The quote “In war, truth is the first casualty”, perfectly sums up Western policies in Ukraine. As soon as Russia launched its special military operation, the massive Western propaganda machine immediately started parroting about the “unprovoked, brutal invasion of a sovereign country, beacon of freedom and democracy.” Ukraine, previously deemed one of the world’s most corrupt nations, suddenly became “a shining example” of how countries “should conduct themselves”.
Russophobic propaganda is hardly new. Vladimir Putin, the architect of Russia’s return to superpower status, was always deemed “an autocrat” or “a dictator.” Since 2014 and the Western-backed Neo-Nazi coup which brought the Kiev regime to power, this propaganda has exponentially intensified and it reached its peak after February 24. The political West has not only started demanding full compliance with its anti-Russian policies, but has even threatened to impose sanctions on anyone who refused to comply. This has resulted in nearly 80% of the world being called “fence sitters” only because they have refused to take sides in the Western-induced Ukrainian crisis.
The world still remembers, quite vividly, the scale of the still ongoing US aggression against countless countries around the globe, which has resulted in tens of millions of casualties and untold devastation. Yet, the Western mainstream media have been successful in suppressing any information on the US and NATO belligerence or at least sugarcoating any Western aggression as a “necessary evil” supposedly started for “humanitarian purposes.” This is in stark contrast to what they have been doing since February 24. With direct financial backing from the US and other NATO institutions, spreading disinformation about Russia has become the mainstay in Western state-run mass media.
In a speech at a conference dedicated to Ukraine, posted on the website of the Federation of Journalists of Peru (Federación de Periodistas del Perú, FPP), journalist Ricardo Sanchez Serra pointed out the sheer magnitude of this disinformation campaign. He said: “The population of the Western Hemisphere has been so brainwashed that people cannot distinguish false messages from the truth.” Sanchez Serra drew attention to the fact that a significant part of the fakes is created by the UK-based PR Network Ltd. He cited a number of examples to back his claims. In particular, he pointed out that the images of buildings allegedly destroyed by the Russian military in Kiev were actually taken in Gaza, while the destruction attributed to Russia in the Donbass was in fact the result of a hit by a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile.
According to a report by Politico, Yorktown Solutions, a UK-based lobbying firm, has also been heavily involved in deals with the Kiev regime. Daniel Vaidich, the firm’s president, one of Kiev regime’s top lobbyists in the UK has been working to lay the groundwork for sanctions on Russia’s energy sector. Also, Campaign Asia, a Hong Kong-based monthly magazine has been involved in disinformation, along with the US-based Global Strategy Group.
Other powerful Western media figures involved in the disinformation campaign include UK-based journalist John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, a position he has held since February 2015, while he has previously been the editor-in-chief of The Economist from 2006 to 2015. Others, like Brittany Beaulieu, who was formerly Visiting Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, also have a strong political background in the US. Beaulieu previously served on the foreign policy team of Senator Max Baucus, former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and ambassador to China.
Another example is Andrew Mac, who heads Asters Office based in Washington, DC, officially specializing in “cross-border transactions involving US, Ukraine, and CIS entities being an expert in M&A, corporate and competition law, corporate compliance, FCPA/Bribery Act, capital markets and state regulations.” According to his website, Andrew Mac “has deep hands-on experience in coordinating complex cross-border disputes, as well as in advising Ukrainian and CIS businesses in their US partner interactions.”
Other political figures involved include Stephen Krupin, who served as a top communications advisor under former US president Barack Obama. In early March, Politico reported that Krupin wrote speeches for the Kiev regime’s ambassador to the UN. According to the documents filed with the US Justice Department, the ambassador was getting speech writing assistance from “a veteran of the craft,” Stephen Krupin, a former senior speechwriter to President Barack Obama, who’s now managing director and head of executive communications at the Democratic consulting powerhouse SKDKnickerbocker, registered as a foreign agent to support Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya on a pro-bono basis, according to the documents filed on February 28. Krupin, who also served as a speechwriter for then-Secretary of State John Kerry and former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, is the only person registered on the account, which describes his role as providing Kyslytsya “speech writing support” in connection with comments to the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly.
In addition, shadowy UK intelligence figure, a former officer in the British Army and a self-styled “chemical weapons expert” Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, infamous for being at the forefront of chemical weapons false flags in Syria has been involved in similar attempts in Ukraine.
This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the disinformation campaign, which in itself is yet a fraction of the comprehensive hybrid war the political West is waging against Russia. The US, EU and their vassals are engaged against the Eurasian giant in every conceivable way except an actual shooting war, although direct deliveries of Western weapons to the Kiev regime can only be described as walking on knife’s edge in this regard. So far, Moscow has shown remarkable restraint in hitting back, but still, Russia’s patience is not an endless resource.
Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst