Fake news? Nobody Beats The Western Media

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Written by The Saker; Originally appeared at his blog

I love the western Ziomedia.  Not for what they write, but for showing their true face.  Finally.  After decades of pretending like they have some high professional or ethical standards, after years and years of pseudo-objective reporting, these folks have finally dropped their masks and are showing their true face.  We already saw the hysterical, truly maniacal, hate campaign against Trump (and it ain’t over by a long shot) and we saw the breathtakingly dishonest demonization of Putin and anything Russian.  Well, I have a great example to illustrate this.

Check out this photo:

What you see here is a historical reconstruction of a festival called “times and epochs” in which history buffs recreate all sorts of historical events.  In this case, what you see are WWII style anti-tank obstacles (called ‘hedgehogs’ in Russian) and sandbag walls.  Seem pretty cool, no?

Well, no.  Not for the Russian “democrats”.

It all began with a guy called Aleksei Venediktov, one of the leading “democrats” and “liberals” in Russia.  Here is what he posted on his Twitter account:  “The Tverskaia street is now ready for the Day of Russia”.

This is a very slick move on his part as this implies, but does not quite say, that these barricades were put up by the “regime” against “the people” and, sure, enough, this was exactly how the western propaganda machine picked it up:

Others immediately picked that up:

And, after that, both the NYT and the FT repeated the same lies.

Eventually some had to backtrack their accusations:

But, of course, the damage was done.

Still, some reacted with humor:

Now here is the true story:

The organizers of the protest got the authorization to conduct their demonstration on the Sakharov Square.  But on the day before, they suddenly announced that the sound system was no good and that they would move their demonstration to the Tverskaia street.  Rather than repeat it all, I would point you to a recent article by Anatoli Karlin who explains the strategy of the organizers here: http://www.unz.com/akarlin/bayonetting-putler/.  To make a long story short, since they knew that the demonstration would gather a tiny crowd, the organizers decided to literally ‘invade’ the historical festival in downtown Moscow.  They did that for 2 reasons:

1. the festival usually attracts huge crowds. who is to say that they all did not come to “protest”, right?
2. since their move was illegal, they knew that they would be arrested.

To the immense disappointment of the Ziomedia, all the arrests were peaceful and well-conducted (especially in comparison with the usual orgy of violence US or French cops mete out against any illegal demonstrations).  One policeman suffered form a burned eye (he was pepper-sprayed by a “peaceful” demonstrator).  Still, the western reporters had the opportunity to see the “repression” at work (see, for example, the photos taken by The Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2017/jun/12/anti-government-demonstrations-in-russia-in-pictures).  But, at the end of the day, and considering the level of violence hoped for by the pro-western organizers of the protests (see Kokcharov’s tweet above), this all ended with the usual flop.

I feel sincerely sorry for the western reporters in Russia: their bosses are demanding signs of protests, of violence, even signs of a possible collapse of the “regime” in power (how about all those headlines about Putin feeling the “heat” from these protests?!).  But the Russian people just fail to deliver over and over again.  They show up in huge numbers for sport events, concerts, festivals, religious ceremonies, etc.  But not for the riots organized by the tiny CIA-run Russian “non-system opposition”.  Worse, for all the propaganda and economic warfare, Putin’s popularity is still somewhere in the usual 80%+ while the most respected institution in the country is the military.  Apparently Russians just don’t “get it”.

This sorry state of affairs forces some reporters to become creative.  For example, on the Russian language BBC website a guy called Vladimir Kozlovskii wrote an article entitled “How I fell asleep listening to the conversation between Oliver Stone and Vladimir Putin“.  His beef with the interview? Stone was not asking the hard questions!  As if journalists in the West were asking tough questions of their politicians!  And who cares about when and how Mr Kozlovskii sleeps anyway?!  But since this was anti-Putin, and anti-Putin is by definition good, this article was posted, by the (formerly) prestigious BBC, no less.

Anyway, in conclusion, a warning: the city of Moscow has decided to renovate a lot of the Khrushchev-era apartment buildings in the city.  Those who live there now will be relocated and compensated for their inevitable aggravation.  But some are not happy.  There have, and probably will, be more protests about this (just think of the value of the square meter of real estate anywhere in Moscow!).  There are also attempts to build a campaign to protest against corruption (still, alas, prevalent in Russia).  Again, demonstrations are likely.  Finally, just was the case with “Russia Day”, there are various dates this summer when the people of Moscow, and other Russian cities, will take to the streets.  Some of them will be marred by violent outbursts (such as the Day of the Airborne Forces – August 2nd – when ex-paratroopers like to drink and, sometimes act like asses which puts them on a collision course with the local cops).  The western media will present all of that like protests, riots, a “Russian Maidan” and any other imaginable nonsense.  So to save you the effort I make this pledge: if there are ever any *real* protests in Russia with some traction with the people or if there is *any* sign of a crisis or “regime change” in Russia, I will immediately inform you.

But if I am quiet and the western media is going ape shit again, just flush your mental toilet and enjoy your summer.

Cheers,

The Saker

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