Photo of RT correspondent Paul Slier, from /paula.slier The tags for the post were scandal, mass media, security, Ukraine, war and violence. I noticed that RT often labeled their articles, even pretty standard news stories, with the tag ‘scandal.’įor example, RT reported that Paula Slier, a journalist with RT, left Ukraine because another journalist called on Ukrainian authorities to arrest her, triggering an online flurry that RT says included violent threats against Slier. Getty has the first, the second – and the very last word on Ukraine. As is the RT way, there’s no attempt to present any other views. Yet RT chose to package the whole thing around the Ukrainian angle.Ģ. But: There’s lots more here – Getty’s analysis on American-Russian relations, for example. And it definitely relates directly to that headline about WWII victory not bringing Kiev and Moscow together. This quote comes at the very end of the interview. I’m afraid these celebrations are not going to do that simply because of the attitudes that are being taken.ġ. War criminals in Ukraine, Bandera, people who killed Jews and many others are being touted as national heroes there for current political needs of the Ukrainian leadership. And they have done so in the most glaring kinds of ways that the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yatsenyuk has said that WWII was about the Soviet Union invading Germany. In an interview with UCLA professor Arch Getty aptly headlined “ WWII victory doesn’t bring Russia, Ukraine together as Kiev turned war criminals into heroes,” RT asks Getty if the memory of the former Soviet states’ victory is enough to ease tension between the two countries.ĪG: It certainly should, but it is not, and it won’t because Ukraine as a new nation, a new state more than anybody else has to create a useable past, a useable history. No, RT used V-Day as a means to kick dirt at Kiev, at least a little bit. But it wouldn’t be like RT to stop there. Readers saw plenty of posts on rt.com geared at inspiring Russian patriotism. Much of RT’s coverage over the last week has dealt with Russia’s 70th V-Day celebration. Maria Turchenkova, a Russian photojournalist who has worked in eastern Ukraine for the past year, told RT Watch that the volunteers she and other reporters have verified include men who might have served in the Russian military previously, but have come as private individuals to fight with Ukrainian separatists. Reporting by the independent Russian paper Novaya Gazeta and others has confirmed that some Russians are fighting in eastern Ukraine – though the most clearcut evidence has identified Russian volunteers joining the separatists, not active duty troops deployed by Moscow. The question of Russian troops in Ukraine is a key one in the debate over western sanctions, applied against Russia by the U.S. RT takes a somewhat passive approach to the numbers: it seems to back the Kremlin claim by largely remaining silent on the issue – or using language like this week’s, that there isn’t “any solid proof.” The Kremlin, as it has since the conflict began, steadfastly denies it’s sending troops into Ukraine. military and NATO) that the number of Russian troops operating in the conflict zones of eastern Ukraine is around 12,000 and growing since March. RT seemed to doubt the involvment of Russian troops in Ukraine well before the Nemtsov report, in response to Western claims (i.e., the U.S. The repeated accusations came from Kiev, Washington and their European allies, but were not backed by any solid proof. Russia has been accused of sending its soldiers and military hardware to assist the anti-government fighters in eastern Ukraine almost since the start of the conflict. In response, RT offered a variation of its usual boilerplate. One of Nemtsov’s key allegations is that at least 220 Russian soldiers have been killed while fighting in eastern Ukraine since last August.
Photo credit: RT.Ĭolleagues of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov this week released the Ukraine report he’d been working on before his murder in February, and RT posted this short item about it. They’re fighting separatists – and soldiers from Russia, says the West.
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