The Putin Problem
When the Berlin wall came down, when the Soviet Union was replaced by a Russian Federation which actually held elections, most people hoped that we were entering an era in which Russia and the Free World could be friends.
We were justified in hoping that relations would continue to be substantially better than they had been during the pre-Gorbachov era - however bad relations between the West and Russia may be, they are vastly better than they were during the "Cold War" era between about 1948 and the late nineteen-eighties.
But sadly, during the long era when Russian politics has been dominated by Vladimir Putin, the collapse of Communism has not been followed by a move forward to wholehearted demcracy and peace but a reversion to and older model wearing modern clothes - authoritarian nationalism clothed in the trappings of democracy.
One of the more challenging aspects of this for those of us who believe in free and open societies is that Putin appears to be willing to spend an absurd proportion of Russia's wealth on taking advantage of the West's open societies to dump nonsense into our media.
The most rediculous recent example came when Russia's Ministry of Defence posted a screenshot taken from a computer game as what it called "irrefutable proof" that the US was aiding DA'ESH (the so-called Islamic State.)
Russia claimed the image above right showed an IS convoy leaving a Syrian town last week aided by US forces.
Actually it came from the smartphone game AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron (unmodified above left.)
Russia puts a lot of resource into news outlets like RT (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik based in Scotland and there always seem to be plenty of anti-establishment politicians who think it is clever to take the Russian Rouble. In spite of the utter rubbish these channels put out.
I am not one of those Remain voters who think that the Brexit vote wsa the result of Russian interference, and not do I think that the Russians got Trump elected.
I do think that Kremlin propagandists have been meddling in the West's elections and votes, putting out a whole series of contrdictory messages, with the aim of making our politics more divisive and unstable, and they succeed just as well if they undermine confidence in the result when some of the facts of their meddling come out as they would have if they had actually changed anything (which I don't personally think they did.)
What we are seeing from Russia is a new form of Asymetric warfare waged as much with tweets, cyber-attacks and Facebook posts as planes or submarines. Clearly as a society we need to wise up to this, improve our cyber security and make sure we are careful who and what we believe online.
What we don't need to do is panic or jump to the conclusion that every democratic vote is the result of nefarious Russian tactics. Ironically that would simply hand them victory.
But as for those politicians who are misled into acting as "useful idiots" for Putin, who let their hatred for the EU lead them to repeat any of the self-serving nonsense Putin puts out about Ukraine, or their hatred for the USA lead them to repeat any of the rubbish that the russian propaganda machine puts out about Syria: W.S. Gilbert got the number of the likes of Corbyn, Farage, Burgon and Salmond a century ago in the comic opera "The Mikado" when he put this perfect description of such people into the mouth of the eponymous character ...
We were justified in hoping that relations would continue to be substantially better than they had been during the pre-Gorbachov era - however bad relations between the West and Russia may be, they are vastly better than they were during the "Cold War" era between about 1948 and the late nineteen-eighties.
But sadly, during the long era when Russian politics has been dominated by Vladimir Putin, the collapse of Communism has not been followed by a move forward to wholehearted demcracy and peace but a reversion to and older model wearing modern clothes - authoritarian nationalism clothed in the trappings of democracy.
One of the more challenging aspects of this for those of us who believe in free and open societies is that Putin appears to be willing to spend an absurd proportion of Russia's wealth on taking advantage of the West's open societies to dump nonsense into our media.
The most rediculous recent example came when Russia's Ministry of Defence posted a screenshot taken from a computer game as what it called "irrefutable proof" that the US was aiding DA'ESH (the so-called Islamic State.)
Russia claimed the image above right showed an IS convoy leaving a Syrian town last week aided by US forces.
Actually it came from the smartphone game AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron (unmodified above left.)
Russia puts a lot of resource into news outlets like RT (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik based in Scotland and there always seem to be plenty of anti-establishment politicians who think it is clever to take the Russian Rouble. In spite of the utter rubbish these channels put out.
I am not one of those Remain voters who think that the Brexit vote wsa the result of Russian interference, and not do I think that the Russians got Trump elected.
I do think that Kremlin propagandists have been meddling in the West's elections and votes, putting out a whole series of contrdictory messages, with the aim of making our politics more divisive and unstable, and they succeed just as well if they undermine confidence in the result when some of the facts of their meddling come out as they would have if they had actually changed anything (which I don't personally think they did.)
What we are seeing from Russia is a new form of Asymetric warfare waged as much with tweets, cyber-attacks and Facebook posts as planes or submarines. Clearly as a society we need to wise up to this, improve our cyber security and make sure we are careful who and what we believe online.
What we don't need to do is panic or jump to the conclusion that every democratic vote is the result of nefarious Russian tactics. Ironically that would simply hand them victory.
But as for those politicians who are misled into acting as "useful idiots" for Putin, who let their hatred for the EU lead them to repeat any of the self-serving nonsense Putin puts out about Ukraine, or their hatred for the USA lead them to repeat any of the rubbish that the russian propaganda machine puts out about Syria: W.S. Gilbert got the number of the likes of Corbyn, Farage, Burgon and Salmond a century ago in the comic opera "The Mikado" when he put this perfect description of such people into the mouth of the eponymous character ...
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