Freedom of speech also means freedom to lie. No one does it better than Putin and the Russians. There’s a Russian TV station called RT, which was formerly called Russia Today. It reports the news in English that is given to the people of Russia. It is the official mouthpiece for Putin.
Any nation with a modicum of decency would spell out what happened to Malaysian Air Flight MH17 which was downed over Ukraine by Russians acting on behalf of Putin who is attempting to take Eastern Ukraine into Russia. “It was an accident,” the nation would declare. “We, or those we supported, mistakenly took the civilian airliner for a military plane. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the victims of our tragic error. We will do everything in our power to ameliorate anyone’s loss and will cooperate fully with an investigation being conducted.” But Russia, lacking any decency, has put out lies and covered up the evidence.
I don’t know if you remember but back in March with the invasion of Crimea an anchor for RT news Liz Wahl quit her job. She said she could no longer report the lies that she was being provided which revolved around the denial that Russian troops had gone into Crimea.
On last Friday another anchor for RT Sara Firth resigned. She said she couldn’t do it anymore. Continuing she said “every single day we’re lying and finding sexier ways to do it.”
In response to her statement RT said: “Sara has declared that she chooses the truth; apparently we have different definitions of truth, We believe that truth is what our reporters see on the ground, with their own eyes, and not what’s printed in the morning London newspaper. In our coverage, RT, unlike the rest of the media, did not draw conclusions before the official investigation has even begun. We show all sides of the story, even if everyone else has already decided which side is to blame.”
Sarah’s raised the issue that Putin’s mouthpiece RT has lied and RT has called her on it.
Who is right. I suppose you can tell this by looking at RT’s reports. Here’s one news report on RT. “An aviation source cited by Kremlin-owned news outlet RT also pushed the idea that Ukrainian forces may have fired a rocket at the Malaysian Boeing, mistaking it for Putin’s jet returning from a summit in Brazil. “The contours of the airplanes are in general similar, the linear dimensions are also very similar and regarding the colouring, from a sufficiently long distance, they are practically identical,” the source said.”
The article went on to note: “As is often the case with pro-Kremlin news outlets, the narrative could not be more different from the one reported by Western media, which RT television criticised for “unleashing a post-crash factless blame game against Russia”.
What we are witnessing is the ability of Putin to manipulate the opinion in his country by lies. This was described by one who was speaking of its anti-Ukrainian broadcasts as: “Aggressive and deceptive propaganda, worse than anything I witnessed in the Soviet Union.” One such lie spreading in Russian cyberspace is that “no crash occurred and that the scene was staged with corpses from the earlier Malaysia Air flight,”
Putin as one would expect from a former KGB agent continues his lusting for power. He seems seriously disturbed when it comes to the United States. His recent interactions with the most vile regime in the world, North Korea should make everyone pause.
His megalomaniac Olympic games, his lies during the Crimean invasions, his visit to Cuba (by the way Fidel Castro on his death bed blamed the Ukrainians for the shooting down of the airline.) and now his deceptions when candor is required shows a man with a head problem. But keep in mind, Putin has the control of all those nasty nuclear weapons so most people are a little jittery when it comes to him.
Now here’s the strangest part of all this. Angela Merkel is reported to have said: “These events have once again shown us that what is required is a political solution and above all that it is also Russia that is responsible for what is happening in Ukraine at the moment.” Yet, the same Merkel met with Putin and said nothing about this. She also did not want to talk about additional sanctions. The article reports she is in regular contact with Putin and talked to him on the same day as the crash.
It is difficult to understand why she has such a different view of him; something is not right in the German Russian relationship. Perhaps it is closer to the truth, rather than saying it is not right, if I said that duet spells trouble for the United States. It’s the first time since WWII that the Russians managed to separate Germany from the U.S.
Any question Merkel has made a side deal with Putin should be put aside after hearing what she said about the downing of the plane. It is reported “she also drew a line between the Russians and the separatists, saying that “the Russian president of course has an influence,” but “still one has to differentiate between the separatists and the Russian government.” She’s become a Putin apologist.
It is not something that bodes well for the world. Despite what you may not like about the U.S., it is the one most responsible for peace in Europe since WWII.