During this last week, most of the reaction from Russian news media to the conclusion of the Russiagate (hoax) investigation was rather factually based, simply with reports on what happened, and the reactions of people within the United States.
However, there certainly is a reaction to this mess from the halls of power in Russia, and on March 27, Maria Zakharova, the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, gave hers on Russia One’s Vesti News’ program 60 Minutes. She had a lot to say:
Her response in a nutshell, encapsulates the scope of what will come – even more discussion and investigations, because each side did not get a total win.
While the summary report written by AG William Barr and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein does clear the President of any culpability in any sort of wrongdoing, the sore losers want to reverse the course of this outcome in any way possible. But Mrs. Zakharova gives the proper reaction to this whole mess at about [01:38] when she simply begins laughing at the whole mess about how now Mueller himself may become the target of the investigation.
The rest of the report is a montage of American media in their efforts to impugn the American President at whatever cost.
The reaction of the Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman is priceless.
“They are a team of the best people in the country. They are the American propagandists as they are. No more, no less. Now, you can [know] how it is done. The entire team, headed be Fareed Zaharia, by the way… we are talking about propagandists. We are talking about the people who pretend to be journalists… they probably should all apologize now.“
And then, this:
“This information, pardon my French, riff-raff [according to the translation], has been making the anti-Russian information agenda for two years already. They should apologize for that. Even more than that – we are not going to let them get away with this.
We are going to analyze all of this. We are going to cut out those quotes from those wonderful TV programs where they tried to convince the audience that there was collusion between Trump and Russia. All these propagandist words, gestures, methods, will be cut out, formalized and sent to where they are supposed to [be sent] – to the international agencies… I mean the OCSE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). We will present this to a wider audience.
And then some wit and not a little sarcasm:
I think the world should recognize its heroes. Even more than that, Fareed Zakaria, after the American audience got rid of Charlie Rose… who fell victim to an anti-harassment campaign; I mean, after they got rid of the man who knew as much as Charlie Rose did, Fareed Zakaria is the best they have now in the field of international journalism, because he surely knows how names of different countries are pronounced.
We used to work with this man, about seven or eight years ago when the events in Syria only started to unwind, and those same people were accusing Russia of all sorts of evils… Sergey Lavrov gave an interview to Fareed Zakaria in New York concurrent to the (on the margins of [sic]) the UN General Assembly.
[And,] what do you think? One would think that Syria was the central topic and Russia was accused of everything about it. There was no Trump or election at that moment; this was about seven or eight years ago. What do you think happened to the interview?
All of the crucial points representing the Russian stance toward Syria were cut out by Mr. Zakaria. The propaganda machine crashed on its own iceberg of this very propaganda… They have not yet [said sorry to anyone], but believe me, we are not going to leave it like this.
All of this has been put into the annals of history, and I think all of this should be published and presented to a broader audience.
And then, waxing sarcastic again, Mrs. Zakharova suggest that all of the quotes and excerpts of, presumably the Mueller event, probably Syria too, would make a nice yearbook.
The anchors of 60 Minutes also noted that Russian journalists and Russia itself have a bad reputation, as if they were the main violators of international law, and there is a fascinating rundown of the matters of President Trump recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, and the concurrent thought that this would lead to a recognition of Crimea’s being part of the Russian Federation.
One of Maria Zakharova’s most salient points is that while the Americans constantly accuse Russia of trying to interfere with the USA’s foreign policy, that policy itself is not consistent from presidential term to presidential term. President Obama had the opposite stance on the Golan Heights as does Mr. Trump. But before Obama, each president had his own take and they were not consistent. Her question, “What does Russia have to do with this?”
It is interesting that Zakharova fingers Fareed Zakaria as a main culprit in the propaganda attack. It is unclear why she thinks he takes a leading position in this, but it is possible that she is using his deliberate scrubbing of the Syria interview as an example of how the American press works. She IS correct, for they do indeed use whatever supports the narrative they wish to brainwash their readers and viewers with. Perhaps that is the point.
It seems clear that the Russian government is not interested in just taking all this abuse any more than President Trump is. If Maria’s thoughts get put into reality, while Western Europe is likely to try to block Russia’s statements about all this, there is a good possibility that the Russian viewpoint will be understood and accepted – not by the political élite, but by the regular people of Germany, Greece, Turkey, other countries that have been gradually softening their stance towards their eastern neighbor, and, despite NATO membership, have been entering into business arrangements with Russia.
It does seem like there is some justice to this. Russia has been the scapegoat of the West for a very long time, and during that time it both took the criticism, politely refuting it, but all the while slowly getting stronger. It may be that the time has come for the Bear to speak out loudly and firmly, that the time for this mistreatment is over.
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