“LET’S GET THE POPCORN READY” – RUSSIAN TV COVERS US PROTESTS

The widespread protests in the United States continue to grip the world’s attention, and pro-Kremlin media are no exception. On Russian state-controlled TV channels, reports about developments in US cities come with the usual disinformation tropes and a tinge of thinly-veiled glee: “America got what it deserved”.

Organized protests

“I am watching and I am happy […]. The US is reaping what it sowed”, Russian Duma member Aleksei Zhuravlyov said on June 1 after the host of “60 Minutes”, a political talk-show aired on state-controlled Rossiya-1, showed the photo of a wounded protester in the United States. The politician explained why: he claimed to have seen the “training manuals” according to which such demonstrations were supposed to be organised in Russia. Now, according to him, US Democrats are using similar manuals, prepared by former US President Barack Obama, in their own country. “All these Orange Revolutions are the creation of US Democrats”, concluded Zhuravlyov.

The advantage of conspiracy theories is that they don’t need any evidence to spread. In fact, the absence of evidence is frequently presented as proof that something is hidden from the public. The opposite works as well – with a serious face and an alarmist tone, anything can be presented as “evidence” of some sinister plot.

State-run Channel 1 (Pervy Kanal) recently used this tactic to convince its audiences that the US protests were staged. On June 3, the political talk-show “Time Will Tell” (Vremya Pokhazhet) scrutinised the symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement – a raised fist – and compared it to similar symbols that appeared in other countries throughout the years. The apparent similarities between the images of clenched fists were presented as evidence that “the process was controlled” and that the instructions to protest came from George Soros and the Democratic majority.

In fact, the raised fist used by the Black Lives Matter movement was inspired by the Black Panther Party, which used it as a symbol of black liberation in the 1960s. The symbol has a long history as a sign of defiance and solidarity, and it has been used by multiple groups on a number of occasions throughout history, including Nelson Mandela and fans of the Northern Soul dance and music movement in Britain. Claims that universal symbols of resistance and solidarity are proof of a conspiracy by the political elite show how alien and anxiety-ridden these topics are for the pro-Kremlin media.

You can read the whole article here.

Source: EUvsDisinfo