A Trail of Lies – The West's Propaganda War against Russia

From the Sochi Olympics, Crimea, to phantom invasion of East Ukraine US has been trying its best to demonize Russia by repeating lies

Call it the ‘cold war 2.0′ or the continuation of the first, but there is no denying the absolute destruction of any form of constructive partnershipbetween the West and Russia.

This break in already shaky ties has been spearheaded by an all-out propaganda campaign aimed at demonizing Russia and its people.

This program, initiated by the United States, has for the most part succeeded in creating an atmosphere in which any accusation or unverified ‘report’ can betaken to its illogical extreme with the aim of distorting perceptions of Russia and its leaders.

The central scapegoat of this propaganda campaign is Vladimir Putin, a man so intentionally misunderstood within the west that every actionand word of his is twisted into oblivion, no matter the original intention or end result.

The propaganda war against Putin and Russia accelerated during the lead-up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Despite the Olympic Charter explicitly stating in several passages that politics have no place at the Olympics, the west engaged in vulgar political posturing.

Even with the assurance that LGBT rights would be protected at the games, the notion of boycotting the Sochi Olympics was based around this greatly exaggerated issue.

The Olympics were indeed boycotted by the major western leaders, garnering great publicity for turning down invitations that they did not even receive.

The mainstream press also put their weight behind the ridiculing of Sochi with their twitter trends of ‘Sochi Problems’ and constant guffawing at the venue of the games themselves.

This stupidity reached its peak when an American comedian created a hoax video of a ‘wolf roaming the halls’ at Sochi. This ‘story’ was picked up by almost every major mainstream media outlet and then retracted the next day with a giggle and a shrug.

The actual organisation and running of the Sochi Olympics was praised by the IOC, Olympic athletes and most importantly the Russian people. The president of the Olympic Committee had this to say of the Sochi Olympics and Putin "You have set the stage for the best winter athletes of the world. You have delivered on all the pledges you and your team made seven years ago to the International Olympic Committee”. But of course this was not reported in the mainstream press.

The second, far more dangerous stage of the recent propaganda war has been the outright lies and hypocrisy over the crisis in Ukraine.

In short this crisis was precipitated by former Ukrainian President Yanukovych being told by America and the EU that he had to choose between working with the west or working with Russia.

Yanukovych opted for Ukraine’s longtime economic lifeline in choosing to work with Russia. The west, chiefly America and NATO, would not allow this and set in motion the events that would lead to the current civil war and standoff between the west and Russia.

By initiating a crisis directly on Russia’s border, the west forced Putin to act in defending Russia’s interests. The west then, on cue, feigned ignorance as to why Russia would ‘suddenly’ be concerned with events occurring in its region.

Russia’s primary concern was and is regarding NATO’s expansion into eastern Europe and onto Russia’s borders. Crimea in particular, a majority Russian-speaking territory with deep religious, military, and cultural ties to Russia, was directly threatened by the chaos in Ukraine.

The key threats to Crimea were the resurgence of Ukrainian neo-Nazism. Another threat was the very real possibility of the Crimean deepwater ports being used as NATO and US bases.

This again, was all ignored by the mainstream media. Instead the stories that were printed all focused on the idea of Putin as a reborn ‘Tsar’ unable to bear the arrival of western ‘democracy’ in Ukraine.

Putin had in fact offered the tangible and democratic solution of tripartite talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU, all before the crisis had reached boiling point. These talks were flat out rejected by the EU and by proxy Ukraine. The west forced Russia to act and then condemned it for doing so.

The Ukrainian crisis quickly spiraled out of control during the early months of 2014, descending into a civil war between Kiev’s western-backed junta and the Russian speaking population of eastern Ukraine. Armed resistance first sprang up in Donbass when the language and human rights of the eastern populationwere challenged by the new government in a bid to appease the neo-nazis that brought them to power.

The two sides of the war are quite clearly framed by Kiev’s forces attempting to crush eastern resistance to these policies. The west and its subservient press however, paints a different picture, putting Russia and Putin in the frame as the evil Russian bear looking to devour its neighbors.

East Ukraine, spring 2014

The most pervasive accusation that the west is hurling against Russia is of an armed invasion into Ukraine. Despite the constant reports of lackey Ukrainian generals, NATO officials and the US state department of this purported invasion, there has not been a single piece of tangible evidence put forward.

The truth is only ever revealed, albeit in flashes, when the officials of NATO, the Pentagon, OSCE and even the Ukrainian Chief of staff are forced by embarrassment or political convenience to tell it. These organisations have all admitted there are no Russian troops in Ukraine.

Despite these rare and oft-ignored admissions, the mainstream media and desperate Ukrainian politicians still take full advantage of the current attitudes of Russophobia to cry ‘wolf!’ about an alleged Russian ‘invasion(s)’.

The easiest way to test these invasion theories is to ask for solid evidence, as the Russian government often does. So how is it that in the age of super accurate satellite photography, all NATO and Ukraine can produce are fuzzy, unintelligible images?

The current political climate makes it easy and advantageous to pin the world’s problems and fears on the west’s longtime geopolitical nemesis. Everything from Ebola to the rise of ISIS has been blamed on Putin and Russia.

The west, in a desperate move to stifle any economic and military competition is resorting to the twisted logic of the most rabid neo-conservatives and ideologues to try and bury Russia. It has been until now successful a campaign.

The problem that the US State Department and NATO will soon face is one of diminishing returns as their lies about Russia will pale in comparison to the atrocities being committed by the forces they back in Kiev.

In the coming months as more US and NATO weapons pour into Ukraine and military ‘advisors’ arrive to prop up their ailing army, the people of Europe and America will realise they’ve been duped. Hopefully it won’t be too late.

russia-insider.com