Russian Media Blames US For Escalating Ukraine Crisis – It’s Just A ‘Panic Attack’ Or Is It?
As Western news outlets warn of a “countdown to war,” Kremlin-controlled Russian television has a different take, accusing the U.S. of “hysteria” in its insistence that President Vladimir Putin is about to invade Ukraine.
The only attack the West needs to worry about is its own “panic attack,” proclaimed a banner on Channel One’s evening news program “Vremia” on Jan. 24, 2021. “Even the Ukrainians cannot believe how far the U.S. has gone,” said rival news show “Vesti” on station Russia-1, referring to the evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Kyiv.
A historian of Russia interested in propaganda and media strategy, I was in Moscow both when NATO bombed Russian ally Yugoslavia in 1999 and again when Russia deployed troops to the Crimea in 2014, purportedly to protect Russian citizens u...