So, Vladimir holds a big pep rally, Donald Trump style. I'm surprised there weren't "Ukrainians for Putin" placards being waved among the sea of Russian flags. What is becoming very clear is that Russia and the never-ending Trump campaign operate from the same playbook. Who wrote it is anyone's guess? I assume Russia, or at least operatives like Paul Manafort, who play both sides of the coin.
If you remember, Manafort helped engineer Yanukovych's presidential campaign in Ukraine, starting in 2004 and ultimately succeeding in 2010. One assumes this was all done with Putin's blessing, as Russia badly wanted to end the Orange Revolution once and for all, restoring a Soviet-style government that had been in place before. Manafort's success was short-lived, as so much anger spilled over from that election that Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, which in turn led to Putin's first incursion into Ukraine that winter, snipping off Crimea and leaving the Donbas region in a perpetual state of civil war, figuring that would occupy the new Ukrainian government for a while.
Manafort is one in a long line of Republican strategists that have no scruples when it comes to where their funding comes from. Useful idiots, one might call them, but in 2016 Manafort helped stage what was arguably the greatest upset in American electoral history. So, one can never discount the savvy of these operatives, and they already seem to be working hard to try to restore Putin's image after what can only be regarded as catastrophic failure in Ukraine.
Most likely it is Dmitri Peskov, who organized this rally, and has been busy hitting the media sites in an effort to cast Biden as the unhinged one, saying that his remarks against Putin are "fueled by irritation, fatigue and forgetfulness." The same sort of criticisms that were leveled against Biden during the 2020 campaign.
Peskov is a wily propagandist. I first read about him in Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, a book by Peter Pomerantsev, which outlines how the Kremlin took over the national media and turned into the mouthpiece for Putin. A relatively naive Pomerantsev arrived in Moscow in the early 2000's hoping to make his mark in Russian television, only to discover the massive overhaul taking place. It not only affecting the news but all the entertainment programming as well. Everything should serve the state. Peskov is widely considered to be the "architect" of this reconstruction effort that saw a virtual end to independent media.
For years, Peskov has been popping up on Western media. I saw him on Hardtalk some years back, artfully evading Stephen Sackur's pointed questions. He has a silver tongue and unlike Sergei Lavrov a smooth countenance. Pomerantsev described him as the kind of guy who can easily seduce you into thinking he has everyone's best interests in mind.
Putin himself is not so gifted linguistically. Often blunt and hard edged, he relies heavily on persons like Peskov to shape his image abroad. It didn't take too much burnishing, as Americans had fallen in love with autocratic leaders. Who else to carry the banner of traditional values that they so much wanted restored in their country. Same in Europe, although not quite on as large a scale. The image of a bare-chested Vladimir on a hunting trip in Siberia was perfect for the toxic masculinity that was on full display in the conservative right wing. He gained many fans among conservative he-men like Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris, all of who have business interests in Russia. The only problem, was how to sell liberals on Putin.
Hence RT, formerly Russia Today, was created, drawing favored Lefties like Julian Assange, who have been running programs on the propaganda network since 2012. When Kremlin operatives hacked the DNC computer network in 2015 and 2016, all the juicy information immediately found its way to Wikileaks, which gives you a pretty good idea who had been supporting Assange all along. I think in most cases, these Lefties were "useful idiots" for Russia, still aligning themselves with the old socialist ideology of the Soviet Union. This is certainly the case with Oliver Stone, who gave us The Putin Interviews in 2017, and Stephen Cohen, whom Jonathon Chait rakes over the coals in this article. Fortunately, RT will no longer be quite so pervasive an influence as it has been over the last 15 years, but I imagine it will still find a gullible Western audience.
I suppose this is why Sergei Lavrov decried what he saw as a concerted American effort to undermine its "influence" in the West. In a recent Russian news conference, he seemed more peeved by this than he did the military support the US and other NATO countries were giving Ukraine. In Lavrov's addled mind, the US has made European countries into vassal states, pointing to Germany, which had cut Nord Stream 2 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. How else to explain this incredible show of unity among Western nations.
For the past two decades, Russia has been enjoying an incredible amount of influence in the West, shaping its political discourse by promoting both Right-Wing and Left-Wing politicians in an effort to play both sides against the middle. It worked amazingly well in countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Greece. The Kremlin even appeared to consider the surprise victory of the Social Democrats in Germany a plus given they had first negotiated Nord Stream with the Social Democrats way back in 2005. Olaf Sholz's about face on Nord Stream 2 came as a major shock to Putin.
It didn't matter how much Eastern European countries complained about the malignant influence Russia had on European politics, Western European leaders still believed Putin was a man who could be reasoned with, even after his first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Angela Merkel and other notable EU leaders continued to work with Putin much to the chagrin of Eastern European leaders.
All that came to a head on February 24. It didn't matter that Scholz and Macron both made personal appeals to Putin directly in Moscow, or that virtually all other European leaders contacted him by phone, he went through with his invasion just the same. It was now clear Putin no longer could be reasoned with. He never was. He just made himself appear as such.
It will be exceedingly difficult to overhaul this blackened image of Putin. He's not even really a tough guy anymore. His armed forces have failed miserably in Ukraine, unable to take over any of the major cities after three weeks of intense battle. Russia has set up field hospitals and crematoriums for the massive number of wounded and dead soldiers in Belarus. The US military conservatively estimates the Russian death toll to be around 7000, far more than in Russia's notorious wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Out of frustration, Putin now launches cruise missiles from the safety of Russia, Belarus and the its territorial waters of the Black Sea, fearing his planes might get shot down if they cross into Ukrainian air space. Hardly the kind of military offensive that implies strength. Even his pep rally in Moscow wasn't without its technical failures. So, both his tough guy and pragmatic images have been shattered. That's a lot of work for Lavrov and Peskov to do in the coming weeks. The only problem is that no one respects them anymore either.
Russia is now truly isolated from the West, no longer able to effectively shape political discourse. It must give Biden a great measure of satisfaction to hear Lavrov blame this "loss of influence" on him, when it is simply a case of Western Europe finally waking up to what Putin really stands for. The Kremlin now has no choice but to turn inward, hold massive pep rallies in an effort to manufacture Russian unity while many Russians leave the country out of fear of a massive economic collapse. "Scum and traitors," Putin calls them. "We need to cleanse ourselves." Donald Trump couldn't have said it any worse himself.
Comments
Post a Comment