BTW Steve, I’d be interested to know your thoughts about Putin’s mission in Syria? Some people here do have a grudging respect for the way he has hammered the rebels (at least some of whom were fairly nasty Islamist extremists) into submission, more or less. This in contrast to Obama’s dithering…
That might be a subject for another Youtube video perhaps - if you haven’t done so already? 
(And maybe you could do some of these political punchy pieces in French too?)
If you would like to know why the Russians like D. Trump but don’t know Russian, now you can read the English version of my article, made by Tim Coyle:
Russians like Trump because their television, essentially Kremlin controlled, tells them to. If Russian TV changes their tune, Russians will dislike Trump for the same reason they dislike Obama, because they are told to by their TV. For a glimpse of how Russian TV manipulates, distorts and creates the news, for those who understand French and Russian, check out this video.
RFI: Когда самый крупный российский телеканал манипулирует визуальной информацией - Le Petit Journal
RFI на русском
Steve, if one were going to play the devil’s advocate here, it might be debated whether it isn’t rather patronising to suggest that “Russians” are all naively sitting in front of their TV sets and uncritically swallowing whatever official line is being proffered to them.
I imagine there must still be a lot of folks alive today in Russia who can very well remember the Soviet era, right? I guess they’re not exactly going to be unfamiliar with the concept of state lies and propaganda? Many of them will perhaps be extremely adept at seeing through it.
Of course it is possible that continual media coverage in a particular direction will have some kind of influence on many of the people most of the time. But can we be sure that this isn’t also true of the coverage of Russia that we are getting from many parts of the Western media??
It seems to me that Russia (and especially Putin personally) are virtually demonised by, for example, the BBC and many mainstream newspapers here in Britain. There may be some parts of our media which cover Russian affairs in a scrupulously fair and unbiased way, but it certainly looks to me as if they are the minority.
And no, of course I’m not suggesting that the BBC is exactly analogous to Russian state controlled TV. The BBC is not under any direct editorial control from our government (though there is inevitably some influence from the people who ultimately control the pursestrings, I suppose.) And also it would be incorrect to say that the BBC broadcasts out-and-out propaganda. But their coverage can often be (more or less subtly) tendentious and one-sided all the same.
Fine. But does this mean the whole thing is sucked up hook line and sinker by the viewing public?
Many members of the general public (in all parts of the world) may be more critical, and open minded to consider all sides of an issue than they are often given credit for, wouldn’t you say?
I agree with you, Jay. But your analysis seems to mostly back up Steve’s point: many media manipulate news and a lot of people fall for it, both in the “West” and in the “East”. Not everybody, of course, but more than enough to create a general trend, such as the one mentioned in Evgeny’s podcast or the acritical demonisation of Putin in the west.
The bottomline is: Why are there a lot of people supporting Trump in Russia? To a large extent because their TV tells them to.
Why are there so many people hating Putin in the “West”? To a large extent because that’s what their media say.
There is a fundamental difference between media in the West and in Russia, a very important one. Please check out the link I included in my previous post. It is not possible that a Western media source would fabricate and distort to this extent, without this becoming a major scandal.
Of course there are sloppy prejudiced,inaccurate journalist etc, in the West, and newspapers and TV channels with an agenda. But there are checks and balances, many different perspectives, within countries and between countries. No Western government can exercise control over its media the way the Russian government does, (with a few exceptions, becoming fewer and fewer…Note RBK recently shut down).
The result is healthy debate in the West, a variety of opinions and competing political parties.
Jay, until you spend a few hours watching and understanding Russian mainstream TV you have no idea how powerful this propaganda message is, and to suggest that a majority of people are not easily influenced by this kind of manipulated information is to ignore the history of some of the more “cultured” countries of Europe in the past century, once the government took control of the media.
@Steve
@Ftornay
Guys, I’m not by any means unaware of what propaganda is all about! Back in my student days I had the doubtful privilege of taking part in seminars about propaganda of the Third Reich and DDR (In this connection I wrote papers on Goebbels speeches, and watched vile anti-semitic films like “Jud Süß”, etc.)
IMO Putin is, by comparison, pretty darned tame. Still I am not uncritical of him - even if I do feel skeptical as to whether he is any worse than the leaders of, for example, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China? (All of whom are people our leaders are happy to cosy up to…)
What I don’t buy into is the narrative of Russia as fearsome aggressor or as general threat to world peace. It seems to me that Putin’s actions (or re-actions) in foreign policy terms are narrowly focussed on the national interests of Russia - and to that extend ought to be predictable and understandable?
I completely agree with you on this point.
As for the impact of Russian media manipulation on issues such as Trump’s popularity and many others, I think Steve’s correct.
I don’t like to discuss the politican issues because it has no sense - and everyone supportys his own opinion. That’s why I only drscribe the real processes in my country without supporting one ot another position.
But I saw this clip that suggests Steve - it’s a rude anty- Putin propaganda and nothing more!..
I’m not the fan of D. Kisserljow’s “Вести недели” and moreover this journalist, but instead of the critics of the program the French moderator shows 4 times(!!!) the portrait of Putin in order to blame and demonize Putin though I’m sure that Putin can’t follow all acrivities in the country. He isn’t a God!
By the way, RBK exists and didn’t ‘shut down’.
Who would like to have some more objective picture of the politican situation inj Russia can watch tyhe political talk shows (like there were Shuster’s in Ukraine) - Вечер с Соловьевым на РТР, и на первом “Политика”, " Структура момента". (they are easy to find in YouTube)
You can be against the position of the moderators, but they invite the people with different points of view including liberals and acting politologues from Ukraine.
I respect your opinion, but if you are going to call Steve’s position rude, then you should also call your own article rude. Personally, I don’t think either one of you are; you are both just passionate about what you believe in.
No, no, I think the position of the French moderator is rude against Putin, showing several times his portrait as if Putin made this clumsy interview.
I think he means that the French program that Steve provided a link to is rude, not Steve’s position.
Sorry evgueny40, I didn’t read your post carefully. I understand now.
This article is very much a political article, and as such is welcome in the Russian library at LingQ. It is very representative of how many Russians view the world, the US,and the right to independent policy of former Soviet Republics. However, I don’t think that this kind of article, translated into clumsy English, is appropriate for our English library, as I have said before.
The French TV program was not rude. It used the picture of Putin since the Russian TV channel who put out this clumsy distortion of the truth, belongs to the Russian state. It is understood that in Russia, the state owned and state controlled media is not independent of Putin. The use of Putin’s picture is a mild form of political satire.Quite common in most countries.
Soloviov is at least as much of a rabble rousing propagandist as Kisilyov. Not much to choose. I have seen a monologue by Soloviov where he denigrates Ukrainians, pointing out that they are even genetically different from Russians, yet claims Russia should take the country, or words to that effect. All this to massive applause from the audience.
Those programs you mention where Ukrainians, or others with unpopular views, are invited are not like ShusterLive on Ukrainian TV. Not even close in tone. The unpopular guests are shouted down in scenes resembling a verbal lynch mob, at least the ones that I have seen.
All the editorial staff and senior management of RBK were fired for their editorial position. This is only one in a series of similar shutdowns and harassments of independent media, as you know well.