Ukrainian will be replaced by “Russian-speaking” classes. Ukrainian literature will be taught exclusively in Russian and there will be a separate “Russian fiction (Russian literature)”. All entries in students’ registers and diaries will be made in Russian.

In August, Putin instructed the Russian government to pay 10,000 rubles at the same time to one of the parents of schoolchildren in the occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, provided that the child starts studying according to Russian programs by September 15.

Russian propaganda conveys to Russians the impression that the Kremlin is moderately optimistic about economic performance as a result of anti-Russian sanctions. Russia accuses the West of “irrationality and illogicality of the sanctions that provoked chaos and destabilization of world economic relations” and insists on their cancellation. Russian Foreign Minister Serhii Lavrov accused the West of failing to fulfill its promise to lift sanctions on the export of Russian grain and fertilizers to world markets as part of the “grain agreement” with Ukraine.

As the Center for Countering Disinformation writes, because of the war the Russian economy is heading towards one of the longest recessions in its history. Several scenarios of a long-term depression of the Russian economy are probable. The first option is “inertial”: the bottom will be reached in 2023 by 8.3% below the level of 2021. The second is “stressful”: the maximum drop in GDP in 2024 by 11.9% from the pre-war year. The third is “targeted”: in 2022, a fall of 2.9% and a resumption of economic growth of 16.9% in 2030.