LOS ANGELES.–Antagonizing 71-year-old President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. press seems obsessed with Russian dissidents or bloggers who run afoul with Russia’s subversion laws, most recently reporting on blogger Igor Girkin recently sentence to four years in hard labor. Girkin, a former Federal Security Serivce [formerly the KGB] and military officer in Donbas after the March 1, 2024 Russian annexation of Crimea. You’d think that Girkin would learn from his 47-year-old fellow dissident Alexi Navalny, serving out a 19 year sentence in a Russian penal colony. Navalny has been an obsession of the U.S. press, recently concerned when he was transferred to a more restrictive penal colony, actually disappearing for a few weeks. What’s different about Girkin was his service in the FSB and Russian military, a sort of insider who went astray with offensive blog posts?
Girkin called Putin in his blogs a “low-life” and “cowardly bum,” showing for all to see he’s gone off the deep end. Girkin sounds more like Yvgeneny Priogzhin who, in a moment of madness, said he was turning his mercenary army against the Kremlin. Prigozhin met his demise in a plane crash Aug. 30, 2023. What’s interesting about the U.S. press is how it focuses on persecution in Russia but ignores the ongoing government persecution of former President Donald Trump. Everyone knows about the 22-month, $40 million Mueller investigation of Trump based on former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 paid opposition research AKA The Steele Dossier. Mueller acquitted Trump or his campaign of conspiring with the Russian federation on the 2016 presidential election. But the U.S. press likes to report on Russian oppression of free speech.
How ironic that the U.S. press concerns itself with press freedom in the former USSR, now the Russian Federation, when there’s plenty to report on in the U.S. How was it possible for the U.S. press to print thousands of stories on Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin yet Mueller acquitted Trump of wrongdoing Feb. 23, 2019? Navalny has declared himself the moral conscience of the Russian state, highlighting Putin’s alleged corruption. Navalny said he wanted to run for Russian president against Putin. Girkin also made similar threats against Putin, instead calling him a “low-life” and “cowardly bum,” defamatory statements showing that Girkin had become unhinged. Girkin was once in good stead with the Russian government, having led a separatist Donetsk militia against the Kiev government, including seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 after a CIA-backed Maiden Revolution.
U.S. obsession with Navalny and now Girkin irks Putin and the Kremlin, if, for no other reason, it’s not the U.S. business. U.S. press accuses Putin of meddling in U.S. elections, insisting that the Kremlin helped Trump get elected in 2016. U.S. press likes to point fingers at Russia for persecuting bloggers and so-called journalists but they don’t hold themselves to the same standards. After Mueller acquitted Trump in 2019, the U.S. press made no effort whatsoever to retract countless stories about Trump’s alleged involvement with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election. U.S. press made no effort to investigate Hillary or the Justice Department, FBI or CIA to find out what rogue elements were involved in perpetrating fraudulent stories
about Trump. Yet when it comes to exposing Russian oppression, the U.S. press highlights Russian dissidents.
U.S. press has a lot to explain how credentialed news organizations, broadcast and print, routinely publish and broadcast stories about Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin. Yet when it comes to Russian dissidents, they highlight how the Russian government throws the book at them. Wall Street Journal [WSJ] reporter Evan Gershkowich rots in a Russian prison over charges spying charges, something denied by the WSJ. Whatever Gershkowich did or didn’t do, Girkin called Putin a “low-life” and “cowardly bum,” both showing he came unhinged. U.S. press or government officials seem more obsessed with Russian internal affairs than patrolling what happens in the U.S. Why is the U.S. journalism community so consumed with seeing former President Donald Trump convicted? U.S. press has rushed to judgment and denied Trump the presumption of innocence on all 91 felony charges.
U.S. press must examine how it serves the Democrat Party in validating the government’s charges against Trump. When it comes to Russian dissidents, the U.S. press reports on the persecution of dissidents like Alexi Navalny and, more recently, Igor Girkin. U.S. Press turned Russian mercenary army leader Yevgeny Prigozhin into a national hero for going insane saying he would turn his militia against Putin and the Russian Federation. When will the U.S. press confess to all the violations of journalistic standards working with the government to convict Trump on all 91 felony charges, not considering, for one minute, that the charges are based on government persecution? U.S. press says nothing about Trump’s years of illegal government investigations and says nothing about the same agencies actually charging him with politically-motivated crimes to interfere
with the 2024 election.
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.
