Rationalization is a propaganda tactic that works as a psychological defense. For example, it is used when they want to prove that any actions of a person or, as in our case, a country are the only correct ones. Therefore, it is not worth questioning and criticizing them. This tactic works in cases where one needs to explain some actions that caused a negative reaction from the audience. That is, a person or a group of people does not admit their guilt, but on the contrary, they try to justify themselves and prove their case with supposedly logical concepts. Like, otherwise it would be impossible to act. Rationalization also helps to maintain self-respect, avoid responsibility and guilt. That is, in any rationalization there is at least a minimum amount of truth, but the percentage of self-deception is much higher.

With the help of this tactic, Russian propaganda regularly tries to justify its actions in Ukraine, seeks to justify its aggression towards peaceful Ukrainians. For example, during the year of a full-scale war (and long before it), there were theses that Russia was forced to conduct military operations in Ukraine, because the Ukrainian authorities were allegedly guided by the West and wanted to harm Russia itself. Like, if Russia had not started the war, Ukraine or the so-called collective West would have started it. This is how the propaganda rationalizes its actions, allegedly explaining that it was impossible to do otherwise in this situation. However, the only truth in this example is that Ukraine really chose a course towards the European direction (that is, it cooperates with the West), defended its language and statehood, but was not going to attack either Russia or Russians. Similarly, Western countries do not attack Russia, however, among the justifying messages there are those who claim that it was the Western country that supposedly started the war with Russia on the territory of Ukraine, and Russia allegedly had no choice. Through this tactic, Russian propaganda creates the appearance that Russia is doing the right thing. They say, yes, people suffer because of the war, cities are destroyed, but our choice was rational and it was impossible to act otherwise.