Category: Commentary, Critique, and Response

LYING AS A WAY OF LIFE

—-“The decisive difference between Putinism and Nazism is that the fascists and national-socialists believed to a large extent in their lies. The Putinist only believes in one thing: lying as a way of life”–Francesco Principi

http://www.examiner.com/list/russia-s-top-120-lies-about-ukraine?CID=examiner_alerts_articleI. EXAMPLES OF CONTRADICTIONS IN RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA

(Roman Skaskiw)

1) The lies that westerners encounter are nothing compared to the lies Russia’s domestic population is subjected to. They publish photos from their own massacres in Chechnya & Georgia and claim it is Ukraine / from Syria / from the Balkan war / even from movies.

http://www.examiner.com/list/russia-s-top-120-lies-about-ukraine?CID=examiner_alerts_article

2) Two different stories about Crimea.

Within months, Putin went from denying Russia invaded Crimea to bragging that he ordered the “operation”. There was no outcry at all in Russia media. This is normal for them — they see pride and strength in being able to deceive others.

3) Many various (and contradictory) stories about MH-17.

– Claim that the plane was diverted into separatist airspace to make them look bad. Invented a fake story about a Spanish air traffic controller working in Ukraine who claimed on Twitter that he witnessed the plane being diverted.

– Claim (by separatist leader Igor “Strelkov” Girkin) that MH-17 was filled with dead bodies and crashed on purpose to make them look bad.

– Claim that a Ukrainian BUK shot down MH-17 because they thought Putin was on it.

– Claim that a Ukrainian jet shot down MH-17.

(Dutch, German, Malaysian, and independent British investigation all reach the same conclusion about MH-17, though they state it with different degrees of diplomatic nicety.)

Big collection of MH-17 links: http://romaninukraine.com/ma17-stories-links/

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/17/russia-words-to-destroy-meaning-writers-nobelII. RUSSIA’S PROPAGANDA STRATEGY

(Roman Skaskiw)

1) Affect the first impression. First impressions are known to be very sticky even after future, contradictory evidence. So with every story, they try to create a firestorm of competing narratives. (Ukraine’s protesters are CIA NAZI’s, Russia is NOT ivading, Boris Nemtsov was killed by Chechens – or by the CIA, MH-17)

They have a rapid reaction force of liars and propagandists.

2) Create confusion and hesitation. It doesn’t matter if they are proved wrong. There’s no shame in lying. They have a short sited strategy of getting enemies and other political forces to hesitate.

3) Destroy the very idea of truth — by making it seem like the least interesting of many equally valid possibilities.

This was first observed by Peruvian nobel-prize winning writer Mario Vargas Llosa. (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/17/russia-words-to-destroy-meaning-writers-nobel)

4) Pollute the communication commons, especially the internet – because they fear their people.

—” Also, by working every day to spread Kremlin propaganda, the paid trolls have made it impossible for the normal Internet user to separate truth from fiction.

“The point is to spoil it, to create the atmosphere of hate, to make it so stinky that normal people won’t want to touch it,” Volkov said, when we met in the office of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. “You have to remember the Internet population of Russia is just over 50 percent. The rest are yet to join, and when they join it’s very important what is their first impression.” The Internet still remains the one medium where the opposition can reliably get its message out. But their message is now surrounded by so much garbage from trolls that readers can become resistant before the message even gets to them.”— (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html)