Speculating about 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin running again in 2024, the U.S. and European press can’t be trusted to give any factual account of Russia. When it comes to the Ukraine War, how many times can the Western press report that Putin has a terminal illness or Alzheimer’s Disease? When it comes to Ukraine War, the Western press reports about the imminent collapse of the Russian army from its depleted military, supplies and impending bankruptcy of the Russia economy, all because of sanctions imposed by the United State and European Union. When it comes to propaganda, no one does it better than the Western press, committed to fake narratives not reporting facts in real news. When will the public demand facts not fictional accounts all part of war propaganda to advance the Western narrative that Putin is bad and the West is good?
When it comes to Putin running in next year’s Russia presidential election, Western narrative, largely coming from Ukraiine’s 37-year-old propaganda minister Kyrlyo Budanvov, that Putin is near death and Russia is near collapse. When it comes to Western propaganda, no one does it better than the British press, consumed with payback over Putin’s occasional assassinations or attempts inside Britain. “The president has not yet announced that he will nominate his candidacy,” said Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov. In the old Soviet system and now the Russian Federation, elections are typically fixed by the Kremlin, rubber-stamping Putin’s wishes. So, when it comes to Western criticism of Russian elections, there’s much deserved but that’s the way it is in today’s Russia. Western press should not adopt the same corrupt attitude only reporting fake news about Russia.
All the fake reports from Kiev are repeated by the U.S. press that Putin suffers from a terminal illness or that the Russian military is near collapse underscores the corrupt nature of the U.S. press. Years of fake reporting about former President Donald Trump’s ties to the Kremlin should remind Western news consumers that the press has a narrative to tell, not simply reporting facts of news stories. “But if we assume that the president stands as a candidate, the it is obvious that there can be no real
competition for the president at this current stage,” Peskov said, admitting that Russian elections are fixed, different from the West. Parliamentary systems, like in the U.K., don’t have popular votes for its government leaders. Prime Ministers are picked by the British parliament, not by popular vote. So, when it comes to “democracy,” the public usually plays a minor role.
Peskov points out that the Russian public overwhelmingly backs Putin. Only in the Western press do they fabricate stories about Russian consensus, telling readers that the Russian public really supports dissidents like jailed Alexi Navalny, currently serving 19-years in a Russia penal colony. If you ask the Western press, they’ll tell you the Russian people back Navalny, or, more recently, the late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, recently killed in an aircraft crash. If you followed Prigozhin’s story in the Western press, he was a national revolutionary hero seeking to topple Putin. That kind of rubbish routinely goes for Western journalism, when Prigozhin’s real story was one of a mental breakdown. Prigozhin didn’t seek to topple Putin, he simply had a breakdown and made stupid mistakes that cost him his life. But if you read the U.S. press, Prigozhin was a revolutionary hero.
When it comes to the recent G20 summit in New Delhi, the conference communiqué failed to satisfy 80-year-old President Joe Biden who wanted the group to back his Ukraine proxy war against the Kremlin. India’s Prime Minister Nerenda Modi made clear that all parties want peace in Ukraine but did not take sides. Modi and other G20 leaders don’t take sides because they have long diplomatic histories with the U.S. and Russia. If Biden chooses proxy war using Ukrainian troops against the Kremlin, then it’s a U.S. decision, not one for the G20. Yet the Western press sought to present the Ukraine War as a morally righteous war against the Russian Federation. Most G20 leaders want the war to end, pushing combatants into peace talks. Biden and Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky show no signs of ending the conflict through peace talks.
Biden finds his Ukraine proxy war increasingly isolated from the world community. While the U.K. still backs the U.S. effort publicly, members of parliament want the conflict settled at the earliest possible time. Members of the European Union also have had enough of Biden’s conflict with Putin, especially of the economic fallout from a Russian oil embargo. When it comes to Putin’s 80% popularity, Biden has pushed the Russian people to rally behind their leader. Biden wished he had the support of China and India but obviously the U.S. is on its own. China and India have long historic and current economic ties to the Kremlin, something the U.S. isn’t likely to break. Chinese President Xi Jinping, another leader without free democratic elections, understands Putin’s frustration with Washington. Xi sees Biden breaching the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, requiring the U.S. to recognize only one China.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
