Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/11/russian-politician-mocks-the-u.html
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Hey, that’s not fair! Russia only has better intel in Syria because our President was polite enough to grant a request to stop monit—ohhhhh right. Point taken, Russia.
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Nikonov has been heading the Russkiy Mir Foundation established by Vladimir Putin to promote Russian language and culture internationally -Wiki (Read: Spy Craft)
The Russkiy Mir Foundation is a government-funded organisation aimed at promoting the Russian language, and “forming the Russian World as a global project” -Wiki (Read: Extreme Spy Craft)
Appears that Mr Nikonov has some cred when it comes to trade craft. If there is one Russian making that statement other than Putin, he would be the one.
Edit: Nikonov’s work has seen him promote a “patriotic” version of Russian history in the nation’s schools, and serving as the assistant to the head of the KGB in 1991.
Nikonov’s grandfather, Vyacheslav Molotov, rose to power as a protégé of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. -Moscowtimes
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Doesn’t sound like mockery. Sounds like a pretty flat, accurate account.
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Granted, the US intelligence agencies were fully aware of Russian meddling as early as 2015, if not earlier. The problem was that it fell on deaf ears from politicians that kept on not taking repeated warnings about this seriously. The problem was not with our agencies but our dumbass politics.
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The theme of the show was the decline of US power in the world.
It seems to always be the authoritarians who measure “power” in terms of worrying about what others are doing, and how they themselves are perceived.
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The shadow puppeteer’s hands are bigger than Trump’s.
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You noticed that too…
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You know it’s sad, but I really can’t tell if Russia is bluffing to stir up more trouble here OR if Russia is actually just telling the truth to stir up even MORE trouble and get more LULZ in the process… neither option feels good.
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I mean, it isn’t that far fetched to think that payback for all the times we put terrible puppet presidents in office in other countries is something Russia was quite eager to have a chance to take part in. And it’s not that far fetched for Trump to do something shady and… so blindingly narcissistic that the thought of danger never actually occurs to him.
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And what exactly do you think organisations such as the British Council and the United States Information Agency do?
Pot, meet kettle, sorry, Черный горшок, встречаетесь с черным чайником!
Also, don’t forget one important factor; my ex-FLA source says that the Russians have a very British sense of humour. It’s often noticeable that this doesn’t translate well. From what I can make out, a lot of the remarks about “stealing the Presidency” and the like are jokes. I suspect that many senior Russian figures regard the US belief that they somehow affected the Presidential election as delusional.
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Note he’s not saying they stole the presidency - he’s saying they stole the president.
Those sneaky Russians must have physically absconded with Mr. Trump, and replaced him with one of those easily confused AIs from the original Star Trek series. Someone should say “this sentence is untrue” to him and see if smoke and sparks come out of his ears.
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many of whom didn’t want either Sanders or Clinton as president.
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‘“His point in making the remark was that if the U.S. can’t protect the integrity of its own electoral system, then how powerful can it really be?” wrote Lynch.’
That’s an interesting point. Ultimately, to me that statement brings up this corollary.The Russian system is better than ours (and therefore more powerful) because what it’s taken in Russia to protect its own electoral system is to do what Russia [Putin] has done: effectively obliterate the integrity of its own electoral system, and that by defanging/intimidating the opposition, via blatant rampant corruption, and crippling the press… all the things that Trump and many on the right admire about “strong” leader, Putin.
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What is that smell?
More evidence electing Trump was the exact opposite of “Making America Great Again.”
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It doesn’t feel good because it doesn’t matter – as with the 2016 election, either way Putin wins. The point of the exercise is to undermine confidence in Western liberal-democratic institutions, and between Brexit and the election of an orange grifter to the White House they’ve succeeded beyond their expectations. Someone might as well brag.
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The Russkiy Mir Foundation is also looking to “promote” Russian language and culture internationally in part by supporting the re-consitituion of the Russian/Soviet empires, per Alexandr Dugin. Say what you will about the other two organisations, they’re not currently promoting territorial expansionism.
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I initially mistook that as another nazi-punching meme.
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