In the new Russian social science textbooks for the ninth grade, edited by Dmitri Medvedev, several Ukrainian territories are presented as Russian. The authors also quote Putin’s remarks that “the borders of Russia do not end anywhere”.
The new manual presents the map that includes the city of Herson within the borders of Russia. Similarly, the regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhia from Ukraine are presented, including some territories not occupied by Russian troops.
In the chapter about the emergence of the state, under the heading “Interesting”, the authors quote Putin’s 2016 statement, according to which “the borders of Russia do not end anywhere”. “There is a grain of truth in every joke,” they assert.
The book also discusses the role of Russia in the multipolar world and Moscow’s confrontations with the West, but without much information about the war in Ukraine. The mention of the so-called special military operation was found by the journalists of the publication Verstka only three times, the authors referring to the “confrontation with the neo-Nazis in Ukraine”. At the same time, students are given instructions on how to detect fakes, with the information provided by authorities and press close to the Kremlin being presented as reliable.