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About LinkBacksYes, I think you are spot on, and you are describing it better and more to the point than I did.Originally Posted by SergeMak
That's exactly what I was getting at.
For us in Scandinavia, it's particularly STRANGE that this enormous Russophobia has overtaken the whole area, when there is absolutely no good reason.
It's interesting that it stood out so much that this Sergei Markov particularly noticed it.
Some might say that political winds have changed, but they have changed in Russia too!
Russia has never tried to bully Scandinavia, hasn't done anything at all against us in any way, form or shape (I mean, in modern times). Finland and the Winter war - I don't agree with what the USSR did, but if you know the history it, it wasn't out of the blue, and the USSR would definitely have stopped with Finland, had it succeeded. It would have been no different than pre 1917.
At least for the the USA, it's "business as usual" to criticize Russia. But for me, I just don't see where this is coming from and what brought it on.
Example from today below. DN is the largest daily paper in Sweden. This type of article is EVERY day...
This one is for the more intellectual reader, who reads the Editorial....
Imperiedrömmar: Inför ryska hot måste vi stå enade - DN.SE
First paragraph translation:
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Imperial Dreams: We must stand united against the threats from Russia
All of us who had hoped that Russia had put the imperial dreams behind it were brutally awakened by the crisis in Ukraine. The Georgia war of 2008 was a bad omen. Now we know for sure that V. Putin has embarked on a revisionist path, using aggressive nationalism as his tool. The only question is what risks he is prepared to take, and exactly what the size is, of the area to which Moscow considers itself entitled. (....)
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Notice the dramatic and agitational tone!
"Let's stand united, blah, blah..."
And the implicit question mark "how big is this area....?"implying "it could be us... or our neighbour"
(which is ridiculous to the extent that it's not even worth commenting on. )
And "threats", what threats? Who exactly has Russia threatened and with what?
The article doesn't say, of course, because there is no substance to the claim.
But it makes a dramatic header.
And then the article manages to sneak in a few references about how "safe" the NATO countries are, while we are allegedly "exposed" to these "imperial dreams" of Putin.
It's total tosh obviously because there are NO quoted sources, nothing substantial at all, just an exercise in agitation at its crudest. It's not even serious journalism, and if you stop to think for one second.
And you could write an identical article about the USA of course. But they would never do that.
In a country that only has two national daily papers, the impact of this type of article is enormous.
And the Russia coverage it's just an endless cycle of "gays", "human rights", aggressive RU army exercises, Putin-is-bad etc.
There wasn't a fraction of this level of criticism against Russia during the Cold War, even though our press was not officially controlled by anyone. Now suddenly, Russia is super dangerous?! w00t? Why now?
To me, Russia is stable and predictable at the moment. The insight into what's going on is better than in Soviet times, and the lawless dangerous Russia of the 1990s has been quelled.
Where is this ending, or leading to?
I guess my best hypothesis is that some forces have decided that it's time for our country to join NATO and this is how to turn public opinion that was always against it. At least half the job is already done, in that case. Judging from the comments to the editorial.
Then for me, I overcompensate by being practically an apologetic for Russia, or a Russophile, lol,
