The west made a bad error in the 1990s, abandoning the development of media in the former Soviet Union to the free market: instead, media were captured by oligarchs or corrupt regimes.
After the cold war it was considered part of the "peace dividend" to slash funding for the likes of Radio Free Europe. A much greater cost is being paid now."
In specifically responding to the above "Hearts and Eyeballs" paragraphs, I provide the following comments:
(1) It is true that Russian news reports on Ukraine fighting, problems with other countries, and President Putin, but to state that this is its primary "focus", including to the exclusion of local news and social issues, is at the very least a substantial exaggeration, which itself is a form of propaganda. We watch Russian news several times a day on up to 5 different television channels, and during this time we see plenty of LOCAL news and SOCIAL ISSUES being discussed. In addition, the major tv channels have separate national and local news time slots. We also watch Euronews. And, of course, there are various Russian talk shows discussing important political, economic, and social issues, among them, "Pravo Golosa" ("Right to Speak"), "Spetsialny Korrespondent" ("Special Correspondent") and "Voskresny Vecher" ("Sunday Evening").
(2) One of the primary goals of any country's president is to contribute to the stability of a nation.
However, your characterization of Russia as a country that portrays itself as "beset by enemies" is incorrect.
Rather, one of the problems that ordinary Russians have with the US government and media is the hypocrisy and double standards that they hear and see directly from these Americans' own words and actions, i.e., on Russian television we get the opportunity to hear both these Americans' English-language official statements and excellent Russian-language translations. Thus, if you must write about "enemies", it would be best to state that "America itself is its own worst enemy as regards Russia" since, if anything, Russians are simply DISILLUSIONED with the America that many of them once dreamed about. During Victor Konovalenko's and my many long trips to my America over the past 25 years, we have rarely heard and seen any Russian-language official statements with excellent English-language translations on American television.
(3) Regarding your statement tying historical dramas showing "glorious second world war battles" (Russian language, without any reference whatsoever to Crimea) and "glorious second world war battles for Crimea" (English language, with emphasis only on Crimea) to a strengthening of Putin's policies, this was an extremely inappropriate statement on your part and an insult to Soviet people.
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