Saturday Night Live’s latest cold opening poked fun at Russian disinformation efforts about the brewing crisis in Ukraine.
In the sketch, President Joe Biden, played by James Austin Johnson, receives a briefing about increasingly more ludicrous Russian propaganda efforts about the standoff.
The attempts range from fake news stories, to hokey PSAs, to a bizzaro riff on the “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” commercials, featuring Pete Davidson as Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers stuck in Ukraine.
Some of the fake headlines in the sketch include “Ukrainian Border Encroaching on Russian Troops”; “Russian Forces Surrounding Ukraine Just to Give It Big Hug”; “Ukrainian President Horny for Drama, Wants War: ‘Slap Me Harder, Daddy’”; and a fake warning from the CDC advising that Russia should invade Ukraine to stop coronavirus.
In response to this onslaught, the White House decides to work with a teen from a “vicious girl’s high school” who will cyberbully Russia into removing its massive army buildup of troops just outside of Ukraine.
“I think your generation can learn a lot from mine,” the high school propagandist, played by Chloe Fineman, tells the president.
“Like, we don’t believe in drone strikes. We believe in breaking down our enemies psychologically. That’s why I’m going to DM Putin and say, ‘Oh my god, I loved your outfit the other day. Was that old Navy?’ Already he’s spiraling. He’s all like, ‘Do they think I’m poor?” In three weeks, he will have completely lost his mind.”
Russia may not be making fake State Farm commercials, but it has ramped up its propaganda efforts as the Ukraine crisis persists, according to officials.
Social media accounts tied to the Russia military have accused Ukraine of plotting a genocide against ethnic Russians, aligning with Nazi ideology, and plotting a chemical attack with the help of US proxies.
The posts have intensified since December, as Moscow increased pressure on Ukraine, which it has sought to keep from joining NATO and growing closer to the European Union.
In response, the US has adopted a strategy of “prebuttal” affirmatively attempting to declassify intelligence about Russian military positions and debunking propaganda talking points, hopefully before they have effect on the ground, according to officials.
“We are much more cognisant of the Russian disinformation machine than we were in 2014,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday, referencing the Russian annexation of Crimea. “We need to be very clear with the global community and the U.S. public what they’re trying to do and why.”
The State Department and Russian officials, somewhat like the SNL sketch, have gone back and forth online, each claiming to be debunking each other’s fake facts.
The State Department says Russian efforts, “include the spread of disinformation and propaganda attempting to paint Ukraine and Ukrainian government officials as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine relationship,” as it wrote in a fact sheet on Russian propaganda around Ukraine, released last week.
“Such measures are intended to influence Western countries into believing Ukraine’s behavior could provoke a global conflict and convince Russian citizens of the need for Russian military action in Ukraine.”
Diplomatic efforts have thus far been unable to resolve the stalemate, as over 100,000 Russian troops remain stationed in a ring around Ukraine.
