.jpeg)
Russia’s
new punching bag: Kamala Harris
While the
Kremlin is playing it cool, its army of propagandists is rolling out its full
racist and sexist arsenal.
JULY 23,
2024 4:01 AM CET
BY EVA
HARTOG
From the
moment U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for president and
backed Kamala Harris as his replacement on Sunday, Russia’s propagandists have
whipped up a cacophony of unbridled racism, sexism and conspiracies.
Faced with
political turmoil in Washington, Russia’s main geopolitical foe, the Kremlin
itself has put on a show of restraint.
But its foot
soldiers in the Russian-language disinformation sphere have more than made up
for that.
“Kamala with
the nuclear button is worse than a monkey with a grenade,” Andrei Sidorov, the
dean of the global politics department at Moscow State University (a once
highly respected institution) said Sunday evening on state television’s prime
weekly talk show.
The show’s
host, Vladimir Solovyov, made his own feelings known by showing a clip of
Republican candidate Donald Trump commenting on Harris’ laugh as a sign she was
“crazy” followed by a compilation of clips showing Harris, well, laughing.
The caustic
tone from Sidorov and Solovyov provided a stark contrast with that of Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov that same evening, who had personified cool aloofness,
saying that, with four months to go until the election, “much could still
change.”
“The
priority for us is to achieve the aims of the special military operation,” he
added, using a Kremlin euphemism for the war.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin, Peskov has often suggested, has bigger things on his
mind than the fracas among his political enemies overseas.
But despite
putting on an air of neutrality and insisting time and time again that Moscow
does not intervene in countries’ domestic affairs (flying in the face of
evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 election), Russian propagandists tell
a very different, and very biased, story.
With Moscow
in its third year of war against Ukraine, they have jumped on the chaos in the
United States as an opportunity to frame Russia as superior to the West and
distract from domestic problems.
Broadcasts
on state media and countless posts by pro-Kremlin commentators on social media
offered iterations of the same one-two-three punch: Biden is a loser; Harris is
evil; And American democracy is fundamentally screwed (a point also argued by
Trump).
Maria
Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry who often acts as the
Kremlin’s attack dog, on Sunday called for an investigation into “collusion
between the American media and certain political circles to cover up the truth
about [Biden’s] mental condition, manipulating public opinion to the benefit of
one political party [the Democrats].”
Appearing on
Solovyov’s show later that evening, she took another jab at American democracy
saying “everyone knows” Biden did not write the statement announcing he would
be pulling out. “The only thing that is still a guessing matter is whether he
actually read it or not.”
But the
sharpest vitriol has been reserved for Harris.
Although the
Kremlin said on Monday that Harris never had any direct contact with Putin, she
has called Russia’s war “barbaric and inhumane” and Putin an “authoritarian
imperialist.”
Without
specifying which remarks he was referring to, Peskov on Monday accused Harris
of “unfriendly rhetoric.”
Despite not
having been officially nominated, Harris appears to have already been
designated a prime target by Russia’s overwhelmingly white male propagandists.
“The entire
deep state will be backing Harris,” Sergei Markov, an analyst with Kremlin ties
wrote on his Telegram channel. “All of the allies, above all Europe, will be
supporting Harris.”
“This might
become important in the case the vote is falsified,” as it was in 2020, he went
on to falsely claim, when “European countries immediately recognized the
result, thereby helping dismiss claims of rigging.”
Russian
propagandist Sergei Mardan also chimed in, writing: “The deep state really is
planning to elect a baba for president,” using a derogatory Russian term for an
older woman. “I think Zelenskyy is really scared now.”
None of
those comments, however, made it to the front page of TASS.
Instead, the
state news agency ran with a comment from the aide of Dmitry Medvedev, the
deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council who loves threatening the West
with nuclear annihilation.
In a
Telegram post late on Sunday, Medvedev had written: “Biden’s done … We wish him
good health. The aims of the special military operation will be achieved.”
Explaining
his boss’ comments, Medvedev’s aide told TASS that even though Medvedev had not
enjoyed a good relationship with Biden, he is Russian, “and Russians can never
wish death upon the elderly.”
Elderly
Ukrainians would seem to be the exception to that rule.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário