Sunday, April 3, 2016

Paul Robinson — Some thoughts on the Putin corruption story

Those in the anti-Putin camp, which includes most of the West, will take the Mossack Fonseca leaks as corroboration of their belief that Putin heads a kleptocratic system, the sole purpose of which is to enrich those governing Russia. They will assume that Roldugin could not have acted without Putin’s knowledge and that his companies are merely fronts which Putin uses to hide his corruptly acquired billions. This image of Putin will strengthen the hand of those who maintain that Western states must take a hard line against the ‘Putin regime’ and work with liberal forces within Russia in order to bring about ‘regime change’.
On the other side, those who support Putin, both in Russia and outside it, will wonder why, when the leaks contain information about scores of prominent figures around the world, the Western media is focusing so relentlessly on Putin when reports say that the documents in question don’t mention him even once. They will point out that Roldugin’s activities have not been shown to be illegal and that any connection with Putin is pure speculation. They may even ask why headlines give such prominence to Putin and not to Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, given that the leaked material does mention Poroshenko and says that he went ‘so far as to arguably violate the law twice, misrepresent information and deprive his country of badly needed tax dollars during a time of war.’ No doubt Russians will conclude that the answer is that the Western media is determined to blacken Putin’s name no matter what the facts.…
Irrussianality
Some thoughts on the Putin corruption story
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

2 comments:

Kaivey said...

Western propaganda is absolute. Paul Craig Roberts is right, we live in the matrix. Were don't notice it because we are brought to with it all our lives. All good and effective propaganda has some truth to it.

MRW said...

nivekvb, some do notice it. And hear it. We have the luxury of being able to listen to Russian analyst Stephen Cohen every Tuesday night on WABC-AM RADIO on the John Batchelor Show for an hour. Erudite, plain-speaking, no bullshit, always discusses what just happened that week, compelling. http://johnbatchelorshow.com Cabbies and evening shift worker-bees can hear him too.

You might be able to get it in London (6-hour time diff I think so it would be around 3 AM your time, if live). You can, at least, listen to the podcasts after the fact. NB: I find Batchelor's site difficult to navigate to get the right podcast, but bear with it.

Cohen dispels the Putin bullshit we hear in the news with fresh insight. Cohen is around 75 years old now. Unlike those ‘reporting’ the so-called news, this guy speaks Russian, has taught Russian history and international relations at Princeton and NYU, has lived in Russia for stretches at a time, and goes there currently once a year at least. Cohen has been on WABC every Tuesday night for three years. According to Neilsen, John Batchelor’s ratings have “gone through the roof” as a result.

I don’t miss them. [Ditto joe Bastardi’s free Saturday Weather Summaries (forecasts) on weatherbell.com. Been listening to them for almost three years, and he has *rarely* been wrong with his forecasts that extend six-nine months out. Learned a shitload about meteorology. weatherbell.com is a fee-based service for companies and local govts that rely upon accurate future weather reports to plan energy and emergency services and needs. Bastardi co-founded Accuweather in the 80s, I think, or was it The Weather Channel?]