Russia in the Media

[Virgil Showlion]

Although speculation abounded for years, businesswoman and entertainment superstar Oprah Winfrey stated in an interview with "US Weekly" magazine this week that she is "without a doubt ...


Russophobia (n.)  the fear, hostility or prejudice towards Russians or Russia (source)

A real word as it turns out--and a real thing. Of particular interest to Canada this week since, in the words of Michael Carley of the Strategic Culture Foundation, "Until now, the virulent, irrational, Russophobia afflicting the United States has not metastasised into Canada." but this status quo has changed with firing of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and appointment of "Ukrainian ultra-nationalist and self-declared Russophobe" (ibid.) Chrystia Freeland by PM Trudeau.

Some highlights:

The sacking of Dion was also noteworthy because Trudeau had run on an electoral platform in 2015 promising, inter alia, to improve Canadian relations with Russia, spoilt by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. When Dion became minister of external affairs, he confirmed the Liberal commitment to re-establish more constructive Canadian-Russian relations.

...

Dion could make little or no progress in improving Canadian-Russian relations, most certainly because the prime minister and Minister Freeland were against it. Nothing much was said publically because Trudeau had promised a different policy during the election campaign.

...

Why should Canadians care one way or another whether their government supports the Ukraine and sends arms and advisors there to strengthen Ukrainian military forces? Well, the most important reason is that the present government in Kiev is illegitimate in spite of democratic appearances. It is the spawn of a violent coup d’état in February 2014, brokered and supported by the United States and the European Union, which overthrew the democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovich. The vanguard of the Kiev coup d’état are neo-Nazi, fascist or ultra nationalist political and paramilitary organisations, notably the political party Svoboda, the paramilitary Pravyi sektor and various other paramilitary forces such as the so-called Azov and Aidar battalions. These paramilitary units were and are used to crush opposition in those parts of the Ukraine controlled by Kiev. Politicians, journalists, anyone speaking against the putsch government in Kiev could be, or were killed, beaten, jailed or forced to flee. The Ukrainian communist party was declared illegal. The governing Party of Regions has disappeared, some of its members being charged with criminal offences for having contacts with Russian counterparts. Others abandoned the party because it was neither safe nor practical to remain as members.

...

Nazi collaborators during World War II are now transformed into national heroes, Stepan Bandera, for example, or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) which perpetrated mass murders amongst Soviet and Polish civilian populations.

Neo-Nazi violence and intimidation worked in many places, but not in others. In the Crimea, the population united almost to the last man and woman, to toss out the putschist authorities and to vote for reunification with Russia. In the east, in the Donbass, the anti-fascist resistance repulsed Kiev punitive forces with heavy losses.

As always, I recommend reading the article in its entirety.

One thing that never ceases to dismay me is how little Canadians and Americans understand about the politics of Eastern Europe. We're constantly fed the narrative that Pres. Putin is a madman and Russia is the enemy, but while there can be no doubt that Pres. Putin is an autocrat and a dictator, Russia isn't quite the "bad guy" and the west--especially the US--isn't quite the "good guy" the media would have us believe.

I've posted in the past about the fallacies in the American media narrative on the Syrian war. Something that even some Congressmen are willing to rip apart (e.g. www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-27/democratic-congresswoman-destroys-cnn-narrative-syria).

I'm sure most here have never heard of Stevaspol: the US (via NATO) breaching a major lease contract that would have crippled Russia's economy and navy, and is more or less wholly responsible for Russia's annexation of Crimea. The US was the aggressor in that case, just as it was the aggressor in Syria. In both cases Canada has tagged along like the loyal purse dog we are when it comes to foreign policy, and it appears this trend is well on track to continue.

The US's meddling in Turkish politics via the CIA is yet another instance where the US, not Russia, is the aggressor. And if all this weren't enough, now the US media is going haywire with asinine Russian conspiracy theories while NATO (Canada included) are sending troops over to support the decidedly anti-Russian forces running Kiev.

In short, if Pres. Putin decided tomorrow to declare all-out war on NATO and the US especially, he'd have very good reason to do so.

I tell you this so that while the MSM is constantly regurgitating the "Russia bad; us good" party line, blaming Russia for everything from election losses to erectile dysfunction, readers here might at least be cognizant that we're being fed the same crap that got the US mired in Iraq. The MSM is the mouthpiece of forces that crave war. Why they crave it is a complex topic, but suffice it to say they do. They didn't just disappear after Iraq. And they'll drag us all to Hell with them.

[Virgil Showlion]

Tweaked the title and preview to be more in tune with North American news interests. Let's see if we can't do better than 8 reads, 3 of which were mine.

Sorry for the deception, but desperate times...

[Value Buy]

Virgil, remember that famous line(s) from Jack Nicholson's military character?

You want the truth,
I'll give you the truth
You can't handle the truth

[Value Buy]

I do admit I was one of the original 8 reads......
Your new title did grab me. I fell for it.

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 17, 2017 13:10:01 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

I do admit I was one of the original 8 reads......
Your new title did grab me. I fell for it.

I was originally thinking "It is several paragraphs. That's a lot to get through."

But I quickly realized that even if YMAM was fleeing at the sight of the OP, the thread would still be getting pageviews. The title simply wasn't attention-grabbing enough. Something had to be done.

To keep this thread alive for more than a few minutes, I invite discussion on any of the following topics:

• Oprah Winfrey's recent hints at a Presidential run
  
• Oprah Winfrey's battle with weight gain/loss
  
• Rare news stories about celebrities "going back in to the closet"
• Anything at all related to Pres. Trump, "Dancing with the Stars", or cats
• The inevitability of war with Russia and the specter of WWIII (only if... you know... you really want to, maybe)
  

[Cookies Galore]

Ha, I saw the title and thought "what idiot is posting such obvious clickbait?" It was my first guess!

[toomuchreality]

ugh.

[Value Buy]

Virgil, maybe if you mentioned evil Snow Leopards in the title, you would have better luck.
Just a suggestion

[OldCoyote]

Good luck Virgil,  Almost no one can think for themselves We all fall in line with the current the current media God!

I can remember back in grade school, the propaganda about how bad Russia was,,

It turned out it was the Russian people weren't bad, just those ruling the people!

When the Russian leader told their people how bad the American were,  their people were responding the controlling Media God!


Wellll, it turns out, That We all were listening to our ruling Media Gods.

It is no different today,   We now wear supersized blinders!

Sigh,,,,

 

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 18, 2017 8:12:24 GMT -5 OldCoyote said:

Good luck Virgil,  Almost no one can think for themselves We all fall in line with the current the current media God!

I can remember back in grade school, the propaganda about how bad Russia was,,

It turned out it was the Russian people weren't bad, just those ruling the people!

When the Russian leader told their people how bad the American were,  their people were responding the controlling Media God!


Wellll, it turns out, That We all were listening to our ruling Media Gods.

It is no different today,   We now wear supersized blinders!

Sigh,,,,

 

The difference is that back during the Cold War, the general populace didn't need to be coerced into believing the USSR was a threat.

Today, "the media god" as you call it needs to lie, omit, fabricate, obfuscate, and generally bend over backwards to engineer that same kind of pro-western, anti-Russian sentiment.

[mroped]

First Virgil, is SEVASTOPOL or Sebastopol- city harbor at on the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine until they decided that doesn't realy work!
Sevastopol had a military shipyard where all nuclear powered submarines were built thus rendering the city very important to the Russian Navy. 
Nobody besides employees- I'm talking press or visitors- were allowed inside until after the fall of comunism.
That part of Ukraine is inhabited mostly by tartars- mongols and the territory was literally given to Ukraine at the formation of CCCP. 
You see, Ukraine was a strong ally of Russia and having control on the shores of the Black Sea was important. For the same reason, three counties from SE Moldova(Romania) were attached to Ukraine, giving so control on the traffick on the Danube River.
Anyhow, history and facts that have no importance to the average American that believes that we are always right.

Crazy abounds in the area and not just there but it spreads all over former Eastern Block and Putin has to deal with it. Is he a saint? Hell no but what he has to deal with is a bit over the head of many that believe that international relations are quite simple: hello/hello, done!
And let me tell you that those people can hold a grudge! The fact that Russia kept them undre control for 60-70 years is no small matter!

[Spellbound454]

The US was the aggressor in that case, just as it was the aggressor in Syria.

Syria is a civil war... and Russia supported the leader of its client state by sending in their military hardware.
There has no doubt been NATO meddling...firstly by arming the "Free Syrian Army" who turned out to be Al Nusra in disguise
and secondly by bombing ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria
but Obama could never really be bothered with Middle Eastern wars in the same way that Bush was.
Essentially Obama was damned for not doing enough and damned for not doing too much.
His red lines came and went because there was just no appetite for getting overly involved.

I don't accept the mentality that "The West is the Evil which is responsible for everything bad"....whilst the War torn countries are victims.
Syrians started this War and they will end it. Many of these Muslim countries would have peace if they took responsibility for their own actions and stopped killing each other.

As for Turkey...it has internal troubles from Kurdish militias. It also has a hardline president who manages to annoy half the population.

I think you give too much credit to the CIA. They have been meddling..... amid everyone else who is jostling for position in a War zone.

I don't read MSN, so am not affected by their party line.

Putin imo is dangerous and unpredictable. We could get on with him a bit better but he is not our ally and he cannot be trusted.

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 18, 2017 19:29:04 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

The US was the aggressor in that case, just as it was the aggressor in Syria.

Syria is a civil war... and Russia supported the leader of its client state by sending in their military hardware.
There has no doubt been NATO meddling...firstly by arming the "Free Syrian Army" who turned out to be Al Nusra in disguise
and secondly by bombing ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria
but Obama could never really be bothered with Middle Eastern wars in the same way that Bush was.
Essentially Obama was damned for not doing enough and damned for not doing too much.
His red lines came and went because there was just no appetite for getting overly involved.

I don't accept the mentality that "The West is the Evil which is responsible for everything bad"....whilst the War torn countries are victims.
Syrians started this War and they will end it. Many of these Muslim countries would have peace if they took responsibility for their own actions and stopped killing each other.

As for Turkey...it has internal troubles from Kurdish militias. It also has a hardline president who manages to annoy half the population.

I think you give too much credit to the CIA. They have been meddling..... amid everyone else who is jostling for position in a War zone.

I don't read MSN, so am not affected by their party line.

Putin imo is dangerous and unpredictable. We could get on with him a bit better but he is not our ally and he cannot be trusted.

There's a difference between "the West is responsible for everything bad" and "the West is the aggressor". I agree with your assessment of the Syrian civil war. The bottom line is that Russia only got involved long after the US started funding rebel militias, and Syria is of particular strategic importance to Russia.

There's also a difference between "he is not our ally and he cannot be trusted" and deceptive reporting for the purposes of contriving a pretext to war.

[mroped]

Unless there is something/somebody that at the same time threatens Russia and US, the two cannot be allies. And trust each other? Huh! That is the Unicorn that everybody's looking for!
Most of what happens in this world as far as military conflicts today, are the result of Russia's or US meddling or sometimes both of them. Again, most but not all!
Both parties are to receive blame for what happens presently in the Mid East but is not entirely their fault either.
The region has been unstable from the time of the first homos erectus and is gonna be like that till the End of Days.
In what we call "the western world" people managed to set aside their differences for a second and come to an understanding or relative peace. Fragile as it were but peace!
In the Mid East, they are too stubborn and their pride gets in the way of that. To make it worse, religion on all its forms and glory gets in the way too and there you have it!
We are not gonna solve that problem, the Russians aren't either and they are not gonna solve their differences amongst themselves either but is something worth keeping at it for as long as it takes.
If only everybody's intent would become real and unbiased!

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 19, 2017 10:29:11 GMT -5 mroped said:

If only everybody's intent would become real and unbiased!

Amen to that.