Putin’s Crude and Desperate Propaganda

Putin and Obama with U.S. and Russian Flags

From: John Evans <EvansinAmerica@aol.com>
Date: January 5, 2016
To: letters@washpost.com
Subject: Putin’s Crude and Desperate Propaganda

To the Editor:

With all due respect to Paula Dobriansky and David Rivkin, and with prior apologies for engaging in “Whataboutism,” I question the authors’ one-sided excoriation of Russian media and officials (Op-Ed, Jan. 5) for some racist and decidedly off-color remarks and representations, particularly those aimed at President Obama.  To my knowledge, President Putin himself has never disparaged President Obama or any other foreign leader (except Mikheil Saakashvili); however, our President has made public fun of Putin’s characteristic slouch.  I have seen much worse racist cartoons and comments about President Obama in American media (and by American politicians, who ought to know better).  Joe Scarborough’s libelous (and untrue) comment on Morning Joe to Donald Trump that Putin “kills journalists” was perhaps the low point of a demonization campaign against Mr. Putin that has been evident long before the Sochi Olympics, when it was nothing short of frenzied.  Putin no more controls every outburst of bad taste or racism in Russia than the White House does here, and admittedly, he can swear like a sailor, but the criticism is unfair, even if the political goal of the Op-Ed is a noble one.

John Marshall Evans
Former U.S. Consul General in St. Petersburg

No one put me up to writing this letter, and it reflects only my own experience and point of view.  I knew Mr. Putin when he was First Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg, and I was Consul General, 1994-97.

[featured image is file photo]

 

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