Belton also distorts the characterization of the Russian-Georgian war of 2008. She describes the "he said, she said" claims by Georgia and Russia at the time as reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Financial Times. Then she cites a military analyst's opinion that Russia had deviously "laid a trap" for Georgia prior to the outbreak of hostilities (pp. 368-369). However, she makes no mention whatsoever of the EU Fact-finding report on the war that determined that Georgia initiated hostilities. Are we supposed to believe that an experienced journalist did not hear about this report? It seems rather unlikely. We must then ask why Belton would intentionally omit such an important piece of information.
Similarly, Belton's depiction of the Ukraine crisis from 2013-2014 and the events on the Maidan that led to violence and the change in government suffers from many suspicious omissions. There is no mention of the conclusions of Dr. Ivan Katchanovksi, who conducted one of the most in-depth forensic investigations into the violence on the Maidan including who was responsible for it. The same goes for a report by Dr. Serhiy Kudelia and another report by Dr. Gordon Hahn regarding the deadly actions of Ukrainian ultranationalists who operated out of Maidan-controlled buildings. Apparently in Belton's world, these reports simply don't exist. There is also no acknowledgment of the intercepted phone cal l between then-State Department official Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt revealing U.S. interference. Belton depicts the idea of a western-backed coup as purely Russian propaganda. Any countervailing evidence is ignored because it might undermine her thesis that the Putin-led Russian government simply hates democracy and is hell-bent on destroying it everywhere because of the incurable KGB virus that has infected Putin's brain for decades (p. 386-387).
Belton characterizes the pride that Russians felt at Putin's speech after the reunification with Crimea as simply "a deep seated longing for the glory days of the Soviet imperial past that was shared by many Russians" (pp. 388-389). If this is really what Belton thinks was behind Russian sentiment about the reunification of Crimea and Putin's overall speech, then it would seem that her years of being a correspondent in Russia didn't provide her much insight into the worldview and experience of average Russians. Instead, she feels more comfortable amplifying the bull sessions of a few disgruntled 1990's oligarchs, a flock of unnamed "associates," and a handful of pro-western liberals who have no traction with most of the Russian population.
In fact, Belton's tale of the Putin era conveniently absolves the west of any responsibility for its policies in connection to the current state of relations with Russia. Indeed there is no need whatsoever for self-reflection by the west. That is because Belton's book is not intended to inform or provide insight into modern-day Russia or its leadership. It is intended to reinforce a propaganda narrative to an audience that has already been pumped full of misinformation and wants desperately to continue to believe. The corporate media and its adjuncts - who have been responsible for recklessly pumping out that misinformation in the first place - are only too happy to keep it going in order to reinforce a political agenda and try to stave off the complete unraveling of its own credibility.
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