How Russia Spins Its War in Syria
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janklow
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just gonna keep picking on Russia...
How Russia Spins Its War in Syria
How Russia Spins Its War in Syria
Russia’s direct military intervention on behalf of the Syrian regime has been predictably accompanied by a propaganda offensive from RT, the Kremlin’s flagship English language network.
For years, RT has found Western commentators to criticize Russia’s geopolitical opponents. The rise of Islamic radicals and a U.S. air campaign against Islamic State has fit well into RT’s narrative of Russia as an anti-interventionist nation, and Syria as a victim of foreign-sponsored conspiracies.
At the same time, Russia has actively promoted the extreme right in Europe and America, stoking nativist fears of Syrian immigrants and giving a platform to people who are usually dismissed as extremists in their own countries.
While the presence of mainstream voices on RT has generally balanced out the ultra-right commenters, events over the past few weeks have forced the network to rely increasingly on pundits that are likely to alienate mainstream audiences anywhere.
In short, RT has been struggling to find English-speaking talking heads who support the intervention in Syria. There is a common trend among Western commentators that Russia has dredged up over the past month — a majority of them either work for Russian-sponsored think tanks or have affiliations with the extreme right.
In a bizarre few weeks, RT has hosted Stephen Lendman, a frequent contributor to the blog Veterans Today, which promotes Holocaust denial and has close ties to white supremacists. Lendman had previously claimed that the death of Muammar Qaddafi was faked.
To give a European perspective, RT hosted John Laughland from the Institute for Democracy and Cooperation — a Paris-based pro-Putin think tank headed by Natalia Narochnitskaya, a close colleague of Vladimir Putin. Laughland stated that Syrian refugees are not refugees, and that Aylan Kurdi drowned because he was seeking dental treatment.
From the United States, RT has given a platform to Eric Draitser from Stop Imperialism, a pro-Kremlin website with little purpose besides providing go-to commentary for RT and Iran’s Press TV. Another frequent contributor is Daniel McAdams from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity who has been pushing a highly conspiratorial line.
From the beginning, Russia has characterized its mission in Syria as anti-Islamic State, and RT began its coverage by referring to Russian targets as such. Early indications that Russia was focusing its strikes on Islamic State’s rivals were met with denials by the network, but pro-regime Twitter accounts have not been so subtle, often posting photos of dead fighters who are known to have fought in anti-I.S. rebel groups.
Ad hominems and viral strategies
The network has also resorted to a strategy of ad hominem attacks on the Kremlin’s critics, switching from a hard news formula to a satire formula when facts don’t favor the narrative.
When the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Russian strikes in Homs and other areas explicitly controlled by anti-I.S. rebels, RT dispatched comedian Nimrod Kamer to “get the truth.” The segment relied heavily on insinuation with Kamer showing up at the private home of Rami Abdulrahman, the founder of the SOHR and walking around Coventry with a microphone and implying that Rami was hiding from him.
Blogger Eliot Higgins has reported heavily on Russia’s activities in Ukraine and Syria, which resulted in RT dispatching Kamer yet again to hound him. The network has run numerous hit pieces on the Bellingcat founder but done little to counter the mountain of evidence proving that Russia is providing air support for the regime offensive against anti-I.S. rebels.
The network described both Higgins as “Soros-connected,” a statement that would be quite unusual if not for the relatively strong viewership among American ultra-right audiences. There are underlying tones of anti-Semitism in RT’s coverage, and the network recently aired a deeply weird segment implying Hilary Clinton is backed by a Jewish-Illuminati conspiracy.
RT touts its one billion-plus views, but most of these come from commentary-free clips of natural and man-made disasters. For more politically-oriented issues, RT has often imitated well-known viral videos.
As world leaders met at the U.N. General Assembly, RT featured a segment of one of its journalists walking around New York in a Putin t-shirt, even showing up at a pro-Ukrainian demonstration. Further, RT covered Putin’s birthday hockey game. The Russian leader set up an entire stadium with two teams in which he scored seven goals.
Mission creep
Regime counteroffensives into Hama and other rebel-held territories have resulted in losses, notably of regime tanks destroyed by American and Saudi-supplied TOW missiles. RT has focused heavily on the failure of the U.S. military program that only trained a few dozen fighters who were immediately captured by Jabhat Al Nusra when entering Syria.
A separate CIA program to supply weapons has been more successful, with rebels from the remaining secular divisions of the FSA — most notably Division 13 — fielding a limited number of TOW missiles under the condition that the rebels return the tubes after firing. Saudi Arabia recently supplied 500 more anti-tank weapons.
While the expected regime offensive appears to have mixed results so far, the greatest challenge to the Russian narrative is the undeniable fact that Islamic State has been able to capitalize on it, taking numerous villages north of Aleppo.
The I.S. advances have been dramatic, and American policymakers who were previously wary of arming the opposition have resorted to dropping at least 50 tons of supplies to rebels that are running low on ammunition.
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Comments
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Not surprised, to be honest, I'm not the most informed on the current issues in syria. But russia spinning this to this that degree is insane
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Let's be honest, all sides have used some spin. Russia knows damn well it cannot destroy Islamic State, and everyone knows America can't. And neither side can end the Syrian civil war. I see the wars there lasting about 10 plus years, if America stays involved, much longer. At least Russian actions more or less are (slowly) becoming obvious about its goal of keeping Assad in power, and not much else.
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to be fair, though, this isn't about ISIS; this SPECIFIC article is, but the last one was all about their troll army in general.kingblaze84 wrote: »Let's be honest, all sides have used some spin. Russia knows damn well it cannot destroy Islamic State-
to put it another way: not talking about Russia versus US on Syria here, talking about the way Russia spins this ? as a larger concept. -
to be fair, though, this isn't about ISIS; this SPECIFIC article is, but the last one was all about their troll army in general.kingblaze84 wrote: »Let's be honest, all sides have used some spin. Russia knows damn well it cannot destroy Islamic State-
to put it another way: not talking about Russia versus US on Syria here, talking about the way Russia spins this ? as a larger concept.
Fair enough but all major nations worldwide have troll armies online and in the media, Israel is famous for them, America as well. -
uh... not like Russia's ridiculousness. case in point.kingblaze84 wrote: »Fair enough but all major nations worldwide have troll armies online and in the media, Israel is famous for them, America as well.
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uh... not like Russia's ridiculousness. case in point.kingblaze84 wrote: »Fair enough but all major nations worldwide have troll armies online and in the media, Israel is famous for them, America as well.
Yeah that is pretty ridiculous, never a good look to use fake videos and photographs to push a story or agenda. That goes for when Russia makes stuff up and when America makes stuff up. Like when Americans led the effort in lying about the justifications for getting into Iraq. Or when they lied about justifying the reasons for escalating the war in Vietnam.
http://vietnamfulldisclosure.org/index.php/tonkin-at-50-one-of-those-times-america-lied-to-go-to-war/
The Vietnam War began in earnest 50 years ago this Monday, when two U.S. ships off the coast of Vietnam began shooting at ghosts.
Claiming to have come under attack by the North Vietnamese, the second Gulf of Tonkin incident would eventually prove a hoax. But not before prompting the United States to escalate its policing of South Vietnam to a full-scale war against the North.
Speaking to the public, President Lyndon Johnson said, “As president and commander in chief, it is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply.”
But those “hostile actions” turned out to be nothing at all. As Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer, reporting 30 years ago for the Los Angeles Times, revealed, “a reconstruction of those events, based on once-secret government cables and formerly classified eyewitness accounts, indicates that the attack never occurred.”
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are you physically incapable of discussing anything negative about Russia without IMMEDIATELY ? about "but but but America?"
"yeah, uh, Russia's troll army sucks, i guess, but SOMETHING ABOUT VIETNAM" -
are you physically incapable of discussing anything negative about Russia without IMMEDIATELY ? about "but but but America?"
"yeah, uh, Russia's troll army sucks, i guess, but SOMETHING ABOUT VIETNAM"
My point is, it is bad when ANY nation trolls and makes stuff up. But if you want to focus on Russia for some reason, by all means go ahead. -
...well, this article is about Russia, so yes, the focus here is on Russiakingblaze84 wrote: »My point is, it is bad when ANY nation trolls and makes stuff up. But if you want to focus on Russia for some reason, by all means go ahead. -
What do you think is going to happen now that ISIS blew up the plane. I think strategically not from any allegiance stand point. Russia never really posed a threat to them. So why do something as stupid as making Russia have to retaliate. Putin isn't going to retaliate in the UN or the Media he's going to do it and then deny it he ever did anything. Gonna be good too watch.
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rodneyskinner wrote: »What do you think is going to happen now that ISIS blew up the plane. I think strategically not from any allegiance stand point. Russia never really posed a threat to them. So why do something as stupid as making Russia have to retaliate. Putin isn't going to retaliate in the UN or the Media he's going to do it and then deny it he ever did anything. Gonna be good too watch.
Actually, Russia did bomb ISIS territory, even ISIS has admitted this. They made a video threatening to do it again to Russia for what they have done, and they said worse....Russia will escalate the war and things will get very ? on both sides -
personally, i am still enjoying Putin's "HOW DARE THEY SAY IT WAS A BOMB"/*cancels all flights* combo packagerodneyskinner wrote: »What do you think is going to happen now that ISIS blew up the plane.
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I now full on believe that this entire war in Syria is an attempt by Russia to increase oil prices by destabilizing the middle east even further. Now they are bringing Turkey into destabilizing with an emphasis on the oil. Russia has heavily hit oil supply lines. They've hit twice as many oil tankers as they have hit terrorist targets.
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rodneyskinner wrote: »I now full on believe that this entire war in Syria is an attempt by Russia to increase oil prices by destabilizing the middle east even further. Now they are bringing Turkey into destabilizing with an emphasis on the oil. Russia has heavily hit oil supply lines. They've hit twice as many oil tankers as they have hit terrorist targets.
If isis is gaining most of its profit from oil then what else is the correct response beside cutting off there money lifeline. And lol how are they bringing Turkey in Turkey bought itself in by shooting their jet down -
"Yesterday, the perfidious Chinese aggressor opened fire on a peacefully ploughing soviet tractor at the border. Our tractor instantly returned fire, then took off and flew away."
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The_Jackal wrote: »rodneyskinner wrote: »I now full on believe that this entire war in Syria is an attempt by Russia to increase oil prices by destabilizing the middle east even further. Now they are bringing Turkey into destabilizing with an emphasis on the oil. Russia has heavily hit oil supply lines. They've hit twice as many oil tankers as they have hit terrorist targets.
If isis is gaining most of its profit from oil then what else is the correct response beside cutting off there money lifeline. And lol how are they bringing Turkey in Turkey bought itself in by shooting their jet down
Its international rules that if you engage in someone else territory you get fired upon. You see if the jet is off course it can ? some of its citizens. So you tell it repeatedly and generally the country just escorts the plane back to its base. That was some Ukrainian provocation. The goal is to embarrass Nato. Like its during in the Ukraine to show that US doesn't support its allies.
And if you want to stop the oil from flowing. You blow up the oil mining jobs not the trucks. -
Russia was bullshitting on ISIS until they took that plane down. Now its personal for Putin; his domestic popularity and international prestige is at stake.
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rodneyskinner wrote: »The_Jackal wrote: »rodneyskinner wrote: »I now full on believe that this entire war in Syria is an attempt by Russia to increase oil prices by destabilizing the middle east even further. Now they are bringing Turkey into destabilizing with an emphasis on the oil. Russia has heavily hit oil supply lines. They've hit twice as many oil tankers as they have hit terrorist targets.
If isis is gaining most of its profit from oil then what else is the correct response beside cutting off there money lifeline. And lol how are they bringing Turkey in Turkey bought itself in by shooting their jet down
Its international rules that if you engage in someone else territory you get fired upon. You see if the jet is off course it can ? some of its citizens. So you tell it repeatedly and generally the country just escorts the plane back to its base. That was some Ukrainian provocation. The goal is to embarrass Nato. Like its during in the Ukraine to show that US doesn't support its allies.
And if you want to stop the oil from flowing. You blow up the oil mining jobs not the trucks.
No it's not. Russia planes entered Isreal air space and wasn't gunned down because they know how close the borders are. Beside that doesn't justify shooting diwn a plane that left your airspace after 17 seconds and downing it in Syria. -
The_Jackal wrote: »rodneyskinner wrote: »The_Jackal wrote: »rodneyskinner wrote: »I now full on believe that this entire war in Syria is an attempt by Russia to increase oil prices by destabilizing the middle east even further. Now they are bringing Turkey into destabilizing with an emphasis on the oil. Russia has heavily hit oil supply lines. They've hit twice as many oil tankers as they have hit terrorist targets.
If isis is gaining most of its profit from oil then what else is the correct response beside cutting off there money lifeline. And lol how are they bringing Turkey in Turkey bought itself in by shooting their jet down
Its international rules that if you engage in someone else territory you get fired upon. You see if the jet is off course it can ? some of its citizens. So you tell it repeatedly and generally the country just escorts the plane back to its base. That was some Ukrainian provocation. The goal is to embarrass Nato. Like its during in the Ukraine to show that US doesn't support its allies.
And if you want to stop the oil from flowing. You blow up the oil mining jobs not the trucks.
No it's not. Russia planes entered Isreal air space and wasn't gunned down because they know how close the borders are. Beside that doesn't justify shooting diwn a plane that left your airspace after 17 seconds and downing it in Syria.
Russia planes have been playing this game all over the world. Entering people's airspace trying to provoke a reaction. If you play with fire eventually you get burned.
