A User's Guide to Russian Propaganda

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The Kremlin starts with the credo that if you repeat a lie often enough, and with sufficient conviction, some will imagine it to be a truth. Thus, the heavily armed Russian troops who annexed Crimea were said to be local militias. This was asserted with an entirely straight face. The latest seizures of government buildings in eastern Ukraine is likewise characterised as an act of self-defence by Russian speakers. It is an old and effective trick — provocateurs stir up unrest giving Moscow an excuse to intervene “in defence” of the locals.

http://m.gulfnews.com/opinion/putin-is-winning-the-propaganda-war-1.1321483

G-P-H,

Thanks for posting this. There are too many Freepers falling for Russian propaganda!

lol....there are too many FReepers SPOUTING Russian propaganda.

SIGN #2: Reports of murders and violence attributed to “banderite” and “fascist” radicals. IMPACT: Western media wonders whether the democratic and human rights movement might not be a front for “extremists”. FACT: Some of the new government’s detractors have used provocative slurs and the corrupt judicial system to manufacture or inflate charges to discredit the Maidan movement. Violent provocations have been staged by paid provocateurs in order to implicate activists in brutal crimes. Yet even the Ukrainian soldiers under siege in Crimea obey strict orders to maintain passive resistance – which they do, even as their friends and families are threatened by the occupying forces. The people of Ukraine are doing all they can to keep the peace in their pursuit of human rights and democracy. Theirs is a genuine quest for freedom. SIGN #3: Assertions that ethnic Russians and Russian speakers are under threat. IMPACT: Western media suspects the people of Ukraine of violent vengeance and spite instigated by the new government. FACT: Russian media has broadcast images purportedly of refugees escaping to Russia through Ukraine’s Eastern border – but in fact those were Ukrainian businessmen in line at the Polish-Ukrainian border, a daily routine, just like that of Americans who do business in Canada. Such are the tools of Russian propaganda. Russian language and culture thrive across the whole of Ukraine. Russian is one of Ukraine’s two state languages, and was re-affirmed as such by the president of the interim government. Russian media and publications are freely imported and available throughout Ukraine, and represent the majority of publications available in Kyiv. Russian media will undoubtedly continue to thrive as an integral part of the multi-national Ukrainian landscape. On the other hand, several years ago some Ukrainian-language schools were shut down by regional Yanukovych authorities. Over time the Ukrainian government may wish to come to conduct all its business in Ukrainian, and so will wish to assure all students have access to an education in Ukrainian, if they desire it. Just as the United States government conducts its business in English and still makes information available in other languages, so has Ukraine been meeting the language requirements of its people. SIGN #4: Assertions that ethnic Russians in Crimea are at particular risk. IMPACT: Western media question the fate of ethnic Russians in Crimea as a unique circumstance that justifies Russian government concerns in that region. FACT: In Crimea, Russia leases from Ukraine land for military bases. These Russian bases account in part for the large concentration of ethnic Russians there. As for Ukraine serving the needs of ethnic Russians in Crimea, consider the ethnic composition of Crimea (based on the latest 2001 census), and the languages used in the 589 Crimean schools: ◾58% ethnically Russian; 56% of Crimean schools teach exclusively in Russian (330 schools) ◾24% ethnically Ukrainian; 1% of Crimean schools teach exclusively in Ukrainian (7 schools) ◾12% ethnically Crimean Tatar, 3% of Crimean schools teach exclusively in Crimean Tatar (15 schools) ◾6% ethnically other minorities. 40% of Crimean schools are bi- or tri-lingual (237 schools) Ongoing shifts in the Crimean ethnic composition are due in part to the Crimean Tatars’ return from exile. The Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported by the Soviet government over half a century ago. Since Ukraine declared independence in 1991, nearly 300,000 Crimean Tatars have been welcomed back to their homeland. In addition, Crimean Tatars have the highest birth rate in the peninsula. The Ukrainian Revolution poses no threat to Russians in Crimea – but the Russian incursion into Crimea poses a very real and existential threat to the Crimean Tatars, who have pledged their allegiance to the government in Kyiv. SIGN #5: Geographic obfuscation and confusion. IMPACT: This decades- (centuries!) old canard calls into question Ukraine’s boundaries and its right to exist as a sovereign nation. This propaganda has permeated western media, from subtleties like training the English-speaking west to write about “THE” Ukraine (implying it is a region, not a country), to more overt tactics like standardizing Ukrainian city names to their Russian transliterations. (…./KYIV is the Ukrainian capital, and KIEV is the Russian transliteration of that name. For consistency, style guides should also apply the same Russian conventions to the capital of the USA, “Vashington”, and to the home of their founding Continental Congress, “Filadelfiya”. Why not? Such standardizations in the western press would be as valid as is “Kiev.”) Western adoption of Russian names for Ukrainian cities has helped Russia marginalize Ukraine as a sovereign nation. Media standardizations have impact beyond their target readership: in the early days of Euromaidan, a couple of young Ukrainians spending a fearful night on the square were reading about “Kiev” in western press on-line. Demoralized, in their Facebook posts they wondered if the west could ever understand their goal, if the west could not even recognize their capital Kyiv as Ukrainian, not Russian. Morale and hope were critical to keeping the peace throughout the mass protests, and was undermined by misguided western style guides. FACT: Ukrainian and Russian are distinct languages with common roots, also shared by Polish and other Slavic languages. Similarly, English and German share common roots, but are not mistakenly considered dialects of one another. As for history: Russia can no more claim Kyivan Rus’ as its origin than the United States of America can claim King Arthur’s Camelot as theirs. SIGN #6: The reporting cites sources such as RT and Stephen F. Cohen whose assertions are often inconsistent with facts in evidence. IMPACT: Western media prides itself on showing all sides of any story, and so disseminates propaganda in a doe-eyed pursuit of unbiased reporting. FACT: “Propaganda” is not a “side”. It is an adversarial tactic intended to mislead and deceive. By reporting propaganda as an alternative perspective, western media becomes part of the machinery helping Putin advance his war-mongering cause. Commentators whose observations are often egregiously at odds with verifiable facts: Stephen Cohen, Seamus Milne, William F. Engdahl, Mark Almond, Daniel McAdams, Vladimir Posner. Russian-owned media outlets who have broadcast verifiably false information: It is important to keep in mind that Russian-owned news sources such as RT [Russia Today], Voice of Russia, ITAR-TASS, RIA-Novosti and other outlets operate under constant government guidance and suppression. Truthful newscasters risk great personal costs. Western media, operating freely, mock their courage every time the propaganda is ignorantly repeated, lending it a Western air credibility instead of countering it with data and facts. LATEST SURVEY DATA Facts, of course, must be supported by data, also amply available. For example, consider the results of polling performed by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF) and Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. The polls were conducted over February 8-18, 2014, interviewing 2,032 respondents in all regions of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea: ◾68% of the Ukrainians polled said they would like both countries to be independent and on friendly terms with each other, with open visa-free borders and with no border controls (Russian polls b Levada Center mirror this result, with 59% of their Russian respondents supporting the same sentiment.) ◾Overall, 12% of Ukrainian respondents would like unification with Russia. Broken down regionally, 26% of the respondents in the East and 19% of those in the South supported unification with Russia. ◾A few years ago, 20% of Ukrainian respondents desired unification with Russia. The precipitous drop of that sentiment to 12% in this latest poll is of note. Propaganda is a very powerful tool in times of war. Primary sources and data are readily available to verify the facts to counter that propaganda. Too many lives are at stake not to do so.

propaganda machine is a mature and venerable institution that engages in an art that, for better or for worse, the West simply does not practice as often nor as effectively

Oh good grief. The alternative media rose precisely in response to western broadcast propaganda....

I think Western Media could very well receive the Karl Marx Journalism Award! I meant BS Award?

Supposed pro-Russian leader in Ukraine discovered to be Russian actor from Moscow:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2608527/Russian-actor-Moscow-outed-Twitter-addressing-public-meetings-Ukraine-claiming-Peoples-Deputy.html

You’re describing the state run propaganda outlets of Russia “alternative media”?

No. Here is the west our alternative media, our right leaning talk radio success, the right leaning blogosphere etc. all of these rose and succeeded precisely because of western propaganda machines which had turned main stream news into very propaganistic outlets.

The idea that we don’t have strong and to a large degree successful western propaganda is silly. Turn on CNN ....

It’s ‘Russian military’ not ‘pro-Russian forces’

http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/it-s-russian-military-not-pro-russian-forces-1.1321477

In order to believe that Vladimir Putin is anything other than the hero who 80% of Russians believe he is, you need to believe that Bork Obunga, George Soros, and Victoria Newland are good people. Sorry, no sale.

http://www.realhistorychannel.org/the-talented-mr-putin ^

In order to believe that Vladimir Putin is anything other than the hero who 80% of Russians believe he is,

Where did you get that number? During the election, voter apathy was extreme, and its results indicated a great deal of fraud to put Putin into power. In Russia, there is no real political freedom, nor any real freedom of the press. Outlets that say something Putin does not like routinely get shut down, and people who oppose Putin are routinely beaten, robbed and murdered.

you need to believe that Bork Obunga, George Soros, and Victoria Newland are good people. Sorry, no sale.

This isn't logical at all. I can believe that these people are bad, while acknowledging that Russia is still under the control of underground soviet structures. All of these people, in fact, are products of those same structures. Russia has not stopped supporting communist movements and states across the world, and there is no reason to believe that they have abandoned their KGB front groups here in the USA just because we allegedly won the cold war.

paragraphs are your friend!

The propaganda and BS which you're living on are produced by the trans-atlantic banking cartel and our rogue state department which so greatly fear Russia and Putin. In the real world, as opposed to the BS world, bankers are our greatest enemies, Glass-Steagal is our most important political issue, the people who just seized power in Kiev are a bunch of Nazis and Soros puppets, and Vladimir Putin should be our most major ally. You need to get off the Kool-Ade diet.

Matt Drudge is referring to Putin as the leader of the free world

Pat Buchanan believes (as I do) that God is on Putin's side:
http://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2014/04/04/whose-side-is-god-on-now-n1818499/page/full

Background:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3134772/posts

US Govt Russophobia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPv106Oie8Y

The false flag sniper op at Maidan:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/03/everyone-agrees-ukraine-sniper-attacks-false-flag-argue-culprit.html

Putin's Perspective
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130725/182424969/Christianity-Made-Russia-Great-World-Power—Putin.html

Arrest warrant for George Soros:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpO3PArAoUQ

Faith:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3d_yxJhmjk

200 New Christian churches being built in an daround Moscow:
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Foundations-laid-for-first-of-200-new-Orthodox-churches-in-Moscow-21434.html

The Cathedral of Christ The Savior:
http://www.123rf.com/photo_7308397_the-restored-cathedral-of-christ-the-savior-in-moscow-at-night.html

calls for world leaders to stop the slaughter/persecution of Christians :
http://answersforthefaith.com/2013/08/08/putin-world-leaders-should-unite-to-end-christian-persecution/

The United States is still demographically a Christian nation but you'd never know it from observing our government. All you ever read about our government doing these days is supporting regimes which persecute Christians and Christianity, and then you ask whose side you think God might be on? You think God could ever be on the side of George Soros, Monsanto, and the Obunga state department?? For that matter do you think God would be on the side of "conservatives" who weren't bright enough to see through demoKKKrat/NWO/Soros/US_StateDept propaganda and BS??

All of that is aside from the fact that Putin almost singlehandedly stopped the idiot greentards and Malthusians from shutting down all of the world's economies in 04 with the Russian hacker attack on the East Anglia CU email database which gave rise to "Climategate" (www.climategate.com). Other than for that, all of the idiots comparing Putin with Hitler would likely be rubbing sticks together to make fire.

The propaganda and BS which you're living on are produced by the trans-atlantic banking cartel

I get most of my news on this matter from military veterans in Ukraine, anti-communist news sites like Trevour Loudon, and from other "alternative media" sources. I do not get any of my news from CNN or whatnot. And I certainly ignore Russian propaganda outlets, which you appear to be living in.

In the real world, as opposed to the BS world, bankers are our greatest enemies, Glass-Steagal is our most important political issue, the people who just seized power in Kiev are a bunch of Nazis and Soros puppets, and Vladimir Putin should be our most major ally. You need to get off the Kool-Ade diet.

This is refuted in the post in question and by any fair reading of actual news outside of the Kremlin orbit. Putin is a fornicator who divorced his wife on the grounds that he did not marry her in the church. The "church" itself has a patriarch who is a known officer in the KGB. Russia has the highest abortion rate in Europe, and the Occult is highly prevalent in Russian society, even to the very highest, with Russian generals, politicials, intellectuals, being involved in Shamanism, Theosophy, and other stupid stuff, and scary stuff too. Aleksandr Dugin, a fellow with links to the Kremlin and appears on Russian state controlled television, has promoted the writings of Aleister Crowley of 666 fame, and also advocates Nazi-Like racial theories and reestablishing Russian control over countries like Georgia and Ukraine.

My conclusion at reading your post is that you are ignorant of even the smallest details about Russia.

Matt Drudge is referring to Putin as the leader of the free world

Matt Drudge is a homosexual clown who pimped for Romney early during the nomination process. The false flag sniper op at Maidan:

They've already gotten hard evidence that it was indeed Yanukovych and his goons who did the shootings. There are photographs and videos, for example, of his special forces gearing up with sniper rifles, grenades, and other weapons, and departing, and after they departed, the shootings began. And when they returned, the shootings ceased. They were also videod the next day fleeing with money, safes, and files.

The (Re)birth of Ivan Ilyin
[T]he reconquest of Crimea has caused a clear change of tone in Moscow, with celebration of old fashioned Russian nationalism coming into fashion. In his speech to the Duma announcing the triumphant annexation of Crimea, when speaking of Russians, Putin specifically used the ethnic term – russkiy – not the more inclusive rossiyskiy, which applies to all citizens of the Russian Federation. This came among incantations to the full Great Russian program, with a Moscow-centric view of Eastern Europe seemingly endorsed by mentions of great Orthodox saints. Unstated yet clearly, this was all of a piece with “Third Rome” ideology, a powerful admixture of Orthodoxy, ethnic mysticism, and Slavophile tendencies that has deep resonance in Russian history.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/376109/rebirth-ivan-ilyin-andrew-stuttaford

Don’t fall for that red herring. When have you ever seen another FReeper try to “excuse” the behavior of CNN/MSNBC/whatever because “that’s how Russia does it?” Yet if the Russians, do it, we must segue into a discussion of CNN/MSNBC/whatever.

Wake up...

What about Western propaganda?

Both parties are as guilty.