I had the
good fortune of listening to a podcast (Politics War Room) of an interview with
Peter Pomerantzev, who was born in Kiev and is a Russian disinformation and
propaganda specialist. Al Hunt and James
Carville talked with him about how expert Russia is at propaganda lies and
distortions as an internal and international weapon – and how feckless America
and the West are in return. But the key
and astonishing point was made when Carville said that Putin is claiming there
is no Country of Ukraine, rather it is just an extension of Russia. Pomerantzev’s response says it all – the question
is not whether Ukraine is a country, but rather whether Russia is a country.
He said the best definition of what a country is was given by the scholar Benedict Anderson, who said that the simplest rule for the existence of a nation is whether people are prepared to die for it. And we have seen that Ukrainians are definitely willing to die for their country of Ukraine. Civilians are learning how to make Molotov cocktails and use weapons. But, is Russia a real country? Are they running off to Ukraine to die for their country? Hell no. Putin is actually hiding this war from his own people. He is pretending there are no casualties and that Russians are not dying in Ukraine. In fact, if anyone in Russia, including foreign journalists, uses the word “war” they will be sent to Russian prison for 15 years. Russian prison is not somewhere you want to end up in.
So ----- Ukraine is a country. But maybe Russia is not.
By the way, Pomerantzev confidently predicts that within a couple of months or so a large part of the world will buy into the Russian disinformation and propaganda campaign to convince folks that Ukraine is evil, corrupt, deserves to be liberated by noble Russian “interventions” and the whole cause of the Putin invasion is the dastardly evil and corruption of the United States. Gee wiz, isn’t that what Fox News in America is already saying? Money money money money …..
