Russia’s leading economic event, the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF, which ended over the weekend), was another reflection of the country’s changing position in the world. After Russia invaded Ukraine and was largely ostracized by the international community, Western investors who attended the event dubbed “Russian Davos” in large numbers during previous years were conspicuously absent. Likewise, there will be no foreign broker. This year’s SPIEF was moderated by Margaret SimonyanEditor in Chief Controversial media outlet RT (Formerly Russia Today).
Earlier in June, discussing Simonyan’s selection for this role, Putin’s spokesman Dmitriy Peskov Tell TASS: “The mind of many eminent Western correspondents presently raises questions… they are all simply going crazy… Margaritas. [Simonyan] He is a global reporter and media manager. So for us, you’re leaving journalists in the dust internationally, and that’s why she’s going to be the go-between.”
Simonyan has just appeared from the event Sunday evening with Vladimir Solovyov, flowing from her recent meetings with Putin and telling a new fairy tale about what Russia is supposed to do in Ukraine. The host of the program, Vladimir Solovyov, asked Simonyan for details of her meetings with Russian autocrats before and after the forum. She smiled and smiled shyly replied: “Of course, I can’t tell everything about her in public, I’ll whisper it later in your ear.”
Solovyov hinted that Simonyan might have given Putin some advice herself: “Based on recent observations, the president is open to receiving information that comes from different levels … Our decision-making centers do not act as Olympic gods. They take information from everywhere: official sources, sources Unofficial, war correspondents, people on site, and that’s very important.”
In the best traditions of Soviet and North Korean propaganda, he was the chief RT Her monologue began by praising Putin’s great health, tireless endurance, unwavering confidence, and cheerful disposition.
She claimed that the most common questions Russian citizens wanted to ask the Russian president were simple: the first was a tacit message of support and the second reflected the urgent daily call of citizens to strike at “decision-making centers”. as soon as possible. Simonyan shouted angrily, clenching her fist, saying: “I also want to ask, why don’t we hit them? Where are those red lines?” She recounted Putin’s response: “I won’t say what the red lines are, but they know about them… I won’t mention them because of military tactics: why do we appear?” They have our cards in advance?”
Simonyan claimed that one of Putin’s reasons for not carrying out more intense bombings in major cities was a fairly practical one: “He said, ‘Do we want to turn those cities into Stalingrad? “Actually, our people are there! These are our future cities! Obviously … this is our land and our people, we will have to take it back later.”
After her secret meetings with Putin, Simonyan—who for years promoted the idea of Russian military intervention in neighboring countries—emerges with a very different repetition of events in the rest of the world. It has openly denied that Russia is engaged in a war or even a special operation in Ukraine. Instead, Simonyan claimed that there was a civil war and Russia simply sided with the Russians.
The president of RT did her best to sell an implausible story, filled with denial of the genocide of Ukrainians as a people, and outright rejection of an idea they might fight to defend their motherland. Describing one of the videos of a Ukrainian prisoner of war she recently saw, Simonyan said: “A surrendered soldier of the Ukrainian armed forces was sitting, completely Russian, completely Russian. None of you can tell who he is, it’s Russian. Big blue eyes, blonde hair and beard.” He said: I enlisted in conscription. We must understand, not all of them are there of their own free will.” Simonyan, who often claims that Russian troops in Ukraine are fighting for their motherland, absurdly denied that such a concept could apply to Ukrainians fighting on their own land.
Simonyan narrated the video with a captive captive, and claimed: “He does not care where he lives. He does not have any military patriotic feelings that he is defending his motherland. He understands very well that he is not defending any homeland, but someone else’s interests have nothing to do with his own. He cared very much where he lived: in Donetsk, Belgorod, or his village near Kyiv, where he is. ”
And of those who fight against Russian forces or oppose Russian aggression, Simonyan noted: “There are a large number of Nazis and ideologically-receptive ones, for whom there is not much to do, other than shoot them according to the laws of the Arab Republic of Egypt. DPR [the supposed Donetsk People’s Republic]. “
In addition to calling for the killing of Ukrainians resisting the Russian invasion, including prisoners of war, Simonyan refused to acknowledge their existence as a people in any context regardless of whether they were Russian or anti-Russian. She said: “It is clear to anyone that there is no war between Russia and Ukraine. This is not even a special operation against the armed forces of Ukraine. This is a civil war in Ukraine. Part of the Ukrainians, who suffer from fear of the Russians and are anti-Russian in the same sense, the fascists were anti-Semitic – In exactly the same way – they are destroying another part of their people. Russia is simply supporting one side of those warring parties. Why this particular side? That is clear, because they are Russians. These are our people. And there, they are anti-Russian. That’s it.”
Realizing the impossibility of successfully selling this preposterous interpretation to Western audiences, Simonyan speculated that if Russian media abroad continued to operate relentlessly, Americans and Europeans would believe that Russia’s alternative picture of its aggression and the electoral chances of their leaders who support Ukraine “drop, by 20-30 percent, from 20-30 percent.” Approval ratio all the way to zero.” Simonyan predicted with a sigh: “From their point of view, I understand how smart it was for Europe and America to get rid of RT And the Sputnik. “
. “Proud zombie lover. Evil pop culture buff. Amateur thinker. Total food practitioner. Tv evangelist.”