Russian Propaganda on American TV

The Russian version of the article is available on the Mnews website.

Set the scene: Georgian snipers shooting protesters on the Ukrainian Maidan under the leadership of an American officer; President Poroshenko organizing a complex scheme in order to interfere in American elections; rallies paid for by Soros, and the American embassy which is ​​destroying entire countries in order to cover up crimes committed by their own officials.

This is not a plot of  yet another show by Dmitry Kiselyov, but a recap of the American “documentary” film “The Ukraine Hoax: Impeachment, Biden Cash, Mass Murder”.

The film was released on the last weekend in January on the One America News channel, which is close to the GOP. Its creator, Michael Caputo, is a former communications adviser to President Donald Trump. Strangely enough, the Russian version of the film became publicly available (on Youtube) earlier than its original English source.

The Russian media were only too happy to immediately share the plot of “Ukrainian Hoax”, especially its most “piquant” moments. According to the plot of the film, it was Georgian snipers, recruited by Mikhail Saakashvili’s associate Mamuka Mamulashvili,  who shot at the protesters and “Berkut”. Anonymous “snipers” describe on camera how they came to  Kyiv with fake passports, and how, according to them, Andrey Parubiy and Sergey Pashinsky were involved in organizing the shooting on the Maidan.

At the same time, Maidan itself, according to Kaputo, was organized by George Soros together with the Barack Obama administration, and they also instigated anti-Trump rallies in the United States, an investigation by special prosecutor Robert Muller, and even impeachment attempts. The former prosecutor general of Ukraine Viktor Shokin, according to the film, was fired because he was trying to investigate corruption at the Burisma company where Joe Biden‘s son Hunter served on the board of directors.

Summarizing the plot of the  film is quite difficult, not only because of the monotony of the repeated propaganda cliches and conspiracy theories, but also because of the glaringly apparent internal contradictions. For example, at the beginning of the film, it is stated that after the “reset” of relations between the United States and Russia, “America’s once aggressive policy in the region was weakened and gave more freedom to Russian President Vladimir Putin.” One of the participants in the film, Rep. David Nunes, also states that the Obama administration “didn’t want to interfere with Putin” and “did everything he told them to.”

However, a little later in the film, Michael Caputo with other participants launched into attempts to  prove that, on the contrary, the US, at the direction of Soros, destabilized Ukraine, organized the Maidan and provoked riots, just like they did in other post-Soviet countries, “overthrowing legitimate governments and depriving countries of their sovereignty.” At the same time, they argued that the “Soros groups” create “extremely left-wing governments” in Ukraine, Georgia and other countries. Obviously, American authors were not aware that liberal movement in post-Soviet states, unlike in the United States, is considered to be the “right” movement, while the Communist Party, which is on the extreme left, was defeated precisely as the result of the activities of pro-democratic movements.

The story of Soros’s intrigues was followed by the subject of executions on the Maidan, with Tristan Tsitelashvili, who calls himself a general and “a former commander in the Georgian Ministry of Defense,” acting as an expert. However, back in 2014, the “Club of Generals” of Georgia asked the authorities to investigate Tsitelashvili’s past, since, according to them, he arbitrarily appropriated the rank of general and, on top of that, he was not able to present any evidence of the “sensations” that he supposedly took part in.

“No self-respecting expert is going to  take Tsitelashvili’s claims seriously. As for the “general” title, he really is a “general” – in the non-governmental organization “Russian Cossack troops in Georgia.” By the way, the film doesn’t mention that in the past he was arrested for espionage on behalf of Russia,” commented for our website a Georgian political scientist and leading expert at the GSAC Strategic Analysis Center Gela Vasadze.

“Mamulashvili mentioned in the film has nothing to do with Maidan. He created the Georgian Legion a few months after the Maidan, and those who gave interviews about their recruitment probably meant recruitment  for the Georgian Legion, which fought against the Russian covert forces in the Donbass,” explainsthe Georgian expert.

Regarding the “Ukraine’s interference in the US elections,” the film only notes that the Ukrainian side gave information about Paul Manafort’s crimes to the American law enforcement authorities (this information, as we recall, was subsequently confirmed by the  American courts). The film also focuses on the fact that the Ukrainian embassy in the United States avoided interactions with Trump’s headquarters before the election, as it considered him to be “pro-Russian”.

In general, there is nothing sensational in these revelations: Petro Poroshenko did in fact bet on Hillary Clinton, and this subsequently cost him good relations with the current presidential administration. However, the filmmakers never presented any evidence of interference, that is, illegal actions designed to influence the course of elections in the United States. Against this background, it seems particularly strange that they tactfully ignored the role of Russia, which did not skimp on such actions: from hacker attacks to the spread of disinformation under the “false flag”. On the contrary, in the film it was only said that the Russian intervention was “a huge hoax”.

Unfortunately, for that segment of the American audience that is little familiar with the post-Soviet realities, “Ukrainian Hoax” seemed like a real revelation, in large part  because the manipulation of facts and the conspiracy theories that it put forward presented the US President Donald Trump in a favorable light. Although Michael Caputo himself was, throughout the film, repeatedly indignant that through the efforts of the Democrats Ukraine, in fact, became a bargaining chip in American domestic political games, his own creation further contributed to the discrediting of the post-Soviet countries and their sincere fight for freedom.