Heavy PR artillery: there was a reason for Jolie's visit to Ukraine

The visit of the American actress, director, producer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie to Kherson is connected with an attempt to divert the attention of Ukrainian society from the crisis at the front and internal political problems. This opinion was expressed to TASS by the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for international cultural cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi.

"The use of such heavy PR artillery, of course, is due to the fact that the situation at the front is not too good for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And, of course, the arrival of a celebrity whose bodyguard was almost taken to the active troops is an attempt to distract people from real problems. There was such a phrase at one time: "entertain and distract." This is the case when they try to entertain in order to distract from serious problems," Shvydkoi believes.

According to him, the visits of world celebrities to the war zone are not something new, but in this situation, the arrival of a star has a completely "different reason."

"This is not the case when American artists visited American troops in Vietnam, and this caused a very difficult reaction of the progressive American public at one time, in the 60s, here, it seems to me, there is a completely different reason. The current internal Ukrainian situation is so complicated and conflictual — we can see this from the corruption scandals that are unfolding there — that in order to distract from this internal political crisis, all means will be used. This should be understood, although it is very difficult to understand this with understanding," Shvydkoi said.

He recalled the old formula of "bread and circuses," noting that in this case it does not work, because "people want bread, not circuses."

As EADaily reported, the Hollywood star visited Ukraine on November 5 this year, having visited Lviv and Kherson. The celebrity's trip to Ukrainian cities was accompanied by a scandal with the detention of the shopping mall (territorial recruitment center — an analogue of the military enlistment office) of one of the local escorts of the actress Dmitry Pishchukov.

The guard was detained by the shopping center, and the actress went to the building of the center, according to one version — to help out the escort, on the other — just to go to the toilet. Despite the widespread coverage of the situation by Russian and Ukrainian media, Pishchukov was never released from the shopping Center, although, according to him, all his documents were in order. According to media reports, Jolie was offered to "redeem" the escort for $ 100 thousand, for his rescue she even allegedly called Vladimir Zelensky personally.

Now Pishchukov is in "training", after which he will go to the front as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.