Russia's Swaggeringly Dangerous Aggression in Ukraine

The propaganda war is heating up in the hours before Crimeans go to the polls to decide their fate - Ukrainian or Russian. In central Moscow on Saturday, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched against the Kremlin-backed referendum in Crimea. Demonstrators waved Russian and Ukrainian flags, while opposition activists - including two members of the Pussy Riot punk band - shouted "Say no to war!" and "Putin, go away!" from the stage. Protesters also held up banners that read: "For your freedom and for ours!" Nearby, there was another rally - several thousand men from a group called "Essence of Time" dressed in uniform red jackets and marching to the sound of Soviet-era military music in disciplined columns - close to the Kremlin to support Russia's intervention in Crimea, an intervention widely condemned as illegitimate by the international community. While President Putin's popularity has risen since he announced Russia's willingness to use force in Ukraine, the anti-government demonstration Saturday showed that not everyone is happy with the decision. One marcher interviewed by AP, Dmitry Maksimov, a 29-year-old lawyer who held a bouquet of flowers dyed blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, said : "I love Ukraine - it's Putin who needs war and an empire, not me." Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of Pussy Riot, called for defiance against the authorities. None of Russia's state-owned news channels showed footage from the anti-government protest, and instead showed live video from the red-shirted pro-Russia rally near the Kremlin. ~~~~~ In fact, if one were to view what's going on in Ukraine through the propaganda filter of Russian TV and other news media, one would believe that the Ukrainian government is run by anti-Semitic fascists, that people killed in the Kiev protests were shot by opposition snipers and that the West is behind it all. And the possibility to counter this obviously slanted portrayal is shrinking. In Russia, the push to demonize Ukraine's leadership has become frenetic. Authorities in Ukraine have responded by blocking Russian TV channels. Lev Gudkov, head of a respected independent Moscow-based polling agency, told AP that the propagandist tone of Russian state television has reached new levels : "For intensity, comprehensiveness and aggressiveness, this is like nothing I have ever seen over the whole post-Soviet period," Gudkov said. News bulletins on top network Channel 1 present reports detailing everything from purported rampant lawlessness to vague threats of reprisals against ethnic Russians and Jews, as well as showing interviews with talking heads alleging foreign-led plots. NTV, owned by gas giant Gazprom's media arm, on Thursday aired a report about purportedly hacked email correspondence between US and Ukrainian officials making plans to stage an attack on their own military jets. The piece goes on to claim that the incident was to serve as an excuse for the US to take military action against Russia. Right Sector, a radical ultra-nationalist Ukrainian group involved in the most violent assaults against Kiev riot police, is the subject of daily TV exposés meant to frighten Russians. Yet, for all the attention Russia gives it, Right Sector has not been granted any posts in the new Ukraine government and observers say it has little actual clout. In the Thursday night clashes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk between government supporters and a hostile pro-Russian crowd, TV coverage by Rossiya-1, a Russian state station, reported that the incident had been provoked by "special forces" of the Maidan, the informal name of the movement that brought about last month's ouster of President Viktor Yanukovich. What really happened, according to AP, is that at one point a pro-Russian mob encircled and threw objects at a small huddling group of people, shouting for them to get on their knees. At least one person died. Ukraine's effort to counter the Kremlin-led smear campaign has not been very sophisticated. Ukrainian broadcast authorities ordered the suspension of the signal of Russian state-controlled television stations on Tuesday - a move that drew swift indignation from Moscow, as one would expect, and from international media advocacy groups, who might have been more balanced in their commentary. For example, in Crimea, one of the two TV stations that Russia allows to broadcast keeps repeating a clip that displays the slogan "March 16: Together with Russia" while blaring the Russian national anthem. The other on-air TV station in Crimea is the pro-Kiev Tatar ATR, which has a "United Country" logo, and shows regular on-the-street interviews with people explaining that they want Crimea to remain part of Ukraine. And the Russian military in Crimea intimidate many of the journalists on the ground covering events. Some journalists have faced assaults from members of pro-Russian militia forces, complicating efforts to give full coverage to events in Crimea. ~~~~~ There is also the Internet. People in Russia's provinces, where Internet penetration is weak, are particularly susceptible to one-sided reporting. "The only sources of information there are the federal television stations, and they have been conducting an exercise in brainwashing," Gudkov, the independent Moscow pollster, says. Dissenting Russians have turned to online sources for alternative viewpoints, including better information about current developments in Ukraine. But a growing crackdown on Internet news outlets is stemming that flow. On Wednesday, the owner of leading independent news website Lenta.ru fired its chief editor, Galina Timchenko, after official complaints that the outlet's coverage of Ukraine breached a law banning dissemination of extremist material because it showed a link to comments by Dmytro Yarosh, a nationalist Ukrainian leader wanted in Russia on charges of instigating terrorism. Disseminating such material or incitements to join unauthorized rallies can as of this year be the basis for closing Internet outlets without a court order. A group of dissenting websites and a blog run by prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny were summarily banned on a request from prosecutors. "Russian authorities are unabashedly cleansing the media landscape of independent voices that have the power to shape minds," said Nina Ognianova of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We condemn this ban on alternative sources of news and opinion, and call on Moscow to cease this Soviet-style crackdown." Today, less than half of Russia's adult population uses the Internet on a daily basis, but in Moscow and other major cities, this is changing and it is common to see people glued to their smartphones during commuter hours. Russian aurhorities seem interested in the generation that looks much more at the Internet," said Sergei Buntman, deputy editor of liberal-leaning Ekho Moskvy radio station, whose website was also momentarily blocked by major providers overnight Thursday. The freedom of access to non-manipulated news in Russia will be won or lost on the Internet. But for now, Russian propagande efforts seem to be having the desired effect, with polls showing that 43% of Russian respondents say a military response is justified because people there [Crimea] are at risk of attack from "bandits and nationalists." Another 28% agree on the threat, but suggest a political solution would be preferable. ~~~~~ Dear readers, today, in its campaign to retake Crimea from Ukraine, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, is focused on heavy-handed TV propaganda left over from the Soviet era. And, to back up the propaganda, heavily armed forces under Russian command effectively control the Crimean peninsula and are using helicopter troops to secure Crimea infrastructure, including a gas transfer station and pipeline on the mainland in southeast Ukraine, an act called an invasion by Ukraine and condemned by all UN Security Council members, except Russia, which vetoed a formal resolution. Whatever the outcome in Sunday's Crimea referendum - and it is hard to believe that Russia has not already manipulated the vote count to be sure that Crimea appears to be choosing Russia - the next week will see eastern European tensions mount, western sanctions set in motion and strident Russian propaganda continue to match the click of Russian military boots in Crimea. Edmund Burke said it : "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." It is, indeed, time for good men to do something to stop Russia's swaggeringly dangerous aggression - today in European Ukraine, tomorrow, where?