Russia is set to launch a viral video campaign in a bid to memorialize the sacrifices of Soviet soldiers in World War Two.
Meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, politicians pledged to use the “truth as their weapon” to discredit Western governments who wished to wage a “full-scale information war” on Russia's past.
Putin said that Moscow would “preserve and protect historical fact,” but stressed that the truth should “bring people together,” the Lenta news outlet reported.
"Our position is that history, no matter how difficult and contradictory it may be, should not divide people. It should warn us against past mistakes and strengthen relations,” Putin said.
The president also backed a viral video campaign to bring the story of the Soviet victory to young people, warning that other nations were already attempting to turn the past into a “political or ideological weapon.”
Margarita Simonyan, head of Kremlin-backed media outlet Russia Today, pointed to her channel's Twitter-based 1917 Live project as a potential inspiration for the campaign.
She said the project had succeeded in reaching people who would usually dismiss RT as biased or unreliable. "People who usually hate us, spit, call us Kremlin propaganda - [they] signed up," Simonyan said.
An example tweet from RT's 1917 Live project.
Established in 2000, the Russian Victory Committee brings together ministers, civil society leaders and religious figures once a year to discuss preserving the memory of World War II.
This year's conference focused on "educating young people" on Russia's heritage.
