Russia Reverting to Totalitarianism?

Posted on | December 16, 2013 | 18 Comments

Kim Zigfeld at American Thinker exposes how Russia’s state-controlled media are misreporting the Ukrainian uprising:

With every day that passes, ordinary Russians are more and more cut off from basic facts about the world, just as they were in Soviet times. . . .
All of the major broadcast TV networks are state-controlled in Russia, and the lies they told about the massive protests were amazingly bold. . . .
Instead of reporting that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians had gathered in Kiev, as was the case, Russian TV told its viewers there were just a few hundred. Again and again, with no proof at all, Russian TV reported that the demonstrators had been bought and paid for by Russia’s enemies in the West. . . .

(Gosh, this kind of reminds me of how CNN and other pro-Obama media covered the Tea Party protests in 2009-2010.)

As the Economist puts it, Russian state TV, which Kiselyov charging at the lead and looking like “a caricature of a Soviet propagandist,” has been “churning out propaganda” lately to an extent that “would have made Soviet predecessors blush.” The magazine shows how Kiselyov “reversed and twisted the order of events” in Ukraine, lying to and deluding his fellow citizens to keep them mired in neo-Soviet darkness. . . .
If you tune in to Russia Today, the Kremlin’s English-language propaganda TV network, you see exactly the same kind of America-bashing that you saw from the USSR. American companies like Walmart are trashed, American values are smeared, and those who work against the American way of life are glorified.

This latter point is worth considering: Anti-American propaganda may actually be based on factual reporting. There are things our government does, especially in the area of foreign policy and national security, which we don’t necessarily endorse. However, these actions must be understood in an international context. What are our nation’s enemies and rivals doing? Our nation’s policies cannot be viewed in a vacuum, and especially we cannot permit propaganda by hostile powers to suggest that the United States is uniquely evil, so as to undermine our prestige, demoralize our citizens and weaken our defenses against aggressors.

Am I the only one who has noticed that Russia Today has been a reliable cheerleader for Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, the Anonymous hackers and Edward Snowden?

You may be in favor of all that, but where are Russia’s Assanges, Mannings and Snowdens? Where are the hackers and “whistleblowers” exposing the secrets of America’s enemies?

It’s strange how people who think of themselves as cosmopolitan sophisticates — enlightened “world citizens” — are often so naive.

Category: Russia

Comments

18 Responses to “Russia Reverting to Totalitarianism?”

Matthew Vadum
December 16th, 2013 @ 10:19 am

Wrong verb tense. Reverted.
robcrawford2
December 16th, 2013 @ 10:37 am

“American companies like Walmart are trashed, American values are smeared, and those who work against the American way of life are glorified.”

So, it’s just like the news we get?
JoyKeller1
December 16th, 2013 @ 10:45 am

Russia Reverting to Totalitarianism? http://t.co/jnXT1iYE86
JeffS
December 16th, 2013 @ 12:46 pm

“Reverting”? Aside from a brief period long ago, after the fall of the Soviet Union, when has “modern” Russia not been totalitarian?
Quartermaster
December 16th, 2013 @ 1:40 pm

Those that commit truth against present day Russia find the FSB no different from the old KGB. Keep going and you have a libation well mixed with Polonium.
M. Thompson
December 16th, 2013 @ 2:51 pm

What did Kipling say, ah, yes, “The Bear that Walks Like a Man.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And Russia’s rulers still harbor imperial ambitions.
Quartermaster
December 16th, 2013 @ 4:16 pm

Yeppers! Just with a Rooski slant.
Adjoran
December 16th, 2013 @ 4:44 pm

Nah, they save the Polonium for overseas cases where their agent needs to make a getaway.

They even stuffed Gary Kasparov into a van and hauled him off in front of a crowd of thousands. As former World Chess Champion, he is one of the most popular and well-known figures in Russia today. Lesser known dissidents aren’t treated so well.
Adjoran
December 16th, 2013 @ 4:45 pm

The entire Ukrainian protest movement is because the government is hesitating at a trade agreement with the EU that would continue to move Ukraine towards western democracy and economic structures, and away from Russian influence.

No one knows better than Ukrainians what life under the Russian boot is like.
NeoWayland
December 16th, 2013 @ 5:08 pm

Our nation’s policies cannot be viewed in a vacuum, and especially we cannot permit propaganda by hostile powers to suggest that the United States is uniquely evil, so as to undermine our prestige, demoralize our citizens and weaken our defenses against aggressors.

That is the tragedy of the “American Century.” We forgot that liberty can’t be imposed by the top down, it has to be seized from the bottom up.

As long as our government plays the games of international brinkmanship and global politics, we lose.

We’re best when we protect our own freedom and inspire others though our example. People in other nations have to crave freedom and demand their own rights. It’s the only way it will take root.

As a nation, we can’t take out another government except by invading. Historically, that has not worked out well for America. It certainly destroyed our prestige.

But building trade, private investment in local economies, that delivered wonders.
Grazdanin
December 16th, 2013 @ 8:20 pm

The Russian government is the Russian mafia is the Soviet KGB. You could see where this was going by 1996 or 1997. Totalitarian thugs cannot stand freedom and they will do whatever necessary to stamp it out on their doorstep.
Russia Reverting to Totalitarianism? | Dead Citizen's Rights Society
December 16th, 2013 @ 8:35 pm

[…] Read the rest … […]
Quartermaster
December 16th, 2013 @ 9:13 pm

I personally have questions about the source of the protesters. An acquaintance went to Kremenchug to transition to the Mi-17 prior to taking a contract in Trashcanistan training Trashcanistan AF pilots. He used some of his Russian language skills and was told that “we speak Ukrainian here.” This is in the supposedly Russian speaking area. It is supposedly denizens of the Russian speaking area that is the main source of the pro-gov protesters, but the reports I’m seeing is they are mainly from the Donetsk area, Yuschenko’s home town.

As usual, it seems things are more than what they seem.

An aside, one of the people involved in the transition training of my acquaintance was Mikhail Kalashnikov’s son.
Steve Skubinna
December 16th, 2013 @ 10:15 pm

The greatest refutation to the hero worship of Snowden is in his movements after stealing the data. Did he go public and fight in court under a whistleblower statute?

No. He beelined first to the PRC, and the Russia. Yeah, both bastions of transparency and freedom. Mister “Freedom of Information” went to ground with two of the most repressive regimes on the planet.

Yeah, real freedom fighter, he is.
A Giant Leap Backward For Russia | The Lonely Conservative
December 16th, 2013 @ 10:15 pm

[…] The Other McCain notes that this is a step back towards totalitarianism. (Not to mention how the US media’s reporting on the tea parties was similar to the Russian reporting on the Ukranian protests.) Also of concern is the anti-Americanism. […]
Bob Belvedere
December 16th, 2013 @ 11:37 pm

One of their biggest ambitions is one that has existed [and been frustrated] since Peter The Great: a warm water port.

Putin is determined to get one, which will provide insight into some of his actions.
Benjamin Dover
December 17th, 2013 @ 9:43 am

Putin is one of our best allies in the fight against the neo-Bolsheviks here at home.

We need to use every opportunity and every ally to continue to isolate the criminal marxist regime of ineligible usurper, Hussein Obama.
Da Tech Guy On DaRadio Blog » Blog Archive » Putin plays Pat Buchanan for a Useful idiot
December 18th, 2013 @ 9:15 pm

[…] Putin cut his eye teeth in the KGB you can bet your bottom dollar that he knows what he’s doing. That vast majority of the world is on a different page than the west on Gay Marriage, and cultural issues but Putin’s words are strictly utilitarian as Stacy McCain put it earlier this week when writing about Russia’s slow regression back to Totalitarianism: […]