The Fake News War

Direction and misdirection

In my last post I included a quote from a video posted on Telegram, attributed to the Russian rightish media conglomerate NTV. Slavyangrad posted it and then took it down since it is a fake – and (apparently) not a very good one.

NTV also deleted the fake video— Western media went to great lengths to trumpet that it was Russian propaganda to implicate the Ukrainians.

Polygraph Info, the UnTruth Medium, summed up Western opinion:

Eager to Label Ukraine as Terrorist, Kremlin Keeps Pushing Ridiculed Conspiracy Theories

Well, umm, no, Danilov never said what I said he said, not in a video anyway.

Apologies.

But if Danilov didn't say it-- he certainly could have, would have and probably wanted to – he is that kind of guy. Fake or not, the video was perfectly in character.

As was Polygraph's headline.

This video in no way undermines the theory that Ukraine and the CIA were responsible for the attack – rather it increases the likelihood of a real conspiracy. (Yes, there are “real” conspiracies!)

What I think we see here are kinks in the web of deceit and duplicity, for which Western-style “information war” is notable.

The video is unlikely to be Russian-made. Fake videos are a trademark of Ukrainian propaganda. This one, for example …aired in border areas under Ukrainian attack….

Sometimes, Ukrainian video fakery is more artful— like videos of a Russian bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital that never happened for example. That video was part of the Ukrainian documentary 20 Days in Mariupol that recently won an Academy award!

Recall that in 2016 a documentary on the White Helmets also won an Academy award despite well-founded accusations that the White helmets are complicit with anti-Assad forces such as Al Qaeda and other extremist groups. Its involvement in the fake Douma Sarin attack is well documented.

The Western media community is as oblivious to truth as it is to irony.

Marianna Vyshemirskaya, who was featured in a video, was included in the heavily edited film which she has repudiated.

As for this parade of hypocrisy - I'm not interested in it. It was clear to everyone from the beginning how it would end…”

We don't know the actual provenance of the Danilov video – but one supposes a Ukrainian source.

It is classic misdirection. But, as I said, believable to the extent that Danilov likes to brag about Ukraine's ability to hit targets on Russian territory—which have necessarily resulted in Russian civilian deaths.

Some confirmation of all this comes from Zelensky's recently firing of Danilov from the position of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

The video may be fake, but Danilov's Nazi extremism is not. And, at some point Zelensky may have to blame Danilov or somebody else for Ukrainian terrorism – which he insists does not exist.

In addition, Danilov and Zaluzhny are cut from the same cloth. Get rid of one, you have to get rid of the other. Not that Danilov is really gone – just moved to another position.

So, the video serves two purposes – one is to put Danilov in the spotlight in the Ukraine as top spy and make it easier to remove him now that he has become an embarrassment.

Another is to discredit Russian accusations that Ukraine was responsible for the attack – which it almost certainly was.

As we have seen, Western media, even the BBC, leapt at the chance to conflate the appearance of the video with the “implausibility” of Russian claims, since then ever more probable. Call it “implausible denial” on the Western side.

This is classic information war. Misdirection. Redirection. Now you see it, now you don't. Mostly you don't.

Note

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