The files – which were reviewed by Reuters and contain dozens of pages of documents and presentations as well as video links – are instructions on how to teach teenage children about conflict. It is not clear who shared the files in the group conversation, but many of the documents bear the emblem of the Ministry of Education in Moscow. The material includes course guides stating that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukrainian leaders had a common affair with people who collaborated with Nazis in World War II, that the West was trying to sow discord in Russian society, and that the Russians must stay together. Sestakov said he flipped through the files during one of his classes. The lean 38-year-old said he had spent 16 years as a police officer before becoming a teacher in January. However, he has had growing doubts in recent years, he said, about whether Russia’s rulers were adhering to their values of democracy, influenced in part by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. He decided not to teach the units to his students at Gymnasium No. 2 school where he worked in Neryungri, a coal mining town in eastern Siberia, about 6,700 km (4160 miles) east of Moscow. Instead, Sestakov told his students the contents of the teaching guide and why they were historically inaccurate, he told Reuters. For example, he said he explained that the materials claimed that Ukraine was an invention of Bolshevik communist Russia, but that history textbooks had been discussing Ukrainian history for centuries. He went further. On March 1, he told students during a political lesson that he would not advise them to serve in the Russian army, that he was opposed to the war against Ukraine, and that Russian leaders displayed elements of fascism even when they said they were fighting fascism in Ukraine. Ukraine, according to a signed statement received by police and examined by Reuters. The story goes on In the following days, local police and the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, summoned Sestakov for questioning, according to a March 5 statement about his comments to the class. He said he had not been charged in connection with the comments. The FSB and local police did not respond to requests for comment. A court fined him 35,000 rubles (about $ 420) on March 18 for defaming the Russian armed forces after he republished videos of himself interviewing Russian soldiers arrested in Ukraine, according to a court ruling seen by Reuters. He said he quit his job last month because he believed he would be fired anyway for his public opposition to the war, he told Reuters. The local education authority and the Ministry of Education did not respond to requests for comment regarding Shestakov and the teaching guide. When Reuters arrived at the school by telephone, a woman who identified herself as the acting principal said she refused to comment on Sestakov’s case and ended the call. Teachers across Russia have received the same or similar teaching guides, according to two teachers’ union officials, two other teachers and social media posts from two schools who said they had taught the modules. Olga Miriasova, a union official named Teacher, said regional education authorities had released Sestakov’s teaching guide to many schools across the country. Reuters could not independently determine how many schools received the modules. One of the teachers said that they received a different teaching package from what Shestakov did, even though it contained similar content. The initiative shows how the Russian state – which has intensified its influence in the mainstream media – is now extending its propaganda effort for the Ukraine war to schools as the Kremlin seeks to support it. Since the start of the war, many Russian schools have posted pictures on social media showing students sending messages of support to troops fighting in Ukraine and standing in formation to write the letter “Z”, a symbol of support for the war in Russia. . Teachers who disagree with the war are now joining the ranks of opposition activists, NGO activists and freelance journalists, feeling the pressure of the Russian state, with fines, persecution and the prospect of losing their jobs. President Vladimir Putin signed legislation in early March that makes the dissemination of “false” information about the Russian armed forces, an offense punishable by fines or up to 15 years in prison. Even before the invasion, the Kremlin tightened its grip on its opponents using a combination of arrests, Internet censorship and blacklists. The Kremlin has not responded to requests for comment on the handling of the opposition to the war, the teaching guide and the case of Sestakov. Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov told a parliamentary committee in March that his ministry had launched a nationwide effort to discuss Russian-Ukrainian relations with students amid questions from children about the situation in Ukraine and sanctions. The Kremlin has said it enforces laws to prevent extremism and threats to stability. It says it is conducting what it calls a “special operation” to destroy its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and “de-nationalize” Ukraine and prevent genocide against Russian-speaking people, especially in the east. Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed it as an unfounded pretext for war and accuse Russian forces of killing civilians. The “HYBRID WAR” of the West Shestakov’s teaching guide states that it is aimed at students between the ages of 14 and 18. Includes detailed lesson plans for teachers, links to videos of President Putin’s speeches, and short films depicting the lessons. According to the teaching material, the West is waging an information war to try to turn public opinion against the rulers of Russia and that all the Russian people must stand firm against it. A lesson plan explains that Russia waged a cultural war against the West, which had destroyed “the institution of the traditional family” and was now trying to uphold its values in Russia. He says that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has pursued an anti-Russian policy. “There have been attacks on the Russian language, our common history has been distorted, war criminals and criminal groups from World War II have been turned into heroes,” the document said, referring to Ukrainian nationalists who allied with Germany during this period. of war. Another lesson is that the West is waging a “hybrid war” – a mixture of propaganda, financial sanctions and military pressure – to try to defeat Russia by inciting internal strife. “That is why they urge us to attend unauthorized demonstrations, incite us to break the law and try to scare us,” it said. “We must not succumb to the challenge,” the document said. The sections include a game where students have 15 seconds to decide if a sentence is right or wrong. A statement from Human Rights Watch said, “Protests, riots and mass rallies are an effective way to resolve a hybrid conflict.” According to the course guide, the correct answer is “false”. Reuters found social media posts from a school in Samara, on the Volga River, and a school in Minusinsk, southern Siberia, showing slides of the same presentations used. Danil Plotnikov, a math teacher in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains, told Reuters he had been asked by his bosses to teach similar content but from a different training package than the one Shestakov had received. Plotnikov did not identify the bosses. Tatyana Chernenko, a math teacher in Moscow, said colleagues at other schools told her they had been asked to teach similar modules but had not been taught at her school. Teachers interviewed by Reuters reported that some districts and schools pushed the lessons harder than others. None of the five teachers said they had heard of instances where teachers were explicitly instructed to teach the modules. They said it was usually framed as a request or recommendation by school or district education authorities. Some said no and saw no consequences, said Daniil Ken, president of an independent teachers ‘union called Teachers’ Alliance. Others did not teach the lessons but told their bosses they had, Ken said. He added that the refusal was a risk, with teachers not knowing if their principals would force them to resign. Ken said his union had heard from about half a dozen teachers a week saying they were resigning because they did not want to promote the Kremlin’s line – something Reuters could not independently verify. POLITICAL AWAKENING Sestakov wears his hair cut and practices sambo, a martial art developed in the Soviet army. He said his career in the police force included a one-year tenure in the Interior Ministry’s special forces, a law enforcement unit whose officers are now fighting in Ukraine. The Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. By 2018, when he was a community worker working with juvenile offenders, he had a political awakening, according to Shestakov. He said he had begun watching a video uploaded by Navalny, the opposition leader now in a Russian prison, with allegations of corruption by Kremlin leaders. “I became a real opposition,” Sestakov said. He said that when the war broke out in Ukraine, images of the victims bothered him and he spent hours watching videos of the fighting on social media. Under a pseudonym, he republished videos of interviews with Russian soldiers recorded in Ukraine in the comments section of a local media outlet with about 5,200 subscribers, according to Shestakov and a March 18 court ruling seen by Reuters. The court said that his actions were a violation of a law that prohibits …
title: “Russian Teacher Rejected Kremlin Propaganda Then Paid The Price " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-04” author: “Derek Oliveira”
The files – which were reviewed by Reuters and contain dozens of pages of documents and presentations as well as video links – are instructions on how to teach teenage children about conflict. It is not clear who shared the files in the group conversation, but many of the documents bear the emblem of the Ministry of Education in Moscow. The material includes course guides stating that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukrainian leaders had a common affair with people who collaborated with Nazis in World War II, that the West was trying to sow discord in Russian society, and that the Russians must stay together. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Sestakov said he flipped through the files during one of his classes. The lean 38-year-old said he had spent 16 years as a police officer before becoming a teacher in January. However, he has had growing doubts in recent years, he said, about whether Russia’s rulers were adhering to their values of democracy, influenced in part by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. He decided not to teach the units to his students at Gymnasium No. 2 school where he worked in Neryungri, a coal mining town in eastern Siberia, about 6,700 km (4160 miles) east of Moscow. Instead, Sestakov told his students the contents of the teaching guide and why they were historically inaccurate, he told Reuters. For example, he said he explained that the materials claimed that Ukraine was an invention of Bolshevik communist Russia, but that history textbooks had been discussing Ukrainian history for centuries. He went further. On March 1, he told students during a political lesson that he would not advise them to serve in the Russian army, that he was opposed to the war against Ukraine, and that Russian leaders displayed elements of fascism even when they said they were fighting fascism in Ukraine. Ukraine, according to a signed statement received by police and examined by Reuters. In the following days, local police and the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, summoned Sestakov for questioning, according to a March 5 statement about his comments to the class. He said he had not been charged in connection with the comments. The FSB and local police did not respond to requests for comment. A court fined him 35,000 rubles (about $ 420) on March 18 for defaming the Russian armed forces after he republished videos of himself interviewing Russian soldiers arrested in Ukraine, according to a court ruling seen by Reuters. He said he quit his job last month because he believed he would be fired anyway for his public opposition to the war, he told Reuters. The local education authority and the Ministry of Education did not respond to requests for comment regarding Shestakov and the teaching guide. When Reuters arrived at the school by telephone, a woman who identified herself as the acting principal said she refused to comment on Sestakov’s case and ended the call. Teachers across Russia have received the same or similar teaching guides, according to two teachers’ union officials, two other teachers and social media posts from two schools who said they had taught the modules. Olga Miriasova, a union official named Teacher, said regional education authorities had released Sestakov’s teaching guide to many schools across the country. Reuters could not independently determine how many schools received the modules. One of the teachers said that they received a different teaching package from what Shestakov did, even though it contained similar content. The initiative shows how the Russian state – which has intensified its influence in the mainstream media – is now extending its propaganda effort for the Ukraine war to schools as the Kremlin seeks to support it. Since the start of the war, many Russian schools have posted pictures on social media showing students sending messages of support to troops fighting in Ukraine and standing in formation to write the letter “Z”, a symbol of support for the war in Russia. . Teachers who disagree with the war are now joining the ranks of opposition activists, NGO activists and freelance journalists, feeling the pressure of the Russian state, with fines, persecution and the prospect of losing their jobs. President Vladimir Putin signed legislation in early March that makes the dissemination of “false” information about the Russian armed forces, an offense punishable by fines or up to 15 years in prison. Even before the invasion, the Kremlin tightened its grip on its opponents using a combination of arrests, Internet censorship and blacklists. The Kremlin has not responded to requests for comment on the handling of the opposition to the war, the teaching guide and the case of Sestakov. Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov told a parliamentary committee in March that his ministry had launched a nationwide effort to discuss Russian-Ukrainian relations with students amid questions from children about the situation in Ukraine and sanctions. The Kremlin has said it enforces laws to prevent extremism and threats to stability. It says it is conducting what it calls a “special operation” to destroy its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and “de-nationalize” Ukraine and prevent genocide against Russian-speaking people, especially in the east. Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed it as an unfounded pretext for war and accuse Russian forces of killing civilians. The “HYBRID WAR” of the West Shestakov’s teaching guide states that it is aimed at students between the ages of 14 and 18. Includes detailed lesson plans for teachers, links to videos of President Putin’s speeches, and short films depicting the lessons. According to the teaching material, the West is waging an information war to try to turn public opinion against the rulers of Russia and that all the Russian people must stand firm against it. A lesson plan explains that Russia waged a cultural war against the West, which had destroyed “the institution of the traditional family” and was now trying to uphold its values in Russia. He says that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has pursued an anti-Russian policy. “There have been attacks on the Russian language, our common history has been distorted, war criminals and criminal groups from World War II have been turned into heroes,” the document said, referring to Ukrainian nationalists who allied with Germany during this period. of war. Another lesson is that the West is waging a “hybrid war” – a mixture of propaganda, financial sanctions and military pressure – to try to defeat Russia by inciting internal strife. “That is why they urge us to attend unauthorized demonstrations, incite us to break the law and try to scare us,” it said. “We must not succumb to the challenge,” the document said. The sections include a game where students have 15 seconds to decide if a sentence is right or wrong. A statement from Human Rights Watch said, “Protests, riots and mass rallies are an effective way to resolve a hybrid conflict.” According to the course guide, the correct answer is “false”. Reuters found social media posts from a school in Samara, on the Volga River, and a school in Minusinsk, southern Siberia, showing slides of the same presentations used. Danil Plotnikov, a math teacher in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains, told Reuters he had been asked by his bosses to teach similar content but from a different training package than the one Shestakov had received. Plotnikov did not identify the bosses. Tatyana Chernenko, a math teacher in Moscow, said colleagues at other schools told her they had been asked to teach similar modules but had not been taught at her school. Teachers interviewed by Reuters reported that some districts and schools pushed the lessons harder than others. None of the five teachers said they had heard of instances where teachers were explicitly instructed to teach the modules. They said it was usually framed as a request or recommendation by school or district education authorities. Some said no and saw no consequences, said Daniil Ken, president of an independent teachers ‘union called Teachers’ Alliance. Others did not teach the lessons but told their bosses they had, Ken said. He added that the refusal was a risk, with teachers not knowing if their principals would force them to resign. Ken said his union had heard from about half a dozen teachers a week saying they were resigning because they did not want to promote the Kremlin’s line – something Reuters could not independently verify. POLITICAL AWAKENING Sestakov wears his hair cut and practices sambo, a martial art developed in the Soviet army. He said his career in the police force included a one-year tenure in the Interior Ministry’s special forces, a law enforcement unit whose officers are now fighting in Ukraine. The Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. By 2018, when he was a community worker working with juvenile offenders, he had a political awakening, according to Shestakov. He said he had begun watching a video uploaded by Navalny, the opposition leader now in a Russian prison, with allegations of corruption by Kremlin leaders. read more “I became a real opposition,” Sestakov said. He said that when the war broke out in Ukraine, images of the victims bothered him and he spent hours watching videos of the fighting on social media. Under a pseudonym, he republished videos of interviews with Russian soldiers recorded in Ukraine in the comments section of a local media outlet with about 5,200 subscribers, according to Shestakov and the March 18 court ruling seen by …
title: “Russian Teacher Rejected Kremlin Propaganda Then Paid The Price " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-04” author: “Brant Powel”
The files – which were reviewed by Reuters and contain dozens of pages of documents and presentations as well as video links – are instructions on how to teach teenage children about conflict. It is not clear who shared the files in the group conversation, but many of the documents bear the emblem of the Ministry of Education in Moscow.
The material includes course guides stating that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukrainian leaders had a common affair with people who collaborated with Nazis in World War II, that the West was trying to sow discord in Russian society, and that the Russians must stay together.
Sestakov said he flipped through the files during one of his classes. The lean 38-year-old said he had spent 16 years as a police officer before becoming a teacher in January.
However, he has had growing doubts in recent years, he said, about whether Russia’s rulers were adhering to their values of democracy, influenced in part by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
He decided not to teach the units to his students at Gymnasium No. 2 school where he worked in Neryungri, a coal mining town in eastern Siberia, about 6,700 kilometers (4,160 miles) east of Moscow.
Instead, Sestakov told his students the contents of the teaching guide and why they were historically inaccurate, he told Reuters. For example, he said he explained that the materials claimed that Ukraine was an invention of Bolshevik communist Russia, but that history textbooks had been discussing Ukrainian history for centuries.
He went further. On March 1, he told students during a political lesson that he would not advise them to serve in the Russian army, that he was opposed to the war against Ukraine, and that Russian leaders displayed elements of fascism even when they said they were fighting fascism in Ukraine. Ukraine, according to a signed statement received by police and examined by Reuters.
In the following days, local police and the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, summoned Sestakov for questioning, according to a March 5 statement about his comments to the class. He said he had not been charged in connection with the comments. The FSB and local police did not respond to requests for comment.
A court fined him 35,000 rubles (about $ 420) on March 18 for defaming the Russian armed forces after he republished videos of himself interviewing Russian soldiers arrested in Ukraine, according to a court ruling seen by Reuters.
He said he quit his job last month because he believed he would be fired anyway for his public opposition to the war, he told Reuters. The local education authority and the Ministry of Education did not respond to requests for comment regarding Shestakov and the teaching guide. When Reuters arrived at the school by telephone, a woman who identified herself as the acting principal said she refused to comment on Sestakov’s case and ended the call.
Teachers across Russia have received the same or similar teaching guides, according to two teachers’ union officials, two other teachers and social media posts from two schools who said they had taught the modules.
Olga Miriasova, a union official named Teacher, said regional education authorities had released Sestakov’s teaching guide to many schools across the country. Reuters could not independently determine how many schools received the modules. One of the teachers said that they received a different teaching package from what Shestakov did, even though it contained similar content.
The initiative shows how the Russian state – which has intensified its influence in the mainstream media – is now extending its propaganda effort for the Ukraine war to schools as the Kremlin seeks to support it. Since the start of the war, many Russian schools have posted pictures on social media showing students sending messages of support to troops fighting in Ukraine and standing in formation to write the letter “Z”, a symbol of support for the war in Russia. .
Teachers who disagree with the war are now joining the ranks of opposition activists, NGO activists and freelance journalists, feeling the pressure of the Russian state, with fines, persecution and the prospect of losing their jobs. President Vladimir Putin signed legislation in early March that makes the dissemination of “false” information about the Russian armed forces, an offense punishable by fines or up to 15 years in prison.
Even before the invasion, the Kremlin tightened its grip on its opponents using a combination of arrests, Internet censorship and blacklists.
The Kremlin has not responded to requests for comment on the handling of the opposition to the war, the teaching guide and the case of Sestakov.
Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov told a parliamentary committee in March that his ministry had launched a nationwide effort to discuss Russian-Ukrainian relations with students amid questions from children about the situation in Ukraine and sanctions.
The Kremlin has said it enforces laws to prevent extremism and threats to stability. It says it is conducting what it calls a “special operation” to destroy its southern neighbor’s military capabilities and “de-nationalize” Ukraine and prevent genocide against Russian-speaking people, especially in the east. Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed it as an unfounded pretext for war and accuse Russian forces of killing civilians.
The “HYBRID WAR” of the West
Shestakov’s teaching guide states that it is aimed at students between the ages of 14 and 18. Includes detailed lesson plans for teachers, links to videos of President Putin’s speeches, and short films depicting the lessons.
According to the teaching material, the West is waging an information war to try to turn public opinion against the rulers of Russia and that all the Russian people must stand firm against it.
A lesson plan explains that Russia waged a cultural war against the West, which had destroyed “the institution of the traditional family” and was now trying to uphold its values in Russia.
He says that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has pursued an anti-Russian policy. “There have been attacks on the Russian language, our common history has been distorted, war criminals and criminal groups from World War II have been turned into heroes,” the document said, referring to Ukrainian nationalists who allied with Germany during this period. of war.
Another lesson is that the West is waging a “hybrid war” – a mixture of propaganda, financial sanctions and military pressure – to try to defeat Russia by inciting internal strife. “That is why they urge us to attend unauthorized demonstrations, incite us to break the law and try to scare us,” it said.
“We must not succumb to the challenge,” the document said.
The sections include a game where students have 15 seconds to decide if a sentence is right or wrong. A statement from Human Rights Watch said, “Protests, riots and mass rallies are an effective way to resolve a hybrid conflict.” According to the course guide, the correct answer is “false”.
Reuters found social media posts from a school in Samara, on the Volga River, and a school in Minusinsk, southern Siberia, showing slides of the same presentations used.
Danil Plotnikov, a math teacher in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural Mountains, told Reuters he had been asked by his bosses to teach similar content but from a different training package than the one Shestakov had received. Plotnikov did not identify the bosses. Tatyana Chernenko, a math teacher in Moscow, said colleagues at other schools told her they had been asked to teach similar modules but had not been taught at her school.
Teachers interviewed by Reuters reported that some districts and schools pushed the lessons harder than others. None of the five teachers said they had heard of instances where teachers were explicitly instructed to teach the modules. They said it was usually framed as a request or recommendation by school or district education authorities.
Some said no and saw no consequences, said Daniil Ken, president of an independent teachers ‘union called Teachers’ Alliance. Others did not teach the lessons but told their bosses they had, Ken said. He added that the refusal was a risk, with teachers not knowing if their principals would force them to resign.
Ken said his union had heard about half a dozen teachers a week say they were resigning because they did not want to promote the Kremlin line – something Reuters could not independently verify.
POLITICAL AWAKENING
Sestakov wears his hair cut and practices sambo, a martial art developed in the Soviet army. He said his career in the police force included a one-year tenure in the Interior Ministry’s special forces, a law enforcement unit whose officers are now fighting in Ukraine. The Interior Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
By 2018, when he was a community worker working with juvenile offenders, he had a political awakening, according to Shestakov. He said he had begun watching a video uploaded by Navalny, the opposition leader now in a Russian prison, with allegations of corruption by Kremlin leaders.
“I became a real opposition,” Sestakov said.
He said that when the war broke out in Ukraine, images of the victims bothered him and he spent hours watching videos of the fighting on social media.
Under the pseudonym, he republished the videos of the interviews with Russian soldiers who were arrested in Ukraine in the comments section of a local media that has about 5,200 subscribers, according to …