In the Kremlin

Glad to be deceived

September 1, 2008 Alexander Golts

More recently, it seemed to me that Russian leaders, making statements obviously not true, were conscious. For the policy that Moscow now pursues, it is extremely useful to simulate its own inadequacy. The world leaders listen, are horrified and retreat from the wretched.

However, an interview with Vladimir Putin, first of the American television company CNN, and then the German Ard makes the worst suspect. Namely, the Russian prime minister says what he really thinks. In an interview with CNN, the prime minister began to tell the story of how the host of the American Fox television channel interfered with a 12-year-old girl and her aunt to tell the whole truth about the events in Tskhinval: “He constantly interrupted her. As soon as he did not like what she was saying, he began to interrupt her, cough, wheeze, creak. He only had to put it in his pants, but to do it so expressively that they fell silent. Here is the only thing he did not, but, figuratively speaking, he was in this state. "

I must say that Vladimir Putin in his righteous anger was no different from the simple Russian people, that is, from the audience of the RTR channel. Because, as it turned out, he, like most Russian citizens, was deceived by a fake made on our television. For a week, as the network has been posted quite convincing evidence of falsification. Namely, the plot that really went through Fox. The only thing you can complain there is that the presenter interrupted women by announcing an advertising video. But he did not cough, did not wheezed and did not creak - all these noises were specially imposed by specialists from RTR.

I would also understand if Putin tried to sue the American audience of some disintegration that is not easy to check. Well, like a story about the American military specialists who, according to our General Staff, participated in hostilities. Although, in confirmation, only an American passport, lost and canceled three years ago, is given so far, there is at least some logic in this. To convince the Americans with the help of a fake, which can be exposed in five minutes, is at least unreasonable.

So it turns out that Putin was misled. If so, then things are completely nasty. Dozens of times saying that any builder of the power vertical is a hostage to their secretaries - they can manipulate them by controlling and preparing the information provided to the chief. That is why experienced dictators (who want to keep abreast of the real state of affairs) try to maintain a permanent conflict between various special services. However, in the last months of his presidency, Putin was barely able to cope with the drags between the various clans of the security forces. There is no time for concern about the veracity of information. It is no coincidence that the work of military intelligence during the Georgian-Russian conflict caused so much criticism (in the near future, a large article will be published in the “Her Ye” on this subject of the famous Soviet intelligence officer Vitaly Shlykov).

In democratic countries, scouts in the informing of authorities (and at the same time) are duplicated by the media. I remember how many years ago I was amazed when I saw that a screen was installed in the underground team center of the Pentagon, where CNN news was shown. Journalists will begin to give information from the crisis area much earlier than military intelligence officers - the US military explained. But this makes sense if journalists do not fabricate the deliberate fakes.

Having crushed the press, creating a state -owned misinformation machine, Putin actually deprived himself of access to the truth. This was hinted at the next interviewer of the prime minister - the correspondent of the German channel Ard: “Do you think that you yourself are personally in the west of the authoritarian state? ... But even the media are sometimes afraid to say something else that contradicts what you want to hear. Didn’t it happen that the system you have created now now closes a wide look at you, the opportunity to really see the processes that are now taking place in Europe, in other countries? ”
With the help of famous sophisms, Putin rushed to prove that the Russian state was not authoritarian. And then he began to convince the interlocutor that the Western press was not free. To the question of whether he was satisfied with the information coming to him, Putin did not answer. Either he did not want to, or he considered it insignificant.

Meanwhile, any head of the state, whether he is a tyrant or a democrat, would probably be excited by the fact that they are manipulated with the help of state television. However, now it is not even clear whether anyone at a risk of reporting to the prime minister that his reasoning was based on falsification. Although the permanent visitor to the Internet Dmitry Medvedev could have a cartridge such courtesy and not be afraid of dismissal.