Putin’s Crimea Propaganda Machine
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Still, Putin needed a story to spin, no matter how full of holes, and thus the neo-Nazi claims. But as it turns out, Crimeas streets are not exactly paved with extremistsa fact that has proven troublesome for Russian state TV channels looking to find token far-right bogeymen. Theyve had to resort to tricks to get the right characters for Russian audiencesmaking much, for instance, of Sachko Bilyi, a buffoon who visited a local parliament with his AK-47 machine gun. No one in Ukraine thinks much of Bilyi, other than that hes a clown, but Russian TV is now claiming that squads made up of thousands of Bilyis are terrorizing Ukraines civilians and intimidating MPs.
The Russian media also reported on skirmishes on the streets of Crimea and showed a video about extremists in Crimea attacking Russian soldiers. As it turns out, the video was actually made on February 20, when close to 100 protesters, aid workers and journalists were shot by snipers in Kiev. That day, several cameramen filmed the terror on locationone of them standing nearby for a very long time. When his video surfaced on Russian TV, purporting to be from Crimea, it made many suspect that the cameraman was from Russia and that Russian journalists may have had an arrangement with the snipers so that they wouldnt draw fire.
For additional help manufacturing scenes of outrage, Russian provocateurs in Simferopol organized a nice mise-en-scene for Putins propaganda machine. A bus filled with people dressed like paramiliatry fighters, toting machine guns and grenade launchers, were filmed by Russian journliasts. It appeared instantly on the Internet and Russian TV channels, labeled as The Right Sector from the Western Ukraine attacking peaceful Russian citizens and killing soldiers in Crimea. But if one looks closely, it is possible to make out several important details: the bus from the Western Ukraine in fact has a Crimean license plate number, and the fighters are armed with GM-94 grenade launchers and AK-100 machine guns, which are only used by Russian soldiers. Another question: how did Right Sector extremists manage to get to Simferopol on a big bus after all the roads to Crimea were blocked three days ago by armed police and Russian soldiers? Several jounralists tried to pass through the cordons, but in vain. Apparently only armed fighters and extremists can get permission to go to Crimea. Later, Russian consul general Vyacheslav Svetlichnyi dismissed reports of casulaties amongst Russian citizens and soldiers in Crimea as mere rumor.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/03/putin-s-crimea-propaganda-machine.html
It's pretty fucked up how far Russian media took it. It reminds me very much of the US MSM run up to the Iraq War.