Send balloons over Russia?

[RobertU]

As recently as 2020, South Korean activists were sending propaganda-carrying balloons across the border into North Korea. The balloons typically carried leaflets, USB sticks or DVDs with criticism of the Pyongyang regime, as well as South Korean news reports or even Korean dramas.

Given Putin’s control of mass media, would such a balloon campaign be useful in the Ukraine war? Perhaps the leaflets or thumb drives would include pictures of destroyed Russian tanks, bombed buildings, commentary by those outside the country, and/or messages from Russian prisoners.

Presumably, the balloons could be launched from Ukraine, if the winds were in the right direction, or non-governmental activists might even send them from other countries bordering Russia or from international or multinational waters, perhaps from boats in the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea or the western part of the Gulf of Finland.

 

[Juin]

As recently as 2020, South Korean activists were sending propaganda-carrying balloons across the border into North Korea. The balloons typically carried leaflets, USB sticks or DVDs with criticism of the Pyongyang regime, as well as South Korean news reports or even Korean dramas.

Given Putin’s control of mass media, would such a balloon campaign be useful in the Ukraine war? Perhaps the leaflets or thumb drives would include pictures of destroyed Russian tanks, bombed buildings, commentary by those outside the country, and/or messages from Russian prisoners.

Presumably, the balloons could be launched from Ukraine, if the winds were in the right direction, or non-governmental activists might even send them from other countries bordering Russia or from international or multinational waters, perhaps from boats in the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea or the western part of the Gulf of Finland.

Why balloons? Until recently BBC, DW and other western news were licensed to broadcast in Russia. That seems to me like an infinitely more powerful weapon than balloons. Then those countries pulled the plug on Russian state owned media like RT. In retaliation Russia pulled the plug on them.

I thought pulling the plug on Russian state owne media in exchange for Russia banning DW, BBC and France whatever was poor exchange. Who watches Russian state owned media in the west anyways? But it is probably likely Russians would rather have media from around the world in Russia. So the west pulled the plug on what probably few westerners watched, and in exchanged lost their reach to Russians!

 

[Luce]

Naw. But there was a great song about this back in the 80s.

 

[Schism]

Or they could use mylar balloons and bring down the electrical grid.