Inquiring minds might ask: If a nation’s leader lies, would not the media that he directly controls lie too? Just how much of the Russian TV and print media’s 24/7 coverage of rampaging Ukrainian extremists, swastika-bearing neo-Nazis, pro-Ukrainian thugs beating Russian speakers, “Right Sector” extremists gunning down unarmed civilians at a checkpoint, and joyous Crimeans welcoming their Russian saviors is fabricated? How much of it is real? The answer: Very little, if any. But it is successful nonetheless.
It should be noted that Mr. Putin, as a young KGB officer in Berlin, was not an intelligence agent but a disinformation specialist who ran informant networks. He is just putting what he learned in his younger days to use, only now as the head of a nation.
One more word on history: Stalin made sure that a political authority, namely himself, maintained strict control over the secret police. His fear was of a coup by the NKVD (predecessor of the KGB) that would put an unchecked secret policeman in charge. Vladimir Putin would be Stalin’s worst nightmare.
One more word on history: Stalin made sure that a political authority, namely himself, maintained strict control over the secret police. His fear was of a coup by the NKVD (predecessor of the KGB) that would put an unchecked secret policeman in charge. Vladimir Putin would be Stalin’s worst nightmare.
