Assessing the Russian counter propaganda efforts (UPDATED 2x)
Septic media stinks.
by The Saker
INFOPINIONS
Kazakh bodybuilder and sex doll intend to marry. Items such as these, more typical of National Enquirer, are also not uncommon on RT.com.
In 2016 I wrote an analysis I called “Counter-propaganda, Russian style” and, about a year later, another one I called “Re-Visiting Russian Counter-Propaganda Methods“. I ask you to please read them first, especially if you plan to post a comment!
What I tried to show in these articles is that, in total contrast with the "bad old Soviet propaganda," the modern Russian counter-propaganda does the exact opposite of what most people in the West believe it does: far from suppressing western propaganda, the Kremlin tries its very best to make sure that as many Russians as possible become aware of what the West is saying about them, their country and their values. The Kremlin even PAYS anti-Russian pundits to go on Russian national TV!!!
Why? Simply, because considering the nature of what the western media outlets, and even entire specialized entities, write and say about Russia, the best thing the Kremlin can do is to make darn sure that everybody in Russia becomes aware of it.
During the Cold War, the Soviets had a strict censorship system, entire segments of literature were banned, you could not take certain books across the border and radios like RFE/RL, the BBC or DW were jammed.
Now the OPPOSITE is happening. Some anti-Russian talking heads on, say, DW declares that Putin eats babies for breakfast, and that is immediately aired on the main TV channels, with subtitles! Then it is discussed at length, with the “poor” Russian liberals trying to justify it. It is often quite hilarious to watch.
Another favorite topic on Russian TV are western threats against Russia, or the “master talks to his slave” tone of US Presidents: “we did Napoleon and Hitler and now the Muricans want to talk to us “from a position of strength, even after Kabul!!!” 🙂
By the way, this is something the leaders of the West cannot admit, hence their continuous efforts to pay for these propaganda outlets to spew their nonsense and pretend like the Russians are living in an informational vacuum and that “Gulags” are full of freedom-loving dissidents 🙂
This will never happen, of course, but I believe that if, say, the US Congress decided to defund these propaganda outlets, the Russians would be glad to pay for the costs as what these outlets produce is a dream come true for Putin and the Kremlin!
But, alas, all of the above pertains only to Russian counter-propaganda efforts INSIDE Russia!
Alas, the picture for outside counter-propaganda is much less encouraging…
First, the two big ones RT, both as a TV station and a website, and Sputnik. Initially, I was rather enthusiastic about this alternative to the Cold War crap regurgitated on a daily basis by the western media. And, initially, it worked pretty well. Some shows were outright very good, and certainly good enough to get the western PTB quite hysterical, hence all the (freedom of speech crushing) measures taken by western “democracies” to, if not silence them, then make their work as hard as possible.
A simple conclusion would be “if the leaders of the AngloZionist Empire were so upset about RT and or Sputnik, then the latter must be doing a fantastic job”. Alas, the reality is more complex.
I got a lot of emails from readers asking me about my view of RT and Sputnik and, so far, I did not publicly comment about this. Now I feel that the time has come. Frankly, I think that RT and Sputnik have tried to appeal to the worst and cheapest base instincts of the folks in the West to increase their audience. The RT website is the worst of them all. Here are just two recent examples:
(Contributed by TGP)
I have an entire collection of examples of such truly disgusting stuff but I will spare you, and myself, any more of these sights. Besides, those who read the RT website regularly already know what I am talking about.
This really begs the question of who their target audience is? I mean, seriously, the kind of folks who enjoy photos of butts and lingerie fights (plenty of such folks here in Florida, especially during “Bike Week”) will never turn to RT or Sputnik in the first place. Maybe the target audience is sexually insecure teenagers? But, frankly, these teenagers won’t go to RT for that, there are other, “better” choices for them out there anyway.
As for those who would turn to RT for the right reasons (getting alternative info and views) are going to be either bored or disgusted or both by such ridiculous “articles” (I am being kind here…). By the way, the audience which would turn to RT for the right reasons would include plenty of Orthodox Christian and Muslims which makes me wonder: is RT deliberately trying to offend or alienate them?
The shows on RT TV are better, but most of them are boring, just the same folks rehashing the same old same old without any originality. But compared to the very high quality of reporting and debating on the internal Russian TV, most of the shows on RT TV are boring.
As for Sputnik, I can share this about it: in the past, they interviewed me on several occasions. But then, I had to tell them that I would refuse to be interviewed by them. Can you guess why? For two reasons: they would not allow me to mention the 9/11 false flag or to use the term “AngloZionist”. Not even with the usual disclaimer about “the views expressed herein are not etc.”. Need I say more?
The truth is this: I rarely bother with either RT or Sputnik anymore, they bore me and, frankly, make me feel ashamed of a lot of their content.
But it is not just RT or Sputnik, there is much, MUCH worse.
Recently, the Kremlin did something really smart: they (FINALLY!) realized the need to move away from YouTube and released the website Smotrim and a Smotrim Android app (dunno about iStuff, I stay away from Apple/Mac products). Basically, you can think of Smotrim (which means “we watch”) as Russian TV on a website or app. Two problems with that otherwise very very good idea:
- It’s only in Russian
- The apps demand you send them your tel # to send you back a sign-in code, which mostly does not work at all
On number one, maybe they will make an English version of it, at least for the news programs.
On number two, maybe it is the Empire (and their subservient IT sector like Google) which tries to block the sign-in codes. I had to try many times and finally I used a Canadian flag (since both the USA and Canada share the +1 international code).
So how about NOT asking for such sign-in codes?
There is also another problem with the Smotrim app: it is buggy, and demands a very high bandwidth. And, generally, it is still very “raw”. And they also mix some very interesting shows with, frankly, cheap crap (Russian TV has lots of that too).
At best, it allows Russian expats or Russian speakers in locations with a solid 4G Internet to watch Russian TV shows…
What about the Russian supposed “alternatives” to YouTube or Google?
I tried Rutube.ru and compared to YouTube it is sub-pathetic. And that in spite of the fact that Russia has better/modern Internet connectivity inside Russia than the US does! Then there is Yandex, which is actually pretty good in many ways, but which does not offer any video hosting alternative to YouTube. It does, however, offer a very good search engine, much better, and MUCH “freer” than Google (which de-lists and censors a lot of good sites, both for political reasons or to serve the copywrong interests of US media corporations).
Even worse, on YouTube Russian news channels file copyright complaints if somebody else reposts their videos!! It happened to us several times, and when that happens, we typically use RuTube. But think of the irony: these Russian news channels are, apparently, more concerned with ad revenue than with spreading the message, their *own* message. How stupid (and immoral!) is that?
Okay, let’s say that the Kremlin does not want, or cannot, create a serious alternative to YouTube. What about private corporations like, say, Gazprom, Sberbank or Rosoboronexport who are so awash with money that they could easily invest into a “FreeTube” not only as good, but much better than YouTube (removing the Woke propaganda and commercials would be a good start!). And if all they care about is money, then they could even make money with a real, effective, RussiaTube/FreeTube.
But nothing. Just nothing. Their attitude appears to be “we make gazillions and the rest ain’t our problem”.
And this gets even worse:
Both the Kremlin (Presidential Administration) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia are doing an ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE job in their public information efforts. The worst is the very slow pace at which they translate Putin’s or Lavrov’s speeches, interview or articles. Apparently, the folks running these departments don’t understand that time is of the essence in counter-propaganda efforts! Either that, or they don’t have the money to hire enough translators which, considering the disposable income of the Kremlin is ridiculous.
I worked as both a translator and an interpreter in my life and I can tell you that if you give me a budget of about 5 million dollars a year (pennies by modern Russian standards), I could get all of these very important speeches, interviews or articles translated, well, at least overnight and made available on the Internet for all to access and download on the same day. But even with its truly immense financial means, the Kremlin seems to be working with Soviet-era attitude about work (“a pretend to work effort is good enough for a pretend pay”).
[Sidebar: official speeches are pre-written, I know, I worked at the UN for several years, and then very quickly corrected if the speaker goes into some impromptu comment or tangent. So here is what the Russians are NOT doing and SHOULD do: each speech by Putin and Lavrov should not only be pre-written (they are), but even their translations into, at least, English, should ALSO be pre-written. Then both the original Russian text and the translated English text can both be very quickly fixed at the same time then immediately released not only to the press corps in Moscow, but POSTED on the Internet. This entire process can take about 2-3 hours MAX after the speaker is done speaking. Yes, I mean exactly that: same day translations are totally doable!]
Typically, both the Presidential Administration and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are several DAYS late with their translations. That is ridiculous and disgraceful. In the past, I even had to ask unpaid volunteers to translate really important documents for the blog simply because somebody in the Kremlin was soundly asleep at the wheel and not caring one bit about what was truly at stake.
When I see how ridiculously slow Russian translations are, I always think that they must believe that, at best, they work for future historians, not for people who vitally, desperately, need these translations today, NOW!
Here is how this impacts me as a blogger: when something happens, say the current crisis in Georgia, I would need access to the info available in Russian to repost on my blog. Why should, say, the Kremlin care about my tiny audience to begin with? For three reasons: a) it ain’t that small at all b) it is a different audience from say, TASS or RIA and c) there are many more bloggers out there who could use this besides me.
If the Kremlin had any desire to get serious about counter-propaganda it could, for example, offer a way for us, bloggers in the West, to easily place a request and then quickly get back info we need, in English! But no, Zakharova gives a weekly briefing to a small audience of accredited journalist (most of them hostile to Russia and, frankly, paid western propagandists) and she considers her job done. The fact that she is a superb spokeswoman gets lost on those who need it most: the PEOPLE of the West (not the western journos in Moscow!).
I actually have a very good opinion of Margarita Simonian. She is trying really hard and she is even sounding another alarm about the fact that Russia needs to develop a truly sovereign Runet, not one depending on a few, Western controlled, Internet traffic backbones. I listened to her on a lot of shows and I am sure that she “gets it”. Having obtained at least one college degree in the US probably made her acutely aware of how comparatively IN-effective the Russian media really is, at least compared to the superb propagandists the AngloZionists have been during the Cold War (since, they mostly look ridiculous, but that is hardly a consolation).
Now let’s list a few truisms:
- Russia is awash with cash
- Russia has some of the best IT experts on the planet
- Russia has a very modern IT infrastructure (including plenty of supercomputers)
- Russia is engaged in an existential war against the Empire, about 80% of which is informational
- Russia is doing a superb job countering western propaganda inside Russia
- Russia’s private sector has rich mega-corporations who very much need “informational support” to sell their products
- Russia has huge numbers of excellent translators
Yet, at the same time
- The RT website caters to the worst western audience possible
- Sputnik is obediently submitting to AngloZionist limits on allowed/prohibited speech
- Russian government websites are slow, badly organized and booooooooooooooooooooring
- The pace of translations of even very important official speeches, documents or interviews is something I would expect from, say, a small Caribbean nation, not a nuclear superpower
So when I hear the nonsense about Russian “troll farms” and “Russian hackers”, I don’t laugh, I want to SOB!
If only it were TRUE!
Just the Russian military by itself could EASILY solve ALL of the problems I listed above.
Furthermore, I come to a conclusion which really bothers me: the Kremlin cares a lot more about western “officialdom” (western press corps in Moscow) than it cares about REALLY reaching out to the people in the West (or Zone A if you prefer). Yes, they go through the motions, but they don’t really mean it.
Please tell me I am wrong and please explain to me that what I see is what I see?
Blaming Zakharova and/or Simonian is what some in the “patriotic opposition” often do. I think that they are wrong. Why? Because that implies the Zakharova and Simonian have the means to make things better, but that deliberately don’t. I highly doubt that (for many reasons I don’t want to mention here to stay on topic). And when I hear what Putin and/or Lavrov actually say, they both are also clearly trying their best.
So what is going on and who is to blame (and fire!) here?
My personal guess?
That the Presidential Administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are STILL full of those whom I refer to as “Atlantic Integrationists” (as opposed to the “Eurasian Sovereignists”), a reality which some Kremlin mouthpieces have been denying for quite a while now, but whose “fingerprints” I see all over the total mess (and many other “inexplicable” or otherwise contradictory Russian policies).
For sure, the Atlantic Integrationists are now keeping a low profile or pretending to be patriots, Putin has very effectively weakened them, I would even say defeated them, but only on the internal Russian ideological battlefield. But they have kept their positions and titles and are quietly continuing their sabotage, whether for money from the western alphabet soup or because they want to prove themselves to their western masters.
If my guess is correct, then this is not a counter-propaganda issue, but a national security one!
I am sure that by now there are plenty of readers who would reply that things ain’t so bad, that a lot of good stuff also gets posted by the RT website, and that’s all true. Until you compare with the Russian media inside Russia which stands head and shoulders above its West-oriented counterparts.
One example: there are a few talk shows on Russian TV (“60 mins” for example) which should have interpreters and stenographers on site to immediately (well, almost, with maybe a few hours delay max) fully subtitle these shows and make them available not on YouTube or Smotrim, but on a Russian YouTube equivalent! Or even just the main Vesti evening news!
First, that would show the undeniable fact that there is TRUE ideological diversity on Russian TV (infinitely more than on western TV stations!). Next, it would show the audience int the West some very good reports (for example, Russia has REAL war correspondents, and very good ones at that, unlike the West whose war correspondents usually report from their hotels, sometimes not even from the country they are supposed to be “covering”).
Furthermore, JUST subtitling Russian news/debate shows would make the western media look absolutely ridiculous, especially the propaganda outlets à la RFE/RL or the US CNNNBCFOXCBS gang.
But what can I expect from a government which does not even protect RT journos? They were banned from the French Foreign Ministry (still are, I think?), harassed by both US and UK regulators and the Kremlin only issued some vapid protests.
These flaccid responses only encourage the western powers to further try to disrupt the efforts of RT! Why does Russia symmetrically expel western diplomats and not symmetrically expel western journos? Because of freedom of speech in Russia? Well, the self-same western journos who are not expelled because of the (very real) freedom of speech in Russia NEVER report about that freedom of speech or speak up on behalf of their Russian colleagues when western regimes try to silence them.
Me? I would throw most western journos out of Russia with no hesitation whatsoever. None.
Here is the sad truth, folks like Andrei Martyanov, Dmitri Orlov, Bernhard, the Stalker Zone, the Greanville Post, the New Kremlin Stooge and many others are doing the job they do because the folks in Moscow who are paid to do that job don’t. Worse, while none of us can get any financial help from Russia (lest we end up in a US dungeon), we COULD get indirect “informational support” if only the Russian themselves did a halfway decent job. But no, nothing.
Will the folks in Moscow ever get serious about their propaganda efforts? I honestly don’t know. I like to think that Putin is a good man who inherited a terrible system (a hybrid between the late Soviet 80s and “democratic” 90s) which means that there is an entire *generation* of folks produced by that system who are just profoundly amoral and who only pretend to care. And Russia is an immense country, whose huge momentum is very hard to change. It took Putin two decades to transform Russia in so many ways. And there was most definitely much improvement in the Russian media, especially if we compare today's media to what Russia had in the 90s! But the flaccid, vapid and otherwise simply boring nature of the Russian counter-propaganda efforts against the multi-BILLION dollar AngloZionist propaganda machine is, in my opinion, simply inexcusable and borders on a gross dereliction of duty (if not treason) by those who are responsible for it.
Those of us in Zone A will continue our struggle against the Empire even in these conditions because we actually believe in what we are doing (those who only pretend and do it for $$$ are now really easy to spot, so I won’t list them here). We will continue to do that no matter how crude, inept, slow and otherwise painfully disappointing our (paid) “counterparts” in Moscow are.
But I, for sure, don’t want to “cover” for them anymore, or pretend like “all is good on the eastern front”. I said what I had to say about them and about my professional opinion of them.
And maybe somebody somewhere in Russia will read this and, finally, act on this?!
Or somebody in Russia can use this rant to make at least some changes?
I am not holding my breath.
—Andrei
UPDATE1: try entering this “Re-Visiting Russian Counter-Propaganda Methods“ site:thesaker.is into the google search engine and see for yourself what you get, then try the same with the DuckDuckGo and compare 🙂
UPDATE2: here is what I saw on RT a few mins ago (QED):
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Maybe they do not target the western public because the western public has zero influence.
If so, then this is very immoral. How can the Russians criticize the West while at the same time not caring for those in the West who are the first victims of AngloZionist policies?
And if Russia is showing a “false face” (via her counter-propaganda efforts) of Russia to the West, how can she expect the people in the West to see the huge civilizational difference between Russia and the West?
And, finally, if Russia wants to position herself as an alternative to the Empire, then why show her ugliest and most boring aspects, instead of showing her true beauty (of which there is plenty)?
No, no amount of pragmatic considerations can ever offset or justify a lack of true idealism and true faith, both in God and in our fellow human beings.
Could this be a sense of “not my problem”? The way they have no obligation to protect anybody outside of Russia militarily, why should they feel an obligation to protect anybody outside of Russia intellectually or spiritually?
If so, why do the feel like they have to add to the vomit spewed by the western media?
Shutting down RT would be more honest, in that case
Just throwing coals on the fire.
@Anonymous (the one who wrote): “The way they [RF] have no obligation to protect anybody outside of Russia militarily”
A desirable result for providing an alternative to the western propaganda is that it could help westerners get a better understanding of Russia. A lot of people in the west think that Russia is a Morder like country where the sun never shines and everybody looks like those old stone faced guys who ran the Soviet Union. Russia could use some positive PR. Most people won’t spend time reading in depth speeches by Putin and Lavrov unfortunately.
It makes sense to try to counter the lies being told about Russia. It is off topic but I never understood why the Trump Administration did not go after the people pushing the Russiagate narrative after Mueller came up empty handed. They never went on offense for some reason even when they had a chance to do so.
The Saker,
I have wondered about this issue for years now.
A country (or its citizens) that can come up with the RT, Ruptly, Sputnik, Yandex and Telegram can surely do better to represent themselves to the rest of the World, let alone to the West.
“No, no amount of pragmatic considerations can ever offset or justify a lack of true idealism and true faith, both in God and in our fellow human beings.”
Unfortunately, we are not living in that world.
Maybe it requires some kind of economic incentive. Truly the Russians can see the economic benefit (and required investment) of making yourself look more attractive then your competitors (adversaries) to the world.
I think in solutions and opportunities, and there are enough solutions for this Russian problem or lack of emphasis, but it requires vision, mind set and directing of peoples and funds.
saker, i think the russians have concluded the western elites are destroying the underlying nations they control irrespective how powerful their control over media and storytelling may be, thus the smartest move to be made allow them to continue while preventing them at the same time from using military power to shore up and or distract from this collapse.
its much easier to clean up a trainwreck after all the pieces stop moving than it is to try and stop the wreck while its in motion.
To try and reply: they do not care because they ( the Russian elites) understand that world depopulation is unavoidable, due to dramatic energy shortages. If you have an enemy that is committing cultural, economic and military suicide, at a time when the world population must decrease (there is not a lot of gas in Russia, maybe 50 years worth), and your enemy is doing all this without you firing a bullet, you focus your energies on other things, and thanks the gods that you are killing two big birds with no stones.
Not only does Russia have no obligations towards anyone, as Hodges says, whatever obligations they might have is towards the Yemeni, the Lebanese, the Taliban, and other people with higher levels of humanity. No one came to help the common Russians in the 1990s, and the West is anyway very far and unable to be a real threat. Before the West comes even the economic development of Central Asia and countries in the Russian sphere.
I must quibble with the idea that Russia is awash in money. It’s not. Standards of living have almost certainly declined in the last 4 years, at least here in Samara. I would not spend any money on propaganda. I am already mildly unhappy about Putin calming energy markets (like some of the smaller parties, I would have driven a much harder bargain), and the internal front really does need some care, as real UR voters around here are very rare indeed (but UR won September 19).
Why should Kremlin spend resources when Biden is delivering remarkable results to his handlers when it comes to the disintegration of the Republic.
Vax Mandates = (Defund the Police + Defund the Military) x (Exterminate America)
Excellent well-written article, Saker. I took the opportunity to throw a little more $ your way. Thanks for all you do.
I sincerely hope that someone in the Kremlin will read your words!
Natercia Pedroso
When Putin talks to the press we have to wait several days to read the English translation and share it.
I know, this gets me so mad, I want to command a firing squad 🙂
I sincerely hope that someone in the Kremlin will read your words!
The Kremlin has no use for me. First, they don’t control me. Second, I do not recognize the Moscow Patriarchate as the legitimate Russian Orthodox Church. Third, I did work in the past as an analyst for the Swiss Strategic Intel service – these are all “red marks” which the Kremlin won’t ignore.
Besides, my loyalty is to Christ first, and the Russian nation second, not the current or any other occupant of the Kremlin.
They don’t like that.
Dear Andrei. I share you frustration.
But Maybe we are missing a point because we see the world through the lens of the Golden rule:
Treat thy neighbor like you would like to be treated yourself.
Empires, usually contains multiple ethnicities and several religions. To influence such a diverse population is hampered by the educational, religious and cognitive ability of the population.
What if the majority does not believe in, or are never taught the golden rule.
Maybe the majority don’t want to adhere to the Golden rule.
Maybe the majority prefers to be Comfortably Numb, until the pain hits them right between the eyes?
Then we are left to influence our fellow man only via his Basic instinct (the reptile brain).
Isn’t that what both CNN, WP, BBC, RT, Sputnik and most MSM News outlets are trying to do?
How do we counter such a propaganda barrage of stupidity?
When in most cases the facts and words of sanity arrives to the majority, too late to counter the damage done by propaganda. As has been the case during the Global war on terror, and the now 2 year long COVID insanity.
On that point Andrei hits the head of the nail, by criticizing the delay of reply from Kremlin.
The Global awakening is slow and frustrating.
Never the less, sanity is gaining momentum because the consequences of the insane policies is becoming obvious for the majority.
I think that Andrei is selling himself short. This post is making a difference albeit maybe not a large one. It has been a great resource for a US citizen like me. Like most in the US who grew up in the US during the Cold War while I did not hate Russia I certainly feared it. I realized that something was wrong after the way the west treated Russia after the end of the cold war. I have learned so much reading posts here. I do repost them regularly on FB.
Perhaps RT and Sputnik actuall show the true face of Russia? Namely there is no essential difference at the elite level (the globablists) to the “West”, but the question is just about the infights — which groups gets which share? And the internal shows are just shows, to create a fake image?
I personally know a number of Russians, and they fall exactly in three categories: the russophopic expats (the more intelligent they are, say as mathematicians, the more mad they are), the fifth column (according to them, Putin is quite busy with murdering, must have a double to stage the speeches), and everybody else is deeply depressed by the state of the Russia, due to the endless lies about the Soviet past, and due to the total triumph of neoliberalism (no science anymore at Russian universities, if it doesn’t create some immediate profit).
Rusia doesn’t have an ideological backbone. So when Russians are abroad, they just become “Westeners” after some time (most of them). Which seems quite natural, since Russia just appears very weak, when considered from the “West”.
Perhaps RT and Sputnik actuall show the true face of Russia?
This is not the single cause, but surely part of the problem. Yes, enough to watch Russian commercials, or see how some Russian tourists act to see that much in Russia is as bad, or worse, than in the West.
But so what?
The state media’s function is not to feed the folks in the West even more garbage than they are already fed by the AZ propaganda!
There is, for sure, both evil and degrading crap in Russia, including tranny bars and toxic drug abuse, but right next to them you have millions of people who have a different self-image, who try to live according to their civilizational values. Why not more of that? And with no need to lie and pretend like “Holy Russia is back” or any such nonsense.
Furthermore, does the state not have as one of its many functions to show, to educate, to lead by inspiration towards the improvement of society? Maybe not in the West, but in Russia the state has always had that function, however poorly executed, even in the Soviet times.
And this is what I think is the single most important reality to keep in mind:
In the West, the very concepts of good/evil, false/true, moral/immoral, healthy/pathological etc. have been fundamentally abandoned. Not in Russia, at least not yet. Russians might disagree, like all normal free people, about what is good or bad, wrong or right, but they have not (yet) tossed these concepts in the trash.
But RT online clearly has. They make no such distinctions. And, in that sense at least, the MISREPRESENT the true face of Russia and her people.
I tend to agree with you. What is obvious is that the West is far better at propaganda and it does influence Russians. I watch RT as there are several very good shows and some interesting tidbits and human interest stuff on there. RT web site is good for western news but very poor on Russian news. I agree the weird sports stuff is supposed to appeal to a target audience but what that audience is I have no clue. Of interest my alternate AOC in the Army was PSYOPS (now MISO) and targeting civilian populations to support an insurgency is a military goal. Basically, it is advertising and I can very easily see the west is ramming this onto Russians all the time. My wife, who is a Russian, fell for this and emigrated to the US in 92 believing all the propaganda only to find conditions in the US to be very different and in many cases worse than in Russia. This is another category of Russians in America (most of who I have met or employed) who fall into this category of Russians lured to the west only to find that it was all based on false hope.
But, what to do is a real question. It seems to be that Russia is deliberately not pursuing a propaganda campaign even 1/10th as much. They clearly toe the line with the west and make every attempt to comply with ridiculous western demands about foreign agent registration and limiting information to be relatively non-offensive to westerners. What is weird is that RT is one of the most viewed channels in the west so they do have an audience. What is even weirder is that the RT in Russia (in Russian language) is very different (and often a lot better) than the RT we see in the west. I watch RT on Youtube and living in Europe (it was banned in Hungary and dropped from the UPC television provider (Netherlands) we get a choice of the standard feed coming from Moscow, the UK feed, and the US feed. Each is somewhat different so someone has a sense of target audiences. I read Sputnik as it is basically okay but for real analysis, I prefer to watch Alexander Mercouris or the Duran. Colonel Cassad (in Russian) is also very good as is SouthFront. Mercouris somehow pounds out 2 or 3 detailed shows every day and I have no clue where he finds the time to do this great analysis. He is as astute as Putin and knows a great deal about Foreign Policy. He only uses official releases to base his analysis but so far he has been dead on. Google Chrome at least does a decent job automatically translating the Russian language so you can easily read Russian language stuff without too much problem if you can’t read Russian.
I also think a good question is who the target audience in the west might be. There is no possibility that anyone in the UK will ever stop being Russiaphobic. That goes back centuries and is fully engrained into their mentality. The US is similar. So, why waste money? The EU in terms of the politicians in Brussels who are the only people that matter as the EU is in no way a Democracy and the people have zero say in EU policy. These same parliamentarians openly receive separate salaries from Soros and/or the US. I suppose Russia could try and bribe them more and things might change but I think that is also a waste of time and money. What Russia does attempt is to counter the threats by demonstrating the idiocy of the EU actions and decisions but the EU politicians are clearly suicidal and sometimes insane. Northstream 2 is just one example. The MH-17 investigation another, the list goes on and on. So, as far as I see it the west is hopeless to try and influence. So, this leaves on the Russian people themselves as the target audience. It is a very tough battle. However, the west is so insanely Russophobic the never-ending onslaught against Russia is backfiring against them. There are new sanctions every day and often for things completely debunked even in the west so there is a disconnect from reality which is so obvious even idiots in Russia see this as categorically unfair. The west reveals itself to be a hollow champion of rights now shifting to Rules-Based Order rather than Rule of Law. The west falls for this rhetoric but not Russians. Even my wife’s family who are minor oligarchs and have hated Putin since his arrival on the scene have turned to thinking he is good for Russia. These are people who frequently deal with the west and travel a great deal. They see and understand the realities of the anti-Russian propaganda effort.
I also notice a distinct change in Russian attitudes away from believing they are a central and key part of Europe and instead now are turning to the East. So at least for now, the old trope of Russians trying to prove they are more European than Europeans is dwindling. The world is changing and there is a lot going for Russia. They have the resources to influence the world in positive ways and counter US aggression when it becomes too much to bear or becomes a real national security threat such as Georgia, Syria or Crimea. The western efforts have mostly backfired and the sanctions have forced Russia to once again become self-sufficient. Anything they can’t produce themselves they can now get from China who so far is a reliable partner and they cannot survive without each other. We are in the middle of a new hybrid war very much on the scale of a world war. The end game is coming and whether it escalates to real hot war or not is a bigger question. Russia won’t start it but they will defend the Russian homeland at all costs. Considering the forces in the EU as any kind of actual threat is ridiculous. The same for the US military. They haven’t fought a peer force since Korea and we didn’t win that one and haven’t won anything since. The problem is the US might start believing their own propaganda.
The best course for Russia now is to keep things relatively quiet, counter the US aggression when it becomes intolerable, counter the foreign relation aggressions at a political level, continue efforts in the courts, and leave the US to collapse on its own which is happening before our eyes. It won’t be too long before Americans realize things are in shambles and recovery impossible without revolution. I see it happening already and “The Biden” is causing it to accelerate. What comes from the ashes of the US is anyone’s guess but I think we will see it soon. Keeping this from boiling over to WWIII is the real challenge and might explain the reticence of Russia to stoke the fires.
Great to see your comment and it resonates deeply with me. Glad to see you here and I appreciated your great contribution a couple of years ago to the Unz website.
When some McCarthyist that makes Joseph Raymond McCarthy and Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (who refused the advisor of his economic advisors to privatize the copper mine) look like a hard-line Stalinists such as the 23rd district of California self-promoting wack-job plays Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, what is left of the Union of Congressional Corporatist Republics will be wrecked in four days or less quite easily.
Looks to me that Fox Hasbara, Fox Plunderbund, One Neoconservative Propaganda, ad nauseam are fomenting a revolution that can only finish off the corporations, for-profit, and non and the governments, federal, state, county/parish, municipal, and township of Americastan.
I also think a good question is who the target audience in the west might be. There is no possibility that anyone in the UK will ever stop being Russiaphobic. That goes back centuries and is fully engrained into their mentality. The US is similar. So, why waste money? The EU in terms of the politicians in Brussels who are the only people that matter as the EU is in no way a Democracy and the people have zero say in EU policy.
You are significantly mistaken on your opinion of what people in the UK/US/EU think of Russia, but more importantly you are missing the qualitative angle. Polls show about 2/3 of US citizens do not believe any of their MSM, and we can extrapolate that to include the anti-Russian lies. I know many hundreds of thousands of people in each of the larger EU nations watch RT and I suppose there is a similar but smaller audience for all
the other pro-peace, anti-Empire media.
The larger hole in your understanding, OMB, is that you seem to not have thought about which people are in the pro-Russian audience, and – a related question – what these people can or could do with their knowledge. Here’s how things really work: What matters – especially in the long run – are the street-level (circle of friends) opinion leaders and a small fraction of the actual elites. What matters is not so much nfluencing the next election cycle, but rather to shift people’s understanding so they can better “head off” or defeat the war-mongering “strategy of tension” which the Empire pushes. Let me expand on that idea briefly, because it gets overlooked too often. There are many issues in the world, and no one person has time to keep up with all the big ones, such as climate change, Covid, the economy, the political economy, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, China, etc. etc. It’s overwhelming and there are not enough hours in a week or a month to really stay on top of all of them. So what sensible people do is to find and validate some experts and then they follow these experts until they might be proven wrong. What does not matter are the opinions of insensibe people – most of the population in nations where there isn’t a clear, strong connection between international policies and what happens to them personally. So while the “Arab Street” is quite well informed, people in the US, Germany, etc. are not and will not learn much until the Empire falls.
So in the long run, this is all about qualitative changes and change takes lots of time.
There are two ways to change opinions. One is to get individuals to change their personal beliefs, and the other is for those (typically unintentional) “change agents” to influence their friends and colleagues.
Last thing I’ll say here is that a small number of enlightened people can go a long ways. History has many such examples.
“…the russophopic expats (the more intelligent they are, say as mathematicians, the more mad they are”
What are the chances for an immigrant to start career in US academic climate as Russian patriot?
Believe it or not, I was actually waiting for this your rant! And not before time! I can totally, absolutely agree with every word you said – it is truly pathetic the way Russia responds to the AZ media onslaught. I had, on quite a few occasions, contacted RT to express my disgust at some crap they would publish, and you are right, they are, most likely, doing it to reach some target audience. Such as the “social media” crowd, no doubt. Retaliatory responces for mistreatment of Russian journalists are also pathetic. Throwing the western journos out of Russia, especially those that write garbage about Russia for their western publications, would be a good start. I also agree that translations of REALLY important stuff, like speeches by Russian President should be practically instantanious for western consumption/audience. Another issue- that of deliberate sabotage by imbedded in Russian Media so-called “Russian liberals”, (who would be mostly members of the tribe by the way) and still hankering for the West’s idea for Russia, is a serious problem, that government absolutely needs to address, and SOON! Thank you Andrei! This needed to be said. Let’s hope someone will hear it.
Just two observations: conserning RT, I only browse through
– RT UK news https://www.rt.com/uk/ : really horrible
– RT DE https://de.rt.com/ : much better
Also the German version of Sputnik https://snanews.de/ is better than main Sputnik https://sputniknews.com/ .
Perhaps this is due to the fact that the English speaking sites are much more “professional”, while the German speaking sites are more “amateurish”.
Could be.
Then there is an Arabic RT too and it might be better than RT English.
But if so, then it is even MORE inexcusable to continue allow RT English to be such a fountain of vomit.
Even more,
I actually much prefer PressTV, which informs without needing to resort to scatological contents, good for them!
And while I don’t follow the Chinese media, I am quite confident that they would not sink to the level of RT either, if only because of their Communist ideology which very much has a sense of right and wrong (even if it is not mine).
The Chinese media in English is quite though extremely dry and almost robotic in their tv shows. I also follow Korean media (in English) and their presentation is almost the same. The Chinese live presentation has gotten better and has spent more time countering AZ propaganda.
I would not fault RT for its coverage of “sexy stuff” and sports, because that attracts an audience which could become interested in the other stories. Also, for the regular RT audience, it’s bait to lure your locker-room pals into visiting a site they otherwise would not see. The details matter here. Does RT coverage degrade women ? I’ve seen a lot of it (believe me) and I think it is almost entirely benign. Sports coverage is a funny topic, because a large part of the sports audience does not care about sports, but yet they feel they have to “keep up”. It’s a sad fact of life in “the land of the free.” I know a dozen salesmen (the men, not the saleswomen) and they all tell me they pay attention to sports just so they can do small talk with their customers, but beyond that, not only do they not care, some salesmen actually look down their noses at the fools whose lives are so vacant that they really do care about professional sports. Sales people see “sports” as just another industry, something for fools with nothing better to do. As they say, it takes all kinds to make the world go around.
Yes, RT in English should be far better than it is. There are too many face-palm quality “news” items that get their facts wrong or miss what’s important. The qualitative differences between RT in the various nations is big. A friend, whose “hobby” is journalism, has a close-up view of RT in the US, and he says there is a noticeable difference between RT in New York and RT in Washington, DC. He thinks RT has difficulty attracting high-quality journalists in the US, partly because RT vastly prefers young attractive alpha-level people, and such people don’t tend to be savvy, of course. A couple years ago, RT had a 1 or 2 week workshop to get people started in journalism, but I never heard what became of it. It would be good to try it again.
I haven’t read Press TV in years for its news content, but the rest of Press TV is interesting. This government-owned news outlet is tight-lipped where it matters. I appreciate that Tehran might feel a need to not say too much. Iran has more interesting sites such as https://en.mehrnews.com/ By comparison, Hezbollah english.almanar.com.lb/ goes into valuable details. Little Lebanon is not as significant as Iran, but you can see the universe in that particular gain of sand, or to be more precise, you can see how the Empire operates. And of course, al-Manar journalism extends well beyond Lebanon.
Thank you Saker for this analysis.
I agree with your general assessment of Margarita Simonyan and Maria Zacharova. They are doing a really good job. Indeed they are up against powerful forces of misinformation and other dirty tactics by the western media and their propagandist.
Also, I agree that what RT does on it’s website by posting regularly and prominently incidents of violence, whether the UFC stuff (how is UFC legal anyways? It is so barbaric and primitive) or videos of fights in public places and images of scantily clad women in is immoral. and seems to have no other purpose other than to attract the lowest common denominator to click on the story.
As someone who works in mass communications and is of a mature age I can offer some thoughts that may help explain this behaviour of the western oriented Russian media.
back in the day, journalism (whether print or TV) had some very simple rules. Is the story news worthy or not? Then, if the story was newsworty, your task was to write an article or story using the 5 W rule (who, what, where, when, why and sometimes how). That’s it. No personal opinion, no conjecture or theories of any sort were considered good journalism. That was reserved for the Op-Ed pages.
Today, the media landscape has changed dramatically. Not only is personal opinion allowed, it is also encouraged. what the media bosses are looking for is stories that will make people click, tune-in and thus increase their viewership stats. In other words, data relevant to advertisers is more important than actually newsworthiness or truthfulness of stories. Then, there is another factor. believe it or not, the younger generation of media workers are all copy cats. They all copy and emulate what others are doing. There is no room for being different, brave, bold or even conservative. everything must be done how google and facebook and other social media giants do it. There is huge pressure to not think or work outside the established box of the social media way of doing things. Any story we post, any video we make MUST be made how entities who have a huge following do it. I argue with my young colleagues constantly and tell them that they are not brave enough, that they don’t have the guts to do things differently then the established way. And the established way is how RT does it. That’s how I would explain what RT website is doing. they are simply doing what everyone else is doing. perhaps they think that if their website looks more like Fox or MSNBC etc..then it will be more accepted by the western audience and they can then squeeze the “truth” in between the lines. That’s all I can think of.
Although, I don’t discount your idea of there being Atlanticists in the ranks of Russian media, I also wouldn’t give them that much credit. Many of the new generation today are all about copy, paste, get the check and brag on social media about their great life. I hope I’m not too harsh on them. I simply think that RT is still searching for the right formula but tying to be “cool” and “modern”.
And regarding the translations of texts into English from Russian media and speeches and statements, I agree, someone is being too lazy.
Another thing that I notice in media is how few people think to the future. There is very little planning and organisation believe it or not. There seem to be only short-term tasks being handed out with no way of seeing the big picture (if there is any). So, media workers are pretty much blindfolded workers given simple individual tasks with no idea how and if their work is connected to the larger goal. And God-forbid that you even bring this up in the team meetings. If you do, then you are “not a team player” “always obstructing” “not doing what you’re paid to do” etc.. It is very much top-down management in other words and there is no way of knowing whether the information and task you are given are actually what was meant to be assigned from the top.
Well, that is my experience and I hope it helps the conversation a bit.
I have asked myself the same questions for a while, rt and sputnik is trash now. That is why i read RIA or TASS, Yandex translate in the browser, ad the app is getting better all the time.
But most people are either too lazy to check foreign media and use auto-translate or they simply don't care, they just want their Kardashian fix.
Send this article to President Putin via his official site, translated to Russian.
Send in questions to his “meet the people/ask the President” events, small things but i have no other ideas.
Dear Andrei,
Regarding Sputnik and RT websites: i have found that they tend to follow the western “news” system which, for me, is virtually total propaganda, lies and deceit. I find myself incessantly having to “read between the lines” and search through many websites to confirm aspects of stories that are making the rounds. This includes not only political and military “news” on Sputnik and RT (west-leaning propaganda and anti-Russian propaganda as well), but also in fields that are more technical, including what today is called “science”. Coverage is always gven in these fields with an extremely strong (and in my opinion, wrong) slant / bias towards Status Quo thinking from the delusional high priests of Dogma. These are things the West, actually also other nations as well) have been doing for generations in order to control the flow of the narrative in every human field of endeavor using an intellectual “cattle shute” methodology. This keeps us trapped in a zero-sum mind trap.
And, of course, there are the regular articles vying for the basest of human instincts including regular adulation pieces about certain sports figures and, of course, as you said, the UK-style booby-stories / nudity pieces. It seems both Sputnik and RT have become British tabloids. Is this because the population (and politicians, in a kind of self-inflicted head wound) of the West has been trained to be Reality Incapable?
Because of these chronic failures, i tend to disbelieve anything i read on these websites, unless and until i see the same information presented on more reliable websites, such as yours. I always need to connect the dots and see if they make sense. There are very few websites that i consider reliable, even in the loosest sense of the word.
As for Youtube: I am simply disgusted and i feel like i’m living in a nightmarish dystopian virtual reality where “news” is mainly manufactured out of thin ideology rather than reported. Some Youtube videos are good (mostly technical “how to” videos) but it is all so controlled from the political side that i have had the strongest urge on many occasions to throw all my communications technology (smartphone, computer, internet) away and go back to a pre-internet and pre-computing lifestyle, if that’s even possible anymore. However, this is not possible for me, since i am an engineer and i rely on these tools to do my work.
I’m sure there must be an alternative to this Borg-like global system. I’d really like to find or build a door and enter…
I read all three submissions written by Saker “as per instruction”. This one (2021) is mostly doom and gloom, although I can understand the frustration, whereas the posts written and published in 2016 and 2017 are uplifting and entertaining to boot. Granted, I don’t take issue with people revealing something which certainly amounts to a 100% correct observation regarding indifference on Russia’s part towards the importance of Russian counter-propaganda abroad. But, still, I have to say that I find it infinitely preferable watching the immense successes of Russia’s (and China’s) global power projection driving the West right into its own neoliberal gutter and its “leadership” and media absolutely insane with Russophobia rather than Russia/China suffering political defeat in spite of more sincere, professional counter-propaganda in the West. For all the ineptitude on Russia’s part in the information war, the West is getting beaten even if its 99% dearly prefer to remain faithful Ziomedia addicts.
To Nussiminen
With great respect to your intellect, and keep well, K. : )
Cпасибо, Kатерина!
Your posts are definitely resonating with my political sensibilities as well as they are appealing to my tastes for wit and sarcasm.
Living in Sweden, watching the ongoing neoliberal collapse in broad daylight and listening to the nonsense about it from our p••s-poor EU puppets in the government and the media, is entertaining in a sense. Sweden used to be a very peaceful country, but is turning fast into a dystopia of gun violence and hold-ups (foreigners who prefer the quixotic narrative about ’rapefest horrors’ are missing out on what’s happening for real here).
What this evokes in me is a mindful looking back at the 1990s when Russia found herself in this state of free-fall, hailed by Western ideologues as ’End of History’. Well, 30 years later it is the greed, corruption, rot, and all-out malevolent incompetence of these God-awful Euroshmoks (beautiful derogatory term!) and their Pindo kith and kin which can’t be denied. Russia might not be particularly dexterous when it comes to information warfare, but her resilience and political power projection are second to none! Russophobia 24/7 is the due result on the losing side