Russian President Vladimir Putin Archives

Countering Russia’s ‘Ideologies For Export’ Propaganda And Disinformation War

October 19, 2019October 19, 2019 Tony Wyman

photo of Russian Cargo Freighter, the Alead

by Kseniya Kirillova Ideologies For Export Western countries have been battling Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns for years. As Russian “information operations” spread around the world, more and more initiatives are being created to expose the lies and distortions emanating from the Kremlin: projects to expose fake news, analytical centers that review and monitor disinformation campaigns, and many private initiatives to observe Russian media. However, experts increasingly acknowledge that despite all these efforts, Kremlin propaganda remains a very effective tool of information warfare – much more effective than its…

Writer’s Lounge Edition 10-19-2019, Elijah Cummings, Rick Perry, Monty Python

October 19, 2019 Richard Cameron

photo of a room that has old, comfortable Leather upholstered couches, a fireplace, wood paneled walls, an Irish Whiskey advertisement, a wall mounted television and a vintage coffee table. The photo is dubbed, "Writer's Lounge".

Writer’s Lounge quote for Saturday, October 19, 2019, classic Orwell, for an Orwellian age: With today’s edition of Writer’s Lounge, we begin with a couple of items that we happened across that resonate against the backdrop of notable events that took place this week. First is the passing on Thursday of Congressman Elijah Cummings, (D-MD). Cummings was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1996 and his 7th District seat included a large swath of Baltimore and its suburbs. A noted civil rights advocate, he came in for…

Writer’s Lounge Edition One: 10-16-2019, Syria, Melania, Whistleblowers

October 16, 2019October 16, 2019 Richard Cameron

Welcome to “Writer’s Lounge” – a new, regular feature from National Compass, which we will be publishing tri-weekly to start off with. It will be a joint effort from the writing team, to briefly cover news items that are in currency within the 48 to 72 hour news cycle, in short form. But that’s not all. . . We’ll also share with you random impressions of things we’ve seen and heard in every category of societal endeavor, activity and cultural phenomena. Most will take the form of two…

Trump Versus Trump – Hailing Nationalism While Undermining Democracy

October 3, 2019October 4, 2019 Richard Cameron

by Richard Cameron I happened to be the recipient of a post on Facebook from a publisher I formerly contributed articles to. It was sort of out of the blue after a considerable time of non-communication and was also puzzling as to its content. Of all things this person might tag me on or post to my wall, it was a link to the full video of Donald Trump’s recent speech before the United Nations! The title of the link was, “The Speech They’re Trying To Hide: President…

Protests in Moscow: It’s No Longer Just a Game

September 23, 2019 Tony Wyman

by Kseniya Kirillova The recent protests in Moscow showed two trends that are quite new for modern Russia: first, the extreme brutality of the security forces during the dispersal of rallies, and second, the unprecedented resilience of Muscovites, who are heroically coming out to take part in clearly unauthorized actions where they knowingly face the possibility of state violence and arrests. The last frontier Of course, the behavior of the protesters themselves is understandable. Russian authorities badly miscalculated that blocking independent candidates from taking part in the Moscow City Duma…

Trump Witch Hunt Against FBI – More Than A Nothingburger, A Pending Disaster

July 10, 2019 Richard Cameron

by Richard Cameron Republican members of Congress, the Trump Administration and Trump’s new hatchet man in the Justice Department, William Barr, are all soon going to meet their Waterloo. A meeting which took place last month while Trump was in London, for his visit with the Queen, is predictive of the anti-climactic outcome of the GOP’s politically motivated, staged revenge investigation against the FBI. Unidentified sources within the Justice Department, revealed to Reuters that a team of lawyers from the DOJ, assigned to the Office of the Inspector…

The Russian People Saved Ivan Goluov. Now, Can They Save Russia?

June 30, 2019 Tony Wyman

by Kseniya Kirillova The victory of Russia’s civil society in the case of Ivan Golunov* has raised two very important points. Firstly, we have seen that, if provoked, Russians are able to stand up for persons who have fallen into disfavour with police authorities. Secondly, Russian civil society seldom rises to the occasion, especially on such a large scale. (*Ivan Golunov, who works for the independent Russian website Meduza and is known for exposing local corruption, was recently arrested in Moscow on trumped up charges of drug dealing. He was reportedly…

Why Doesn’t Donald Trump Have a Nickname for Vladimir Putin?

June 16, 2019 Tony Wyman

by Tony Wyman Lyin’ Ted. Little Marco. Little Rocketman. Pocahontas. 1% Biden. Alfred E. Newman. Animal Assad. Donald Trump has a nickname for everyone, it seems. Everyone except Russian President Vladimir Putin. No “Sad Vlad” or “Little Putinpie” or “The Murderer of Moskva.” No “Goober of Gorky” or “Moscow Mule” or “Bald Boris.” Where President Putin is concerned, Donald Trump has nothing but good things to say. “You know what? Putin’s fine. He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re people,” President Trump said in July 2018, responding to press questions about…

An Open Letter to Maria Butina From Her Victims

May 1, 2019May 7, 2019 Tony Wyman

by Kseniya Kirillova An open letter to Maria Butina from her victims Very few people know that before her arrival in the US, Maria Butina, recently convicted of spying for Moscow, had managed to gain trust with the Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin, and participated in human rights and opposition efforts in the country. Her work and apparent commitment was so compelling that none of the activists she knew and participated with could even imagine that she worked for the government or intelligence agencies. Parallel to Butina’s “opposition” activities, she…

Faith in Putin Hits 13-year Low, Yet Some Russians Still Trust Him

April 28, 2019 Tony Wyman

by Kseniya Kirillova Faith the Russian people have in President Vladimir Putin dropped to the lowest level its been in more than a decade, dealing a serious blow to the image of the Russian leader as the widely popular and respected father-figure of the state. Confidence in Mr. Putin dropped more than a third early this year to a 13-year low, according to a poll by the Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), published in late January. Just under 33% of Russians expressed trust in their president,…