The head of a top Russian state-run news organization has resigned from her position after Russia invaded Ukraine late last month and warned in a new interview this week that the world is on the brink of nuclear war.
&#8220;I really think we’re on the brink of a nuclear war right now,&#8221; Maria Baronova, who resigned as editor-in-chief of Russia Today, also known as RT, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/maria-baronova-russia-today-nuclear-war">told</a> Fox News in an exclusive interview. &#8220;I’m not exaggerating.&#8221;
&#8220;I have a son, I can’t leave because his father won’t allow me to leave with him, and so I just prefer to stay in Moscow … It seems like we’re either in North Korea or we are going to be killed by a thermonuclear mushroom,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I wouldn’t quit, and I wouldn’t lose my salary and job if I was sure that we are going to be alive for many years, but I really don’t know what is going to happen to all of us next.&#8221;
Baronova said that the straw that broke the camel&#8217;s back was a message that a colleague wrote on social media about Putin&#8217;s invasion, which stated: &#8220;If you are now ashamed of being Russian, don’t worry, you are not Russian.&#8221;
&#8220;I was really disturbed by that tone and level of support,&#8221; Baronova said in response to the social media post. &#8220;If I chose to be with Russia, this does not mean that I should walk in a totalitarian system, be silent or, for example, rejoice that the regime, which I do not want for my country, is being exported somewhere else. And this regime will finally turn our life into one endless hell. What&#8217;s there. Already turned.&#8221;
&#8220;I have nothing else to talk about with them,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Our own government is bombing our relatives, our friends.&#8221;
Baronova said that she was stunned by how many Russians were brainwashed by Putin&#8217;s claim that they were fighting Nazis in Ukraine.
&#8220;I try to talk with people on the streets… they even had arguments like, ‘We are fighting with Hitler,’ but look, I’ve got some news. Hitler died 80 years ago,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It seems like they’re really brainwashed.&#8221;
She also said that Western sanctions against Russia have started to change the public&#8217;s attitude toward the invasion.
&#8220;People were in favor on [the] first day of invasion. Now they are less convinced and much more skeptical because they understand now that they are going to lose their jobs, they are going to lose their cars, their iPhones, their everything,&#8221; she said. &#8220;So, let’s see what that are going to say in a month &#8230; The whole world is in a bad position.&#8221;
She said that the situation feels &#8220;like 1939,&#8221; which was the start of World War II, noting that it was impossible to know what would happen and that the people in Russia are &#8220;watching a lie on [the] TV.&#8221;

Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan meet in Moscow

Head Of Top Russian State-Run News Organization Quits, Issues Dire Warning About What’s Happening

Fox News

Nuclear Weapons

Russia Today

Facing mounting financial pressures, Russia’s English-language TV network RT America will cease production and permanently lay off most of its staff, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday afternoon.
RT — which is owned by the Moscow-based TV Novosti and operated by T&amp;R Productions — informed its employees via memo today: “As a result of unforeseen business interruption events, T&amp;R Productions LLC will be ceasing production and, therefore, must lay off most of its staff who work at all its locations.”
“Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent, meaning that this will result in the permanent separation from employment of most T&amp;R employees at all locations,” wrote T&amp;R Productions’ general manager Mikhail “Misha” Solodovnikov.
The network offered affected employees two months’ severance pay, according to an employee who attended Thursday afternoon’s all-staff meeting.
The move came after one of the network’s two largest distributors, DirecTV, announced it was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/directv-nixes-rt-american-from-program-lineup-amid-crisis-in-ukraine">canceling</a> the network’s coverage on Tuesday, government officials in the European Union formally banned the network, and Big Tech firms like Apple and Google blocked access to the network’s downloadable app. The state-funded network, which has long been accused of broadcasting Russian propaganda, had also been abandoned by many of its personalities and journalists since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.
DirecTV had considered dropping RT America, which is registered with the U.S. government as a foreign agent, before this month’s conflict in eastern Europe. “In line with our previous agreement with RT America, we are accelerating this year&#8217;s contract expiration timeline and will no longer offer their programming effective immediately,” the network announced in a <a href="https://www.axios.com/directv-rt-america-russia-ukraine-ef196f77-1929-4d94-9c42-2fccc915f7ed.html">statement</a>, adding that its “thoughts are with the people of Ukraine.” Four of Canada’s major cable providers banished RT from their airwaves <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220228-canadian-tv-giants-pull-russia-s-rt-network">over the weekend</a>.
On Tuesday, the European Union formally <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-europe/">enacted</a> a <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2022:065:FULL&amp;from=EN">sanction</a> prohibiting “operators to broadcast or to enable, facilitate or otherwise contribute to broadcast” for RT’s English, U.K., Germany, France, and Spain outlets, as well as another Russian service, <a href="https://sputniknews.com/">Sputnik News</a>.
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Second, we will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the EU.   The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war.   We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe. <a href="https://t.co/7RcPEn6E14">pic.twitter.com/7RcPEn6E14</a>
&mdash; Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) <a href="https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1497973706831929348?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war,” proclaimed Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday. In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin similarly signed a law fining outlets that repeatedly post “fake news” up to 1.5 million rubles.
Facebook’s Meta Platforms and China’s TikTok had announced on Monday that they would <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/directv-plans-drop-rt-america-lineup-2022-03-01/">block</a> those sites inside the EU. Apple, Microsoft, and Google acted in concert to remove the Russian media companies’ apps from their mobile stores. RokuTV also took the network, formerly known as Russia Today, off its streaming platform in Europe.
The U.S. response followed the encouragement of the National Association of Broadcasters. NAB <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/596280-broadcasters-association-calls-to-stop-broadcasting-of-russian-sponsored?rnd=1646149104">said</a> on Tuesday that, while it is “a fierce defender of the First Amendment and the critical importance of the ability to freely express views, both popular and unpopular,” it was asking broadcasters “to cease carrying any state-sponsored programming with ties to the Russian government or its agents” as proof of their “sound, moral judgment.” The International Academy of Television Arts &amp; Sciences — which awards the International Emmys — also <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/03/international-emmy-academy-boots-rt-america-affiliated-mikhail-solodovnikov-off-its-board-of-directors-1234968579/">removed</a> Solodovnikov from its board of directors on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, RT America’s main production partner, OraTV (which was <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/larry-king-carlos-slim-new-interview-show-cnn-298510/">founded</a> by the late CNN host Larry King and Carlos Slim), <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/03/directv-drops-rt-america-russia-ukraine-1234968328/">announced</a>, “Given the invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, Ora Media has paused production of content we license to T&amp;R Productions. Future business decisions will be made based on the evolving situation.” In addition to King’s last TV show, OraTV produced such RT America programs as William Shatner’s “I Don’t Understand,” and “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/dennis-miller-abandons-his-show-on-rt-the-kremlin-funded-network">Dennis Miller + One</a>.”
Shatner and former <a href="https://newsmax.com/">Newsmax TV</a> <a href="https://barrettsportsmedia.com/2021/09/22/news-talk-steve-malzberg/">personality</a> <a href="https://stevemtalk.com/">Steve Malzberg</a>, who hosted RT’s “<a href="https://www.rt.com/shows/eat-press/">Eat the Press</a>,” posted pro-Ukrainian messages on social media in the days before the network announcement. Malzberg called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “<a href="https://twitter.com/MalzbergShow/status/1499071662746222594">a hero</a>.”
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Zelensky?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Zelensky</a> is a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hero?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#hero</a>. Simply amazing. <a href="https://t.co/M0hHDN0zk1">https://t.co/M0hHDN0zk1</a>
&mdash; Steve Malzberg Show (@MalzbergShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/MalzbergShow/status/1499071662746222594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
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🙏🏻♥️☮️ <a href="https://t.co/RPzsivU2ER">pic.twitter.com/RPzsivU2ER</a>
&mdash; William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) <a href="https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1498474350852382727?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Multiple journalists and producers <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/rt-ukraine-coverage/">quit</a> the network earlier on Thursday. Sources inside the network revealed that although most employees expected staff reductions, they did not foresee the network’s complete closure and wrestled with whether they, too, would resign.
“In an all-hands meeting Thursday (3/3) at noon, management spared remaining RT-ers the dilemma. We’ve been canceled, by cable/satellite/online distribution platforms,” <a href="https://www.talkers.com/2022/03/03/holland-cooke-exits-rt-america/">wrote</a> Holland Cooke, who replaced left-wing talker Thom Hartmann as host of the network’s “The Big Picture.”
Many corporate and left-of-center outlets believe banning “disinformation” warrants private, or potentially government, action in the U.S. “We believe that our nation must stand fully united against misinformation and for freedom and democracy across the globe,” NAB said.
Mother Jones raised the specter of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/tucker-this-war-could-get-much-worse-than-it-already-is">censoring conservative networks</a>, including top-rated Fox News, for allegedly being too pro-Russian. If President Joe Biden decides to “crack down on pro-Russia disinformation,” then “U.S. cable companies will also need to scrutinize media outlets like FOX News whose shows &#8212; Tucker Carlson in particular &#8212; have parroted pro-Russia talking points,” the left-wing magazine <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2022/02/the-eu-is-trying-to-combat-disinformation-from-russian-state-media-the-us-should-do-the-same/">stated</a> on February 27.

Putin

Russia’s RT America To Cease Production, Lays Off Staff

Censorship

Media

Russia

The Biden administration is expected to announce on Wednesday that the United States will be imposing new sanctions on Russia&#8217;s gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, in response to the country’s actions near the Ukrainian border.
The pipeline connects Russia and Germany, and has been scrutinized as benefitting Russia to an extent that could threaten the rest of Europe. President Joe Biden has previously blocked such sanctions, but multiple sources told CNN he will allow them to move forward in an effort to prevent war in Europe.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-23-22/h_054328da438db04235921b60a804d395">reported</a> that three U.S. officials confirmed the sanctions would be part of a series of penalties against Russia:
<blockquote class="sc-dnqmqq hJIoKL">The administration decided to move forward with rescinding the national security waiver after Germany on Tuesday announced that it was halting the certification of the pipeline, the official said. Sanctioning Nord Stream 2’s parent company, Nord Stream 2 AG—a registered Swiss firm whose parent company is the Russian gas giant Gazprom—is effectively a death knell to the project, the official added.</blockquote>
On Wednesday, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russia-responds-to-biden-sanctions-americas-citizens-will-feel-consequences-of-us-raising-gas-cost">reported</a> that Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, responded to previous sanctions placed by the U.S. government by saying that they would only hurt Americans:
<blockquote>Antonov responded to the sanctions in a post on the official Facebook page of Russia’s Embassy in the U.S., writing that “sanctions cannot solve a thing.”
“It is hard to imagine that there is a person in Washington who expects Russia to revise its foreign policy under a threat of restrictions,” he wrote. “I don’t remember a single day when our country lived without any restrictions from the Western world. We have learned to work in such conditions. And not only to survive, but also to develop our state.”
“There is no doubt that the sanctions introduced against us will hit global financial and energy markets,” he continued. “The United States will not be left out, with its ordinary citizens feeling the consequences of the price increase in full.”</blockquote>
In January, Biden&#8217;s State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will “not move forward” if Russia invades Ukraine, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-department-says-nord-stream-2-pipeline-deal-will-not-move-forward-if-russia-invades-ukraine">reported</a> by The Daily Wire:
<blockquote>“I’d make two points here. No. 1 – gas is not currently flowing through Nord Stream 2, and that’s important because it means that Nord Stream 2 right now is not operational,” Price said.
“It is leverage for us. It is leverage for Germany. It is leverage for the trans-Atlantic community because gas is not flowing. To be clear, it is not leverage for Vladimir Putin,” he added.
In addition to addressing the current status of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Price noted the project will not move forward if a Russian invasion of Ukraine takes place.</blockquote>
Germany also <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/white-house-hails-germanys-decision-to-halt-certification-of-nord-stream-2-pipeline-to-punish-russia-001744081.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACN8zJ0eSmA4qfoQJMWOfgS_Ai9czhZ9RZIS4sjMgW3jJn1JpHL67SA6wWMbPYFLatGkBIGTXP3l2SRxBveHAJ9bHZmQiqLRdAvywDhs19KHHSB70Jr8ZW02moi_UtPmycSCqjPxLMhdzaBLE9lB8Kzb0ye4DANbrRXKiHLWV60a">announced</a> this week that construction on the pipeline would be halted. Biden official Daleep Singh, who serves as deputy national security adviser, praised Germany for the move.
“That’s an $11 billion investment in a prized gas pipeline, controlled by Russia, that will now go to waste. And it sacrifices what would have been a cash cow for Russia’s coffers,” Singh said on Tuesday. “But it’s not just about the money. This decision will relieve Russia’s geostrategic chokehold over Europe through its supply of gas, and it’s a major turning point in the world’s energy independence from Russia.”
The Daily Wire’s first original film, Shut In, has made its cinematic debut, being met with rave reviews. The Daily Wire is building an alternative to the leftist entertainment industry, one gripping movie at a time. Join us in this mission and stream Shut In today by becoming a Daily Wire <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">member</a>.

joeBiden

Biden Expected To Announce Sanctions On Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline

Nord Stream Pipeline

Sanctions

Ukraine

As the United States celebrated Independence Day over the weekend, the media continued to warn Americans of an allegedly all-powerful plot by Russian intelligence to advance misinformation. Unfortunately, Russia&#8217;s greatest distortion of our democracy will never be investigated, because it’s being perpetrated by the media and the Democratic Party.
I do not say that as hyperbole. Carefully studying Russian propaganda techniques and reading expert analyses from the intelligence community reveals that the media could hardly do a better job promoting the goals of Russian propaganda if they were paid in rubles.
The Department of Homeland Security explained Russian aims in an October 2020 <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/2020_10_06_homeland-threat-assessment.pdf">assessment</a>. “Russian actors will attempt to undermine national unity and sow seeds of discord that exploit perceived grievances within minority communities, especially among African Americans,” the report stated. “The Russian government promulgates misinformation, threats, and narratives intended to incite panic or animosity among social and political groups,” such as “portrayals of U.S. law enforcement as racially biased.”
That dovetails with FBI Director Christopher Wray’s <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/worldwide-threats-to-the-homeland-091720">testimony</a> before Congress a month earlier that “hostile foreign actors” conduct “disinformation campaigns” designed “to mislead, sow discord, and, ultimately, undermine confidence in our democratic institutions and values.” Similarly, former government intelligence analyst Clint Watts <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/russia-hacked-u-s-minds-and-undermined-democracy-author-says">told</a> NPR in 2018 that Russian propaganda plots “to make Americans lose confidence in democratic institutions and elected officials by turning every crack in our country into a chasm and pitting different race, ethnic groups, religious groups, socioeconomic groups, Second Amendment, abortion rights, whatever it might be where we fight, instead of being a unified front against them.”
There could scarcely be a better description of the legacy media.
As part of Russia’s campaign to fracture American unity, it has endorsed voices of hopelessness who turn to violence. The Director of National Intelligence <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf">noted</a> that in 2012, the Russian state-sponsored TV network RT “aired a documentary called ‘Cultures of Protest,’ about active and often violent political resistance,” and told viewers American government can only be changed by “revolution.” That sounds much like the message of CNN’s “United Shades of America,” in which host W. Kamau Bell interviewed violent members of Antifa. “Look, this fighting for democracy and against fascism thing has always been a messy business. And, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-host-praises-antifa-violence-yes-people-get-hurt">yes, people get hurt</a> [and] property gets damaged,” Bell said.
Russia has focused much of its own propaganda driving a wedge between police and the black community by supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Slate reviewed the ads purchased by the Kremlin’s Internet Research Agency and <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2018/05/russian-trolls-are-obsessed-with-black-lives-matter.html">reported</a> that “hundreds of the ads were focused on police violence toward black Americans.”
The Kremlin could never buy the publicity won by CNN and MSNBC’s laser-like focus on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mac-donald-statistics-do-not-support-the-claim-of-systemic-police-racism">exceedingly rare cases</a> of law enforcement officers shooting unarmed black men. Frequent MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson of Morgan State University <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-11th-hour-brian-williams-4-12-21-n1263907">told</a> Brian Williams in April, “I’m just as likely to get shot by that cop as I am with a potential intruder. That’s just the reality. That’s the reality of it that I live with every day.” Another contributor, <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/the-last-word/2020-06-05-msna1365596">said</a> last June that black “People should be free to move about this country without the existential dread.” Just last month, former Obama administration appointee Brittany Packnett Cunningham <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-obama-task-force-member-says-rise-in-crime-is-fault-of-the-police">told</a> MSNBC that the nation’s “rising crime … is actually the fault of the police.”
The Kremlin tried to convince black Americans that there is no safe haven for them anywhere in the U.S., even in professional sports. Before the 1984 Summer Olympics, Soviet agents <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/10/30/560042987/russians-targeted-u-s-racial-divisions-long-before-2016-and-black-lives-matter">forged</a> letters purportedly coming from the Ku Klux Klan that threatened to kill black athletes. “The Olympics — for the whites only,” they said. “We are preparing for the Olympic games by shooting at black moving targets.”
The legacy media likewise magnified false reports that a noose had been found in black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace’s garage. (In reality, the pull rope had been in the stall for years.) CNN political analyst Errol Louis <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2006/22/nday.06.html">connected</a> the fictitious death threat to Wallace’s opposition to the Confederate flag. “These things don&#8217;t change overnight, and they don&#8217;t change without some ugliness,” he said. “We&#8217;re starting to see some of the ugliness.”
The Left is the most convenient vehicle for engendering civil strife, with its embrace of intersectionality and its poisonous spawn, identity politics, which divide the country based on race, ethnicity, sex, sexual preference, gender identity, and (of least importance to the modern Left) socioeconomic status. The finer and more impermeable the divisions can be cut, the greater the resultant division. The legacy media drive this fractious message home literally 24 hours a day.
The goal of getting Americans to question the legitimacy of their government advanced thanks to the media, which spent four years delegitimizing the Trump administration. When the late Rep. John Lewis <a href="//7892B828-65C2-49AE-93FC-093D8446DDF1/legim">said</a> he did not believe “Trump is a legitimate president,” then-CNN political analyst Symone Sanders <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1701/14/ndaysat.01.html">replied</a>, “I&#8217;m not going to sit here and make judgments on whether or not it&#8217;s appropriate for John Lewis to join the Resistance. I&#8217;m here for the Resistance.” (Sanders is now Kamala Harris’ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-hires-all-female-senior-communications-team/2020/11/29/5b60b58e-3277-11eb-a997-1f4c53d2a747_story.html">chief spokeswoman</a>.) The media did not confine themselves to the executive branch. When multiple Democrats called Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-media-immediately-attack-amy-coney-barrett-move-to-delegitimize-her-nomination">illegitimate</a>,” CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2010/14/sitroom.01.html">said</a>, “Kamala Harris was saying, the Democrats believe that this — with reason I believe — that this entire session lacks legitimacy.”
The legacy media certainly increased the number of Americans who do not trust what they read or hear on the news. How else could viewers react when CNN described last summer’s burning of Kenosha as “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-cnn-claims-kenosha-protests-are-fiery-but-mostly-peaceful-as-city-burns-behind-reporter">fiery but mostly peaceful</a>,” in a manner reminiscent of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ung95ORVUY">Baghdad Bob</a>? How should they respond to a media that claims the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab went <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-impossible-to-credible-how-the-legacy-media-is-desperately-spinning-their-wuhan-lab-flip-flop">from “impossible” to “suddenly credible”</a> with no real change in the evidence? Even the media’s fact-checks are frequently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fact-checkers-say-joe-biden-never-supported-defunding-the-police-heres-the-truth">politically motivated</a> or outright <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-people-behind-joe-bidens-fact-check-team-have-a-history-of-lying-to-the-american-people">erroneous</a>. The legacy media have discredited themselves, leaving Americans with the developed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-have-worlds-lowest-trust-in-media-survey">world’s lowest trust in the media</a>.
There is one final objective of Russian propaganda that many other assessments do not capture: Péter Krekó, a <a href="https://www.ned.org/fellowships/current-fellows/">fellow</a> at the National Endowment for Democracy and executive director of the Budapest-based <a href="https://politicalcapital.hu/index_gb.php">Political Capital Institute</a>, once told me that one of Russia’s greatest desires is to appear more powerful than it truly is. The media accomplished this task beyond Moscow’s wildest dreams. Russia has a shrinking population, an aging nuclear arsenal, and an economy <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/04/17/which-has-the-bigger-economy-texas-or-russia/?sh=a0f995970b93">smaller</a> than the GDP of Texas. The DNI says that Russia will “struggle to project and maintain influence globally.” It tries to fill the void with paltry Facebook ads and troll websites. But Democrats and the media spent the last four years acting as though Vladimir Putin dictated Republican policy in a manner comparable to a medieval tsar appointing regional commisars to oversee grain production in the Caucuses.
If the media truly wish to combat “Russian misinformation and disinformation,” they can begin by dialing down their racially divisive coverage, ceasing to polarize Americans over political differences, and returning to the most fundamental task of journalism: getting the facts right.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

2014 Paralympic Winter Games – Closing Ceremony

OPINION: The American Media Has Spread Russian Propaganda More Effectively Than Russia Itself

Media Bias

Propaganda

Racism

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that he was ending the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama which gave the leading state sponsor of terrorism billions of dollars without effectively curbing their efforts to build a nuclear arsenal.
Many conservatives hailed the move, including Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30392/watch-trump-just-shredded-iran-deal-here-are-5-ben-shapiro">Ben Shapiro</a>. 
Many in the mainstream media had a far different response on Twitter, echoing Obama administration talking points about the deal and portraying Trump&#8217;s decision in hyperbolic terms.
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Trump scraps the Iran deal, echoes the bad judgments of Bush. From <a href="https://twitter.com/csdickey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@csdickey</a> <a href="https://t.co/HUmFY5gbns">https://t.co/HUmFY5gbns</a>
&#8212; The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) <a href="https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/993934838448164864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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BREAKING: AP sources: Trump to withdraw from landmark nuclear accord with Iran, dealing blow to U.S. allies.
&#8212; The Associated Press (@AP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/993896855556755456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Twitter Reacts to Trump&#8217;s Stunning Withdrawal From Iran Nuclear Deal: &#8216;Pathological Liar&#8217; is &#8216;Playing With Fire&#8217; (VIDEO) <a href="https://t.co/HTc2VZTQ6y">https://t.co/HTc2VZTQ6y</a> <a href="https://t.co/SkTUVdhQxZ">pic.twitter.com/SkTUVdhQxZ</a>
&#8212; Mediaite (@Mediaite) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/993937484215209984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Nobel Peace Prize winner tears into Trump for planning to pull out of Iran deal: &#8220;This is so stupid!&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/DDUy2Bsl20">https://t.co/DDUy2Bsl20</a> <a href="https://t.co/b6mn6OrupO">pic.twitter.com/b6mn6OrupO</a>
&#8212; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/994026190431277057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8216;Moscow is &#8216;deeply disappointed&#8217; by Trump&#8217;s decision to pull out from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IranDeal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IranDeal</a>&#8216; &#8211; FM <a href="https://t.co/e7VJzsrZOB">https://t.co/e7VJzsrZOB</a>
&#8212; RT (@RT_com) <a href="https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/993981368873861120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Breaking News: President Trump will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, he told the French president, fulfilling a campaign vow but alienating European allies <a href="https://t.co/nVSxQIVnm2">https://t.co/nVSxQIVnm2</a>
&#8212; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/993877703601291265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Former President Barack Obama called the U.S. decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement without any Iranian violations of the deal &#8220;misguided&#8221; and said: &#8220;Consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America&#8217;s credibility.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/WgQ6t1Xuob">pic.twitter.com/WgQ6t1Xuob</a>
&#8212; AJ+ (@ajplus) <a href="https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/993974339073589248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Others delved into bizarre conspiracy theories.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
WATCH: <a href="https://twitter.com/AliVelshi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AliVelshi</a> explain how the NRA&#8217;s new president, Oliver North, played an integral role in the Iran-Contra deal. <a href="https://t.co/DPOqA2nWiH">https://t.co/DPOqA2nWiH</a>
&#8212; MSNBC (@MSNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/993992716802580483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Perspective | The withdrawal from the Iran deal signals a new power player in Washington: Christian Zionists <a href="https://t.co/HPHSZEuOCy">https://t.co/HPHSZEuOCy</a>
&#8212; Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/993985425369944065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
CNN responded by lending its voice to the tyrannical Iranian regime by tweeting out the response of its dictatorial president:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reacts to US President Donald Trump&#8217;s decision to pull out of the Iran deal, saying Trump is not loyal to international commitments <a href="https://t.co/deYkgcWcDc">https://t.co/deYkgcWcDc</a> <a href="https://t.co/xXQ5nYqKYq">pic.twitter.com/xXQ5nYqKYq</a>
&#8212; CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/993935244356083712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

Top 10 Worst Media Reactions On Twitter To Iran Deal Ending

Al Jazeera

Associated Press

Barack Obama

Conservatism

Donald Trump

Foreign Policy

Iran

Leftism

At the age of 34, and as an ostensibly experienced news media industry veteran, Andrew Feinberg was surprised to learn that Sputnik News Service (SNN) &#8212; an English-language propaganda arm of the Russian state &#8212; was not committed to honest production and distribution of information.
Feinberg wrote of his five-month tenure at SNN in a <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/21/russian-propaganda-sputnik-reporter-215511">Monday-published article</a> at Politico, documenting his realization that SNN was committed to damaging America:
<blockquote>
I began to realize that Sputnik&#8217;s mission wasn&#8217;t really to report the news as much as it was to push a narrative that would either sow doubts about situations that weren&#8217;t flattering to Russia or its allies, or hurt the reputation of the United States and its allies.
</blockquote>
Despite SNN&#8217;s subversion of truth in pursuit of its political agenda, Feinberg still wants taxpayer funds to be diverted toward news media production at home and abroad: &#8220;State-sponsored news organizations, including the BBC &#8230; Agence France-Press and Al-Jazeera &#8230; all do excellent work.&#8221;
In a Tuesday interview with Sirius XM&#8217;s Julie Mason for POTUS, Feinberg reiterated his support for state-sponsorship of news media:
<blockquote>
[State-funded news media outlets] do amazing work &#8230; BBC does great work. Al-Jazeera does amazing work. 
I don&#8217;t see why a state-funded outlet in and of itself is a bad thing. In fact, I think there&#8217;s an argument that tax dollars should go toward the gathering and dissemination of news in an unbiased and aggressive fashion. &#8230; At the end of the day, I think that putting public money into news is something that should always happen in a free society that values a free press.
</blockquote>
Describing SNN as a &#8220;bizarre environment,&#8221; Feinberg noted that SNN wanted him to reveal details of his sources to management:
<blockquote>
They wanted to know the names of my sources, who I was meeting with, when I was meeting with them, and they didn&#8217;t want to pay for expenses &#8230; they didn&#8217;t seem to have any understanding of the way journalism is practised in this country.
</blockquote>
English-language Russian state propaganda is generally anti-American and not &#8220;pro-Trump,&#8221; noted Feinberg, rejecting a narrative framing SNN and RT as boosters of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2015-2016 presidential election cycle:
<blockquote>
[Believing SNN/RT are pro-Trump] is a misconception that a lot of people have about Sputnik and Russian media and President Trump. I was never told to write pro-Trump stories. Even one particularly pro-Trump reporter who used to work there has told me that she was never told to write pro-Trump stories, she just did that on her own. The thing that happens is that the stories aren&#8217;t pro-Trump, but they highlight instances where the United States is maybe hypocritical, or things like protests against Trump.
RT covered the Occupy protests wall-to-wall, and it creates this narrative that the U.S. is crumbling and corrupt, and of course, no better than Russia &#8212; &#8220;they have no reason to lecture Russia on anything&#8221;&#8212; and that&#8217;s what it is, it&#8217;s not so much pro-Trump, it&#8217;s anti-American.
</blockquote>
Feinberg was terminated by SNN when he refused to inquire about the murder of Seth Rich in his capacity as an SNN operative in questioning White House spokespersons during White House press beifings.
Listen to Feinberg&#8217;s interview with Mason below.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2EpfYjmLnxE" width="854"></iframe></div>
<div class="embed video fluid-video">SNN and RT regularly push neo-Marxist and anti-American narratives, not unlike left-wing and Democrat-aligned domestic news media outlets.</div>

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Sputnik Employee Surprised To Find Out He Worked For Russian Propaganda

Conspiracy theorist and former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura is taking a new gig as the anchor for Russian state television program, according to an <a href="http://www.startribune.com/former-gov-jesse-ventura-has-a-new-gig-on-russian-television/427092891/">article</a> from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. 
This month, Ventura is joining RT America as the host of The World According to Jesse, hosting the program from his home state of Minnesota. 
&#8220;I am working for the enemy of mainstream media now,&#8221; Ventura said. 
RT America is part of a media outlet funded by the Russian government. It has often been criticized as the fake news propaganda arm of President Vladimir Putin. 
Ventura claims that RT America will not censor his content. He said, &#8220;I have total artistic control and I can talk about anything I want,&#8221; adding, &#8220;We&#8217;re more interested in talking about our country. I didn&#8217;t join RT to report on Russia.&#8221;
When confronted about the fact that a basic search of RT&#8217;s content reveals no criticism of Putin, Ventura replied that no one at RT America is interested in reporting on the Russian leader. 
Though RT claims to have hundreds of millions of viewers, the network can only be streamed from its website, making it difficult for viewers to find his program. Ventura is scheduled to do 16 episodes this year and 16 more in 2018. 
Ventura was, at one time, a hot commodity for the left. He had been hosting a program on Ora TV, but left over a pay dispute. 
According to <a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/06/08/jesse-ventura-to-host-russian-tv-show-amid-struggles-after-american-sniper-suit.html">FoxNews</a>, he blames his downfall on his failed attempt to sue deceased Navy SEAL hero and American Sniper Chris Kyle&#8217;s widow for defamation. Though he originally won the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/6533/appeals-court-tells-jesse-ventura-stick-it-18-amanda-prestigiacomo">suit</a>, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision, saying the ruling was a reversal of an &#8220;unjust-enrichment&#8221; award. Because of the negative publicity, Ventura complains, he cannot find any work.
&#8220;I can&#8217;t get a job in the U.S. No one will touch me,&#8221; Ventura told AP in a Thursday interview. &#8220;My United States union throws me in the dirt and who comes to the rescue? Russia.&#8221; He added, &#8220;I want to do it. But, in some ways I was forced to do it.&#8221;
The Screen Actors Guild withdrew Ventura&#8217;s health insurance following a lack of paying jobs. &#8220;I was in a panic,&#8221; he said about losing his health care. RT is now covering him. He asserted, &#8220;Russian Television saved my wife and I.&#8221;
Ventura traveled to Moscow to visit RT&#8217;s headquarters for their 10th Anniversary event. He spoke with other American employees and said that they enjoy working there. The keynote speaker at the event was Putin. 
Ventura blames the media for his case being overturned on appeal. He pointed to the interviewer and said, &#8220;You&#8217;re the ones that caused us to have a second trial.&#8221; He continued with a grin, &#8220;I am avoiding our national media. I am going international.&#8221;

Jesse Ventura Gets New Show On RT America

Democratic Party

Fake News

Liberalism

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Just one day after Washington lost its mind over the controversial and suspiciously-timed firing of an FBI Director actively investigating a sitting president&#8217;s alleged links with the hostile Russian Federation, President Trump decided to host diplomats from Moscow, the very same men who, according to U.S. intelligence information about the operational procedures of Vladimir Putin&#8217;s Kremlin, were intimately involved in Russia&#8217;s cyber warfare campaign against the United States. Adding fuel to the media fire, Trump also invited Henry Kissinger, the late President Nixon&#8217;s larger-than-life Secretary of State and National Security Advisor.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I hate &#8220;optics&#8221; talk, but nothing screams &#8220;Not Nixonian&#8221; and &#8220;Not about Russia&#8221; like meeting Russia and Kissinger within 24 hours of firing
&#8212; Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/862330236305887233">May 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
It would be an understatement to assert that this is bad optics for an administration under fire from the entire Democratic party and a handful of high-ranking Republican lawmakers over its handling of a federal investigation into the Trump campaign&#8217;s alleged links to Russia.
Trump personally met with the Sergeys: Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. Oddly enough, photos detailing the meeting were first released by the Russians, specifically state-run &#8220;news&#8221; agency TASS, not the White House. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
2 photos of Trump in the Oval Office with Russian FM Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak. They&#8217;re from the Russians. Nothing from White House yet. <a href="https://t.co/s8BSYDGn62">pic.twitter.com/s8BSYDGn62</a>
&#8212; Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) <a href="https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/862326950400069632">May 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
If Kisylak&#8217;s name sounds familiar, that&#8217;s because you probably heard his name casually floating around during the Michael Flynn controversy. According to the White House itself, Flynn was fired from his post as National Security Advisor after lying (by omission) to Vice President Mike Pence about his suspicious meetings with Kislyak during the presidential campaign.
Flynn, who made several appearances on Russian state-television, dined with Putin in Moscow, and retroactively registered as a foreign agent for the government of Turkey, is currently under federal investigation. In fact, Flynn&#8217;s associates were subpoenaed by a federal grand jury on Tuesday as part of the FBI&#8217;s ongoing investigation into the potentially illegal links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Lavrov&#8217;s presence at the White House just one day after Comey&#8217;s firing is just as controversial. According to a discredited dossier drafted by a former MI6 agent, Lavrov was at the center of an apparent Russian blackmail operation against Trump. While the salacious dossier was found to be wholly uncredible and rife with inconsistencies and falsehoods, it&#8217;s unclear why Trump would choose to meet with somebody whose very presence reeks of impropriety.
Lavrov routinely condemns the United States at the United Nations over the issue of Syria and walks a fine line between characterizing America as a greedy, arrogant imperialistic empire and labeling the U.S. government as an entity guilty of war crimes.
Things only get weirder when you consider the fact that sitting U.S. presidents almost never meet with foreign ministers. Defying diplomatic norms, Trump, not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, went out of his way to personally meet with Kislyak and Lavrov. Under any other administration, Tillerson would be the one sitting down and getting dirty with the Russian delegation in an effort to address U.S. concerns about Russian cyber warfare, Putin&#8217;s invasion of Crimea, and the Russian army&#8217;s scorched earth campaign in Syria on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Incredibly, Trump put on a smiley face Wednesday and acted as if it was business as usual at the White House. Omitting any mention of Kisylak, Trump <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/politics/trump-lavrov-tillerson-meeting/">described</a> his meeting with Lavrov as &#8220;very, very good.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s cheery comments came just minutes after Lavrov mocked the Comey firing scandal.
&#8220;Was he fired?&#8221; Lavrov <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-sergey-lavrov-trump-comey-firing-2017-5">quipped</a> facetiously in response to a question by NBC News&#8217; Andrea Mitchell about whether Comey&#8217;s dismissal would affect his meeting with Trump in anyway.
&#8220;You are kidding &#8212; you are kidding,&#8221; Lavrov added, rolling his eyes in contempt.
Trump&#8217;s White House meeting with the Russian officials came after a meeting with Henry Kissinger, prompting many to draw parallels between the president&#8217;s firing of Comey and the Saturday Night Massacre in which President Nixon ordered his attorney general to fire the special prosecutor tasked with investigating Watergate. The scandal was exacerbated when both the attorney general and the deputy attorney general resigned. Ultimately, Nixon would resign in disgrace after Congress formally initiated the impeachment process on February 6, 1974.
Trump&#8217;s meeting with Kissinger <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/russians-release-photos-of-trump-meeting-with-ambassador-foreign-minister-in-oval-office/article/2622679">reportedly</a> involved discussions &#8220;about Russia and various other matters.&#8221;
Adding further confusion to an already chaotic day at the White House, the meeting appeared to have been organized haphazardly. 
&#8220;Trump&#8217;s public schedule said the president would meet with Lavrov in the Oval Office at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday,&#8221; <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/russians-release-photos-of-trump-meeting-with-ambassador-foreign-minister-in-oval-office/article/2622679">reports</a> The Washington Examiner. &#8220;Reporters were ushered into the Oval Office afterwards to see Trump not with the Russians, but with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.&#8221;
It&#8217;s not hyperbole to say that today&#8217;s events unfolded like a primetime television show.
In a scene that will live on in annals of absurd presidential moments, Trump actually fielded questions about Comey while sitting next to Kissinger.
When asked why the head of the FBI was abruptly fired just three years into his 10-year term, Trump <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-explains-comey-firing-and-hey-look-henry-kissinger-2017-05-10">answered</a>, &#8220;Because he was not doing a good job.&#8221;
Slouched over in his comfortable yellow chair underneath the austere portraits of Hamilton, Washington, and Jefferson, Kissinger allowed his famously stoic face to give off a subtle grin.

TOP TROLL: Trump Hosts Russian Ambassador, Foreign Minister Day After Firing Comey. Then He Takes A Picture With Nixon’s Secretary Of State.

James Comey

Michael Flynn

Republican Party

Richard Nixon

Trump Administration

Vladimir Putin

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was unable to offer any evidence of collusion between Donald Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign and Russian government officials toward subversion of last year&#8217;s presidential election during a Wednesday interview with CNN&#8217;s Wolf Blitzer.

For months, Democrats and their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/russian-election-hacking">news</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/us/2016-presidential-campaign-hacking-fast-facts/">media</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html">allies</a> have pushed a narrative of 2016&#8217;s president election having been compromised by Russian state &#8220;interference&#8221; at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to assist Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign. They have further implied that the political &#8220;interference&#8221; was coordinated between Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign and Russian state operatives or interlocutors.

Despite having no evidence to corroborate the allusion of collusion between Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign and the Russian government, Feinstein suggested via innuendo that such evidence may exist, telling Blitzer that she has no evidence &#8220;at this time&#8221; when invited to offer evidence of her claimed suspicions.

<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/04/27/rep_schiff_i_believe_trump_colluded_with_russia_premature_to_say_there_will_be_no_proof.html">Last week</a>, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House Intelligence Committee&#8217;s top Democrat, was similarly incapable of providing any evidence of conspiracy between Trump&#8217;s political associates and the Russian state toward subverting American democracy. Like Feinstein, Schiff deployed innuendo to suggest that such evidence exists.

According to Feinstein, Schiff, and many other Democrats, the absence of evidence of conspiracy between Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign and Russian state interests is the justification for congressional investigations to obtain evidence.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans have called for investigations into political influence campaigns driven by foreign state-run propaganda outlets such as the BBC, CBC, France24, Al-Jazeera, or PressTV.

H/T Cameron Cawthorne at <a href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/feinstein-no-evidence-collusion-between-trump-associates-russia/">The Washington Free Beacon</a>.

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0BS5amEq7Fc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

WATCH: Democrat Senator Admits NO EVIDENCE of Trump-Russia Collusion

Dianne Feinstein

Vladimir Putin&#8217;s machismo rhetoric is well-documented. Shows of strength and tough-talk are part and parcel of an anti-Western Russian foreign policy premised on Cold War-era sentiments. In a recent propaganda video released by the Russian state-run media, this aggressive posturing was on full-display. Claiming that it could realistically disable America&#8217;s entire military with a single &#8220;electronic bomb,&#8221; the Kremlin&#8217;s news &#8220;reporters&#8221; boasted about the Russian military&#8217;s ability to de-weaponize U.S. missiles, warplanes, and ships with electronic jamming signals.
&#8220;Today, our Russian Electronic Warfare (REW) troops can detect and neutralize any target from a ship&#8217;s system and a radar, to a satellite,&#8221; <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3360129/russia-wipe-out-us-navy-electronic-bomb/">said</a> a state-sponsored newscaster.
Citing an ambiguous incident several years ago, the newscaster insisted that Russia had used this technology against U.S. naval vessels in the past.
&#8220;The news report claim[ed] a single Russian war plane flew several times around American destroyer the USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea several years ago, disabling its systems and leaving it helpless,&#8221; <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3360129/russia-wipe-out-us-navy-electronic-bomb/">reports</a> The Sun. &#8220;The report also claim[ed] they are capable to creating electronic jamming domes over their bases that make them invisible on radar screens.&#8221;
It&#8217;s worth noting that it&#8217;s unclear whether Russia possesses this sort of technology or not. State-run media is hardly a reliable source to fall back on. If the Russian Federation does have the ability to jam U.S. naval equipment (an unlikely feat), then the Pentagon a) knows about it and, b) has likely developed defensive or counter-offensive methods for disrupting such an attack.
The North-Korean style rhetoric comes as the United States takes an increasingly assertive stance against the genocidal regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia.
NATO military exercises along Russia&#8217;s western border with Europe have also been cause for consternation in Moscow as Putin begins to see that his military excursions in Ukraine cannot be repeated in states allied with NATO, including Latvia and Estonia.

Russia: Hey, We Can Disable America’s Entire Navy With A Single ‘Electronic Bomb’

As White House officials take increasingly hard-line stances against Russia, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s most powerful patron, President Trump himself has continued to push for rapprochement between Washington and Moscow.
Here&#8217;s what the president tweeted early Thursday morning.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Things will work out fine between the U.S.A. and Russia. At the right time everyone will come to their senses &amp; there will be lasting peace!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/852510810287075329">April 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
While better relations with Russia would undoubtedly be a good thing, there&#8217;s no reason to believe that the Kremlin has any intention of letting down its guard. In fact, Russian state media is already turning on Trump after running flattering &#8220;news&#8221; reports about the billionaire businessman turned Commander-in-Chief during the 2016 presidential election. Negative coverage of Trump has dovetailed with his decision to launch cruise missile strikes against the Syrian regime&#8217;s Sharyat Airbase, where U.S. Central Command believes Assad&#8217;s warplanes departed from before dropping sarin gas on rebel-held territories in Idlib province.
Beyond Trump&#8217;s unexpected policy shift on Syria, the Russians have very little incentive to play nice with the U.S.
Here are 5 reasons why things will not work out just fine between the &#8220;U.S.A. and Russia.&#8221;
1. Putin has imperialistic ambitions. As the totalitarian leader of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin enjoys a near-monopoly on power in his home country. All major military and diplomatic decisions must first go through the former KGB operative. In order to understand Russian foreign policy, one must first understand the conniving mind of Putin. It&#8217;s no secret that Russia&#8217;s economy is taking a hit as the price petrol remains stagnant. As any student of history knows, financial turmoil at home leads to social unrest. Recent protests in Moscow are reflective of the Russian people&#8217;s anxieties about the future. To maintain control of Russian civil society, Putin needs to project a tough-guy image, one that&#8217;s premised on chauvinism. The best way to do this is through military force abroad. Putin&#8217;s annexation of Crimea and bombing campaign in Syria have not only helped secure naval facilities and military compounds in the Middle East and Eastern Europe respectively, but these bold actions in full view of the powerless so-called international community have ginned up excitement at home. For Putin, power plays abroad serve to distract the rapidly shrinking middle-class and maintain an aura of invincibility. It goes without saying that Russia&#8217;s imperial excursions directly undermine U.S. interests abroad. Not only do they threaten the sovereignty of U.S. allies and NATO partners (particularly in Eastern Europe), but they disrupt global stability, ensuring regional conflicts and sectarian violence for the foreseeable future.
2. Russia is still bitter about losing the Cold War. Putin has made no secret of his bitterness toward the United States as a result of the decades-old Cold War. Here&#8217;s what Putin <a href="http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/06/john-bolton/did-vladimir-putin-call-breakup-ussr-greatest-geop/">said</a> in April of 2015:
<blockquote>
Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself.
</blockquote>
For Putin and his hawkish political allies in the Kremlin, the Cold War never ended; the possibility for a renewed Soviet Union lives on in every geopolitical chess piece Russia moves. Indeed, Russia&#8217;s interference in Syria (by interference we mean dropping barrel bombs over civilian homes and hospitals) on behalf of its client Assad marks a high-point for Russia&#8217;s imperialistic aspirations. Not since the Cold War ended has Russia stationed troops in the Middle East. Today, Russian soldiers, planes, and tanks occupy Syria. Despite recent U.S. military operations in Syria, Russian military personnel haven&#8217;t moved an inch. From what it looks, they&#8217;re there for the long-haul.
3. Putin uses America and the West as a foils. The West is the perfect enemy for Vladimir Putin. Echoing political talking points often adopted by the &#8220;anti-imperialist&#8221; wing of the American Left, Putin and his vast network of Kremlin propagandists (see: <a href="http://archives.cjr.org/feature/what_is_russia_today.php">RT</a>) use modern technology, including social media, to spread canards about the United States. From conspiracy theories about the war in Iraq to sophistry about the U.S. federal system, Russian trolls have engaged in a &#8220;<a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/01/06/508032496/how-russias-disinformation-campaign-could-extend-its-tentacles">disinformation</a>&#8221; to trash America&#8217;s historical legacy and moral credibility. <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/13/cias-pompeo-rips-wikileaks-as-hostile-intelligence-service-abetted-by-russia.html"> Supplying WikiLeaks with hacked material</a> to undermine the American people&#8217;s faith in their own electoral system and reveal classified information of immense importance to U.S. national security isn&#8217;t what friends do. As the world&#8217;s sole remaining superpower, the United States may be the only deterrent against Russia&#8217;s expansionist impulses. That&#8217;s why the Russians have launched a cyberwar against us. Make no mistake, Russia&#8217;s demonization of the United States on state-run media outlets is just the tip of the iceberg. Russian FSB officers, sitting behind computer screens and <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/6988/russia-harassing-american-diplomats-across-europe-joshua-yasmeh">harassing U.S. diplomats across Europe</a>, are actively working to create a world where America is just another country, not a powerful force for moral good. It&#8217;s a long-term and uphill battle, but the Russians are committed to regaining their hegemonic status, if ever there was one.
4. Russia supports causes and groups hostile to the U.S. Moscow&#8217;s support for the genocidal Syrian regime isn&#8217;t limited to veto votes at the United Nations Security Council. Since the Russian military made its way into Syria in 2015, it has been bombing U.S.-backed and U.S.-trained allies to ensure that their client Assad retains power. The handful of anti-Assad opposition forces we have supported at various points during the Syrian civil war have been targeted by Russian warplanes without mercy. In addition, Russia&#8217;s de facto alliance with Iran is designed to push America out of the Middle East and undermine longtime U.S. allies, particularly the Saudis.
5. We tried diplomacy before; it didn&#8217;t work. Remember the Russian reset? We saw Hillary Clinton hand foreign minister Sergey Lavrov a red-button with improperly translated Russian writing as a symbol of America&#8217;s renewed interest in developing a friendly relationship with Russia. In the years since 2009, Russia has run roughshod on international norms. Foreign minister Lavrov ran circles around Clinton&#8217;s State Department successor, Secretary John Kerry, after brokering fake ceasefire agreements between the Syrian regime and opposition forces. After Assad used chemical weapons in Ghouta in 2013, the Obama administration stuck a deal with the Russians ensuring that the Syrian regime would remove all chemical weapons from the country. Clearly, that never happened, despite Russia&#8217;s insistence to the contrary. To this day, Russia claims that Assad hasn&#8217;t used chemical weapons on his own people. Putin and his chief diplomat Sergey Lavrov are liars. There&#8217;s no reason for the United States to trust any commitments or any agreements signed by Moscow.

Trump: ‘Things Will Work Out Just Fine Between The USA And Russia.’ Here Are 5 Reasons That’s Not True.

Bashar Assad

Hillary Clinton

John Kerry

Syria

On Wednesday, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was removed from President Trump&#8217;s National Security Council (NSC), according to a regulatory filing cited by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-05/bannon-removed-from-national-security-council-role-in-shakeup?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&amp;utm_content=business&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">Bloomberg</a>. The shakeup also affected Homeland Security Adviser, Tom Bossert, whose role was downgraded after National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was granted sole agenda-setting power over the NSC.
&#8220;Under the move, the national intelligence director, Dan Coats, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, are again &#8216;regular attendees&#8217; of the NSC&#8217;s principals committee,&#8221; reports Bloomberg.
Trump drew staunch criticism from both the Left and the Right as well as non-partisan foreign policy experts when he selected a political appointee with minimal experience in security matters to serve on a body tasked with assessing national security threats alongside the Commander-in-Chief.
Bannon, a former Breitbart executive, won favor with Trump after turning the far-right website into a propaganda arm of the Trump campaign. The website catered to perhaps the most disturbing elements of the Trump coalition, including the notoriously racist alt-right ethno-nationalist movement. At one point, Bannon even <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-what-is-the-alt-right-a-refresher-1479169663-htmlstory.html">referred</a> to Breitbart as a &#8220;platform for the alt&#8211;right.&#8221; 

According to a senior White House official, Bannon was only granted a spot on the NSC to babysit the now-disgraced National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, and reverse the policies of Susan &#8220;Benghazi&#8221; Rice, formerly President Obama&#8217;s deputy National Security Adviser. Notably, the same official claims that Bannon never actually attended an NSC meeting.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
sr WH official tells me Bannon was only on NSC to keep an eye on Flynn &amp; &#8220;de-operationalize NSC from Rice&#8221; &amp; that he never went to a meeting
&#8212; Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) <a href="https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/849648807138783232">April 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
&#8220;Job done,&#8221; source says.
&#8212; Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) <a href="https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/849649386963558401">April 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
Flynn left his post after allegedly lying to Vice President Mike Pence and other key administration officials about his contacts with Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Flynn <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/flynn-russia-us-sanctions-reports/">reportedly</a> discussed the prospect of lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia over its imperialistic land-grab in Crimea. The unethical communications allegedly occurred prior to Trump&#8217;s election victory, raising disturbing questions about Flynn&#8217;s commitment to U.S. national security interests. For his part, Trump has claimed that he had no knowledge of Flynn&#8217;s communications with Kremlin officials.
However, White House officials now say that they have always had concerns about Flynn and his presence on the NSC.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Same official says the president made the decision, this was the deal from the beginning, and &#8220;we all knew Flynn had issues&#8221;
&#8212; Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) <a href="https://twitter.com/RosieGray/status/849649922903289857">April 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
If this is the case, the obvious question here is: why choose Flynn to begin with? Why give a man <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-russia-today-rt-kremlin-media-vladimir-putin-213833">with financial links to the Kremlin</a> access to classified and top secret national security information?
Since resigning, Flynn has registered as a foreign agent for the government of Turkey. In addition, a Congressional probe has been initiated to disentangle Flynn&#8217;s web of connections to Moscow.
If anything, Bannon&#8217;s abrupt departure from the NSC generates more questions than answers. Was he really just a glorified babysitter this entire time?

Bannon Removed From National Security Council. White House Says He Was Just A Glorified Babysitter Paid To Look After Flynn.

Breitbart

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster

National Security

Steve Bannon

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