The interview was broadcast on Russia-1 as part of a propaganda package about how the Kremlin helps the families of dead soldiers, although it also contained notable references to the heavy toll of war. The segment was apparently broadcast throughout Russia, except for Moscow. In the video, the parents of 33-year-old Senior Sergeant Alexei Malov sit in the boring living room of their home in a village near Saratov, a city of 800,000 in central Russia. Alexander, the father, says he is proud that his son had fought the Nazis like his grandparents and great-grandparents, a line the Kremlin wants to push. “In memory of our son, we bought a nice new car,” says Alexander, in a clear nod to the Kremlin’s apparent generosity. The so-called “coffin money” is said to be worth up to eight million roubles, around £120,000. The video then cuts to the garage where Alexander is showing off his new Lada car. The journalist says that “Alexei dreamed of having a white car” like the one his parents had just bought. The car then heads down the road, passing a series of gravestones. “His first trip is to the cemetery,” says the reporter. The Kremlin has fired up its massive propaganda machine to play down the impact of its war, and this is the kind of news it wants viewers to hear and see. But parts of the video package will shock Russians, shielded from the reality of a war that has killed tens of thousands of Russian soldiers.
