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Roberto Schmidt
The impending summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin – set to take place in Geneva on Wednesday – unleashed a flurry of threats from the Kremlin’s propaganda machine, promising tough resistance to US demands in everything from cyberattacks to human rights abuses.
It also triggered another bizarre journalistic strategy: the debut and glorification of a notorious capitol hooligan on the Russian airwaves.
On Sunday, Russian state television broadcast an interview with Richard Barnett – famously pictured raising his feet on a desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office on January 6 – and his lawyer, Joseph McBride.
Barnett, a self-proclaimed white nationalist, has been presented as an individual of “color,” the same term Putin frequently uses to describe Trump. McBride greeted Rossiya-1’s special correspondent Valentin Bogdanov in his office and directed FaceTim to his client, who looked beaming and relaxed at his Arkansas ranch, gave a big smile and displayed his collection of cars.
“It’s not fair! ”: The hooligan who puts himself in Pelosi’s office loses it in court
Bogdanov introduced Barnett, who was arrested after the Capitol raid and then released pending trial, as an “American patriot” who protested the “stolen elections.” The network showed clips of his exploits on the Capitol, in which he used a stun gun, stole mail from Pelosi’s office, and left a threatening letter to the Speaker of the House.
Apparently unaware of Russia’s notorious prison system, Barnett complained about the conditions of his brief imprisonment, the alleged beatings of other “patriots” with whom he was held, and the threats he had received since his arrest.
“The trial is still going on, there is no verdict, but the revenge has already begun,” the Russian reporter said, referring to Barnett’s activities in the Capitol. Bogdanov asked him: “Are you going to do it again?” McBride quickly jumped in and urged his client not to answer the question until the legal proceedings were over.
The story continues
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Barnett replied, “I exercise my First Amendment rights every hour, every minute, every day, and I will never stop.” Bogdanov concluded: “Everyone who was arrested in the January 6 case feels this way.”
Russian state media has consistently claimed that rioters in the Capitol were arrested simply for supporting Trump. Speaking at a business forum in St. Petersburg on June 4, Vladimir Putin made clear his intent to dismiss Biden’s concerns about human rights in Russia by calling the prosecutions of rebels who stormed the US Capitol unfair. On Friday, Putin told NBC that their arrests were nothing more than “persecution over political views.”
The glorification of the January 6 rioters is just one of several tactics Kremlin loyalists use to disparage the United States in the run-up to the summit.
Russian state media prepares for war against the West
They repeatedly cited Fox News talking points to corroborate their story, and state TV presenters and experts spoke of Putin as a smarter, stronger, younger leader, who is superior in every way to Biden. This remarkable alignment led Alexei Naumov of the Russian International Affairs Council to conclude last Tuesday that “for Republicans, Vladimir Putin is more of an ally than Biden. This is a death sentence for America’s leadership and foreign policy.”
Last week, former President Donald Trump repeated talking points on Kremlin TV by telling Biden to “not sleep” during his summit with Putin. Trump’s unusual rapprochement with the Russian president has failed to make up for his inability to move forward on tentative agreements reached by two leaders at the Helsinki summit, which has frustrated the Kremlin-financed talks heads. While the former US president described his meeting with Putin as a “great and very fruitful meeting in Helsinki,” Russian experts and lawmakers disagreed.
While discussing the upcoming summit in Geneva last Sunday, notorious Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov mentioned some “things Putin doesn’t like,” including his impatience for people who don’t keep their promises. Kislev praised the Russian president for his willingness to meet even with “difficult” figures like Donald Trump, but added that Putin “lost interest” once he realized that Trump’s words were hollow and his promises were empty.
This month, the host of the state television program 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov, chanted, “I hope our top officials have a plan, especially in light of a terrible meeting with Trump. If Putin is to meet Biden, I hope something will be signed.”
One element that still gets the Kremlin’s attention is the cybersecurity agreement, which the Russians have been championing since the early 2000s. In 2017 and 2018, Putin proposed a joint Russian-American “cyber security unit”, an idea that Trump enthusiastically promoted until it provoked a bipartisan backlash and was brought down by US national security officials.
On Friday, in an interview with MSNBC’s Kerr Simmons, Putin claimed that US allegations that Russian hackers were responsible for a series of cyberattacks in the US were “comical,” but nonetheless insisted he wanted Biden to enter into an agreement with Russia on space. mail. .
Forming a joint task force with America’s adversary could provide the Kremlin with an inside look at American methods and techniques used to investigate Russia’s attacks, and the Kremlin could continue its cyberattack through proxies and deny accountability. Even a symbolic signing of such an agreement would create a false impression of Russia’s cooperation with the United States, making it a peer versus an evil enemy. While the Kremlin has repeatedly denied official links to various acts of aggression in cyberspace, it is actively interfering with US efforts to extradite Russian hackers.
For all the talk about Russia’s desire to enter into a joint cybersecurity agreement, state television offers a revealing look at the popular sentiment behind the hacks. Alexei Naumov, who appeared in 60 Minutes on June 3, said in his opinion: “For all the time of its existence, the United States has lived with a feeling of invincibility … Now they see that the tentacles of the Internet can reach any part of the world from anywhere, forcing America on her knees.”
Referring to the recent hacking of beef supplier JBS by a Russian-speaking hacker gang earlier this month, 60 Minutes lawmakers and experts mocked the United States and considered sending a kill on the road to feed the “hungry American crowd.” Host Yevgeny Popov was disappointed that the hack affected only a part of the meat supply in America.
“Our hackers didn’t take it far enough,” his wife and show host Olga Scapieva complained. Whether or not the latest series of state-directed hacks serve the interests of the Kremlin by embarrassing the United States and trying to force the most powerful country on Earth to treat Russia as an equal partner.
Ukraine is another topic of great concern and will surely be raised at the summit. In recent months, Russian state media have turned to the false claim that Ukraine’s Donbass region is “the land of Russia” and that the only acceptable solution might involve the Russian Federation taking over that region — or Ukraine as a whole.
At the same time, experts acknowledge that a purely military solution is unlikely to be successful – at least for the time being. We will not be able to solve this problem with military force. Everyone understands that there will be no nuclear war, or at least not likely … and there will be no limited nuclear strike, because that will involve all of Eastern Europe,” Dmitry Abzalov, director of the Center for Strategic Communications, said last week in 60 Minutes.
“We will wait for the next Trump to arrive and press this button,” he added.
Putin’s proposed deal with Trump: An offer America can only refuse ترفض
The last thing on the Kremlin’s agenda is the issue of human rights. Russia expects a tough rhetoric from Biden, which Putin is expected to unload a tide of “preventiveness” and gaslighting.
In anticipation of a heated event, the Kremlin-funded networks have modified their messages about Biden’s health and fitness. After months of physical discrediting Biden, state TV presenter Vladimir Soloviev reluctantly admitted that the US president looks very fit and “looks much better than Trump.” To illustrate Biden’s ability to successfully confront his Russian counterpart, the carefully cultivated image of a weak old man is replaced by the image of a shrewd and dangerous enemy.
On June 4, Federation Council President Valentina Matvienko told 60 Minutes: “So [the U.S.] He tries to teach a democratic Russia or something, the dialogue will not work and there will be no results.” In response to a question about Biden’s intention to discuss the unjust imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN: “There is nothing to talk about. “.
Experts and hosts on Russian state television openly describe the upcoming debate on human rights as a “pariah [trash]“Part of the summit. When they try to teach us about democracy … we can talk about not recognizing the legitimacy of their elections,” Olga Scapeva, who called the summit “America’s funeral,” said earlier this month. America: “We’ll walk your dogs.”
The hostility best summarizes the general approach of the talks, while Russian officials and experts have no illusions regarding their final outcome. When Biden arrived in Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters that “the times of all kinds of resets are over” and opined that “Russian-US relations may deteriorate further in the future.”
“We are behaving in ways we have not done before. We have clearly shown the following: Don’t even talk about human rights. Don’t touch your nose in our internal affairs. It’s none of your business,” said Vladimir Soloviev, the state TV presenter this month.
“That’s it,” he added. “The jokes are over.”
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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