Competition for teenagers: Russia promotes propaganda in the Kherson region

Russia has launched a propaganda campaign among teenagers in the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region on the eve of the elections to the Russian State Duma, which are scheduled for September 2026.

This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

One element of this campaign was a competition for children aged 14–18 called “Our Choice is Russia!” Participants were asked to create drawings, slogans, and digital content in support of the aggressor state.

“This is presented as an innocent creative competition, but in reality it is about targeted ideological processing,” the CPD notes.

Such initiatives are aimed at forming among teenagers the idea of the “belonging” of the occupied territories to Russia and their future loyalty as voters.

“Russia is trying to form the necessary mood in advance in order to obtain results favorable to the Kremlin during the voting,” the post says.

The organization of such projects is carried out by the youth structure “Movement of the First”, which systematically promotes the militarization of children both in Russia itself and in the occupied territories.

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