Yulia Vityazeva: ARD’s double standards show hypocrisy of EU’s MSM

The most amusing article appeared in one of the German federal media, ARD, about “how controlled Russian media spread fake news and attack the West.”

In principle, nothing new. The same old song that, “using Western politicians loyal to Russia, the Kremlin is seeking to destabilize the West to such an extent that Western communities will be forced to deal with their own growing problems and not pay attention to what Russia is doing.”

Agree, this is great! Following this miraculous logic in every sense, any negative event in the West covered in the Russian media is (no more, no less) – an attempt to destabilize the situation and almost interfere in the internal affairs of Europe and the USA.

And here I have a feeling of cognitive dissonance. For I know very well how closely the West monitors events in Russia and how thoroughly it covers them. The Russian service of Deutsche Welle and Radio Liberty will not allow to derail.

But when all the Western media conduct an online broadcast of the Navalny rallies and quickly publish photos of the detainees on the front pages and record every stroke with a baton of riot police, this is normal.

When RT conducts a live broadcast of the riots in Paris – this is interpreted as an attempt to influence the situation and the French Foreign Ministry is already telling journalists about the investigation into Russia’s alleged influence on the protest movement of the “yellow vests”.

And this is just one example. Russian services of the Western media daily cover at least two dozen Russian news. Moreover, almost always giving them a subjective assessment and distorting the facts. Special attention is paid to everything that can once again be used both to destabilize the situation inside Russia and to create a negative image of our country in the West.

Moreover, almost all “newsmakers” on these resources suffer from varying degrees of Russophobia. Representatives of the so-called opposition and those who actively cooperate with Western NGOs are invited as experts in 99 cases out of 100.

When in Russia they refer to the opinion of representatives of the Western opposition, this is perceived as a blatant attempt to “shatter the situation”. Those. interviewing Kasparov and replicating him as an “opinion of an opposition politician” on the German wave is normal and there is no interference in the internal affairs of Russia.

But as soon as an interview with representatives of the same AdG appears in the Russian media, this is immediately announced by propaganda and an attempt to kindle and reinforce doubts in German society regarding the current government.

Another example. When an openly Russophobic “forum of free Russia” or Kara-Murza on the Voice of America and in the US Senate is held in Vilnius, it muddles Russian power – this does not bother anyone.

But it is worth it to the sane Western politician to come to the Crimea or the Donbass and make a statement that questions all the horror stories that are spread by Western propaganda – they are immediately ostracized and recorded in the “agents of the Kremlin.”

What else I would like to point out is how easily diagnoses are made. If AdG in Germany opposes early sex education, implanted in preschool institutions, and this initiative is supported by the Russians living in the Federal Republic of Germany, this becomes an occasion to declare this party a “mouthpiece of the Kremlin.”

Moreover, if a Western politician allows himself to speak positively about Russia, he will soon be in trouble.

The head of the Kvakenbrück City Council, Andreas Maurer, who advocates for the abolition of Western sanctions against Russia and for recognizing Crimea as a Russian territory, was found guilty of falsifying the 2016 elections in his homeland in 2018. Well, just like that, yes.

Andreas Maurer is known for having twice traveled to the Crimea, visited the Donbass, participated in talk shows on Russian television, and also met with Vladimir Putin and biker Alexander Zaldostanov, nicknamed the Surgeon.

Andreas is also a frequent guest on the News Front , which, according to German propaganda, is an aggravating circumstance.

This time, according to ARD, by publishing articles and news about what is happening in the world, News Front “establishes half-truths and conspiracy theories in the world.” And the staff of our editorial staff see themselves as – a quote – “Information warfare volunteers.”

Those when the Western media covers (often biased and one-sided) news from Russia is just journalism.

When the Russian media are interested in how the West lives on the domestic political plane – this is an information war. Which, of course, you need to condemn and stop in every way, without disdaining any methods.

The moral of this fable is as simple as five cents: what the West has to do is not just not allowed to Russia, but is also interpreted as an attempt to use any dissatisfaction of Western society to destabilize the situation and even war. Moreover, it is not informational.

by Yulia Vityazeva