Two subjects currently dominate Russian media: The “patriotic” excitement over Putin’s “start of returning lost territories back to Russia” and blaming USA for all the “anti–Russian” activity in the world.
Below you’ll find several excerpts from different Russian sources. Some of them are taken from the TV programs most popular in Russia, some are taken from the obscure personal pages on Facebook, but all these excerpts have one thing in common: all of them were re–posted in Russia many times and became the subject of the wide and passionate discussions. They may coincide or not coincide with Russian government position, but they surely reflect the moods of millions of Russians.
Here is the information presented in English to the entire world by the official Russian government TV station “Russia Today”, which claims to be rated #1 on YouTube:
“US foreign aid agencies paid for Kiev street violence – ex-US agent Scott Rickard”
“…US government has been preparing the revolution in Ukraine for years; it’s invested $5 billion so far in the uprising.”
http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/ukraine-revolution-usa-support-246/
On March 21, Margarita Simonian, Chief Editor of the “Russia Today” morning television program, was interviewed by the popular Russian radio program “Special Opinion”. Among other things she said:
“Do you know how many people, these days, days of events in Crimea, when the entire world is yelling that we are villains, how many people, including children, are killed by American drones? You know the figures? It’s a horror! And in Crimea people are not dying!”
Last week the Russian state Rostec Corporation reported that an American scout-attack drone was intercepted in the Crimean sky. The widely quoted by Russian media report from the website of the corporation, reads:
“Judging by side marking, the MQ-5B drone was part of the 66th US brigade of military intelligence with the main location in Bavaria”.
According to the report, at the beginning of March, the American brigade was relocated to the Ukrainian Kirovohrad, from where drones commit reconnaissance raids in the direction of Crimea and Russian border areas. Earlier, they reportedly appeared in the Kherson region. ” This is the second time the American UAV is intercepted over Crimea,” the report says.
“The drone was at the height of about four thousand meters and was practically invisible from the earth. It was possible to break the drone’s link with its American operators with the help of the EW (electronic warfare) complex Avtobaza. As a result, the device made an emergency landing and passed into the possession of the self-defense forces almost unbroken,” the report says.
Here are screenshots of two Russian sites presenting information above.
Russian bloggers did some research and found out that photographs used by the Rostec Corporation were taken from three years old American and international sources and have nothing to do with Crimea and Ukraine.
Last week almost all the Russian websites opposing Putin’s actions were blocked by Internet providers by the government order. So ordinary Russian cannot discover information refuting official propaganda.
These days one may hear in the Moscow streets a lot of imperialistic speeches. But the following, the most outrages statement, was published by the popular web site RUSSIA.RU. This statement was made by a well-known philosopher and political writer Alexander Dugin.
According to Wikipedia, Dugin is an unofficial ideological leader of the ruling party “United Russia”, the head of the Department of Sociology of International Relations of Moscow State University, and a member of the Advisory Board of the chairman of the State Duma of Russia Sergei Naryshkin .
According to a survey, conducted by the site Openspace, Dugin took 36th place among the most influential intellectuals of Russia.
Dugin states: “We need to take over Europe, to conquer and annex…
“The idea of establishing a Russian protectorate over the Europe, a new Byzantine Empire at first glance looks strange. On closer examination it is obvious that this project can not only become a new Russian national idea, but it brings a lot of advantages to both Russia and Europe.”
A screenshot from the site RUSSIA.RU. The sentence under the screen: “To attach Europe – that’s the Russian way!
(The video of this statement: http://www.russia.ru/video/diskurs_14028/)
The following statement was made not on TV, just in private Facebook dialog. But that dialog was copied and reposted by thousands of the Russian Internet users. It was made by Roman Kokorev, a person who introduced himself on Facebook and Linkedin as a Legal and Political Adviser to Russian Parliament and Russian representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Counsel of Europe.
Here is the screenshot of the dialog and translation of the excerpts from it:
Roman Kokorev: “Next step should be the entire Moldova and entire Ukraine!!! After that – all the former territories of USSR. As always happened in the past, today Russia is concentrating! The entire Russian spiritual and military power is completely coming back. Alaska, Baltic countries, Poland, Finland – they all are Russian territories, part of Russia! “
A woman tried to ironically comment Kokorev’s statement. He answered:
“Politics is too deep a subject for a woman to understand. Everything that our ancestors were conquering for centuries obviously belongs to Russia… everything that was lost at 1991 as a result of the capital crime and betrayal of the state. Everything will be return at the proper time.”
The women contradicts Kokarev and then he ends the dialog:
“Your destiny is to wash your husband’s socks and spread your legs, sinful wife, not to speak about global problems”!
This week the “TV–Center”, one of the leading Russian TV channels, has devoted a program to the demands of some Russian activists to return Alaska back to Russia by legal means. It is too long to be translated here, but if you desire you can watch it in Russian.
[youtube KJ94WhG4qdk]
In this frame you see an activist Nicolai Bondarenko, who explains that by giving too much rights to homosexuals US government insulted feelings of Russian Orthodox people of Alaska and it’s the duty of Russian Government to defend those Alaska Russians and to demand the return of Alaska to Russia.
The TV program, that was most discussed in Russia, had been broadcast last weekend at prime time by the official state TV channel “RUSSIA 1”. Dimitry Kyselev, the most prominent Russian TV anchor, who this month was appointed the head of the biggest Russian government news agency, explained to the audience that :
“Russia is the only country in the world that is capable of turning the USA into radioactive ashes”. His speech was supported by the impressive animated illustration.
The sentence on the top of the frame: “Russia had started the way of victory”
The entire program in Russian can be viewed at YouTube:
[youtube egBHLMR8ldI]
Several days ago an animated “maps of Europe 1000 AD to present time ” appeared on the YouTube. I think this map reflects recent feelings of many Russians better than any text.
[youtube aV0OyTSPIO4]
