- October 4, 2025
- 2:09 pm
- World News
Some participants came with Russian flags and posters calling for peace with Russia and China, as well as images of matryoshkas.
October 3, 2025. Russian media all day ran the same story: “in Berlin and across Germany — tens of thousands against supplies to Ukraine and Israel, against American missiles, for peace and diplomacy.” They emphasized the symbolism of the date — German Unity Day, the 35th anniversary of the country’s reunification — and portrayed a typical street demonstration in German political culture as something epochal. According to Russian media, this is a “turn” in public opinion in Germany and a “sign of Europe’s fatigue” from supporting Kyiv and Jerusalem. We fully understand why this is being inflated into “joy”: such a picture serves the domestic audience, demoralizes Ukraine’s and Israel’s allies, and pressures budgetary decisions in EU and NATO capitals.
About the Date
Germany on October 3 celebrates the 35th anniversary of the country’s reunification — German Unity Day, which is a national holiday and a non-working day. On October 3, 1990, five states of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) — Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia — joined the Federal Republic of Germany. The main celebrations with the participation of the country’s leadership are held this year in the administrative center of the Saarland — Saarbrücken.
Initially, the holiday in honor of the country’s reunification was planned to be held on November 9 — the day the Berlin Wall fell. However, this idea was abandoned because the date is associated with a dark period in Germany’s history: on this day in 1923, the “Beer Hall Putsch,” an attempted coup by Adolf Hitler and General Erich Ludendorff, took place, and on the night of November 10, 1938, Jewish pogroms — “Kristallnacht” — occurred in dozens of German cities. For this reason, another date was chosen for the holiday — October 3, associated with the actual reunification of the FRG and GDR in 1990.
Matryoshkas and “Palestinian” Flags
To separate facts from “festive inflation,” it’s important to state a few things directly.
In Germany, street actions are a routine, legal, and quite frequent tool of pressure on the authorities. “Anti-war” marches, pacifist initiatives, local party blocks — all these are familiar landscapes. And when Russian platforms build from this a “rejoicing Europe against supplies,” they take recognizable elements (doves of peace, posters about diplomacy, Palestinian flags, sometimes Russian tricolors) and assemble them into a convenient but reduced frame.
How “Massiveness” is Presented and Why It’s Convenient: Numbers, Frames, Emotions
In Berlin, the route was standard: Bebelplatz in the Mitte district — then a loop through the central streets and back to the starting point. The police, as usual, give one estimate (about 7–7.5 thousand), organizers — a higher one (10–20 thousand).
In the southwest of the country, in Stuttgart, at Schlossplatz, a parallel action took place; there, supporters of the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance for Reason and Justice” (BSW) were actively sharing on social media “fifteen thousand and a fantastic atmosphere.” For the domestic reader of Germany, this arithmetic is familiar: the police are always more cautious, organizers — always more generous. For Russian media, such a gap is a goldmine. They can take the maximum, season it with the word “tens of thousands,” and present it as a “signal.”
The second convenient detail is the visual series. Doves of peace on blue banners; posters: “diplomacy instead of weapons,” “no to militarization”; demands “not to deploy American missiles.” All this fits beautifully into an emotional frame that is easy to retransmit in feeds. If somewhere at the edge of the column a Russian tricolor flashes or a cardboard matryoshka appears — the frame becomes “perfect”: a peace dove and “symbols of traditional Russia” side by side. From such a mix, the “joy” of Russian news feeds is built: “look, Europe has awakened.”
But reality is more layered. In the columns were various people and groups: classic pacifists, BSW blocks, points of presence of social democrats, pro-Palestinian activists. Their agendas overlap only partially. For some, “peace” means negotiations while maintaining aid to the attacked side. For others, “peace” means stopping arms supplies today, even if it hits the defense capabilities of Ukraine and Israel. For a third group, “peace” is a convenient screen for anti-American and pro-Russian rhetoric. In one picture, all this is indistinguishable — and that’s precisely why the picture is so loved by propaganda.
What Exactly is Inflated “to Joy”: Narratives Beneficial to Moscow
First Narrative: “Europe is Tired and Turning Around.”
Any peaceful action is instantly marked as a “mass protest against aid to Kyiv and Israel.” The nuance is cut out that Germany is not only the street but also the Bundestag, coalitions, committees, defense plans, and long bureaucratic procedures. The street forms the background, but decisions are not made in the square. Russian “joy” pretends that the background is already a decision.
Second Narrative: “NATO is the Source of Escalation.”
The slogan “no to the deployment of American missiles” is packaged into the thesis “Germany against NATO.” Even within leftist and pacifist groups, the range of opinions is vast: from a complete rejection of any military infrastructure to a rather pragmatic recognition of the US role in European security. But this spectrum does not live in Russian stories — there, a simple frame is needed: “Germany says ‘no’ to NATO.”
Third Narrative: “Sanctions Have Failed, It’s Time to Make Peace.”
The call to “lift sanctions” (one of BSW’s favorite points) is broadcast as “the rational voice of Europe.” It is not added that lifting sanctions rewards the violator, increases his resources, and lowers the cost of aggression. In the “joyful” construction, this never sounds: too much logic, too little convenient emotion.
Fourth Narrative: “Division of the World by Nations and Flags.”
Pro-Palestinian blocks and Russian flags together in one report create the illusion of a united front against the “West.” In real Germany, these streams often coexist only physically; their political goals and values can differ radically. But in the propagandist logic, any neighboring frames are “glued” to the desired image — and this explains the “joy”: an illusion of a large, colorful, but united crowd that “says the same thing” is built.
Why This is Important for Israel and Ukraine (and What Media Should Do)
For Ukraine, such “joyful” reports from Moscow are used as a tool to pressure the European will to help. The louder “Europe is tired,” the easier it is in parliamentary debates in any EU capital to play the budget-saving theme, and in behind-the-scenes negotiations — to bargain for “peace initiatives” without security. For Israel, this risk is double: the agenda of such marches increasingly includes demands for an arms embargo on Israel. That is why our audiences in Israel and Ukrainian diasporas closely follow not the emotion of the frame but the real consequences — votes, budget lines, NATO contracts, and bilateral agreements.
What should media do if they don’t want to play the background of someone else’s narrative? First, mark the frames: where is pacifism, where is party PR, where is direct geopolitical trolling. Second, separate the levels: the street is the background, the government and parliament are the decisions. Third, respect the facts: give both estimates of numbers, indicate the route, name the organizers, do not mix different events (for example, confusing September marches with October ones). This does not kill emotion; it returns an adult perspective to the reader.
Why We “Know Why” This is Done — and Speak About It Directly
Because it is a recurring pattern. Every time a diverse crowd “for peace” takes to the streets of European capitals, Russian channels turn it into a monosyllabic story “Europe against supplies.”
Numbers are taken from the upper edge, neighboring posters are glued into a single message, and complex questions — who pays for security, what “peace” means for the attacked country, where the line between de-escalation and capitulation is — fall out of the frame. As a result, inside Russia, a “joyful” picture is formed: “support for Ukraine/Israel is about to collapse.” Outside, it is a tool to pressure politicians who will approve budgets and aid packages tomorrow.
We call it by its name not to belittle someone’s sincere anti-war position. On the contrary: mature pacifist argumentation is based on honest recognition of risks, respect for facts, and clarity of terms. “Peace at any cost” is not peace. It is a pause, the price of which is paid by the victim of aggression.
Conclusion of NAnovosti: according to Russian media, on October 3, Germany “massively opposed supplies to Ukraine and Israel.”
In practice — it is a series of peaceful demonstrations with a diverse agenda, familiar to the German political calendar. The “joy” in Russian feeds is understandable: it fuels the narrative “Europe is tired,” aims to pressure allies, and dilute support for Kyiv and Jerusalem. Our task is to return nuances, name organizers and demands, not confuse events, and remember: decisions are made not in the square but in parliaments and offices, where slogans are not counted, but risks and votes are.