MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. The West has used Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday as a pretext for more publications in "influential" media outlets which pursue a goal of defaming Russia, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian Federation Council (upper house) Foreign Affairs Committee, told TASS.
Commenting on publications in several Western media outlets, the Russian senior lawmaker said he regretted them but could not find unexpected.
On Saturday, Bloomberg and Independent published articles similar in their message, in which Putin is compared with, as they put it, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The publications ponder over the forthcoming presidential race and Putin’s possible new term in office.
Consistent efforts to constrain Russia
"Best analytical brains work consistently so as to shape an image of Russia both in political science and ideology as an enemy, some trouble and an unpredictable neighbor," Kosachev said. "In this way, they implement a policy of Russia’s constraint. Everything comes to this point, which is an attempt to constrain Russia and move it further away and keep it in the state of a defending county."
It is not accidentally that this activity comes to the head and gets radicalized in the times milestone for Russia and its president, for instance his birthday.
"The Russian president’s birthday, which we are celebrating today with pleasure, seems to be a new suitable pretext for some people for releasing other discriminatory articles in such ‘authoritative’ publications," he said.
"One cannot but regret this, but there is nothing surprising in what is happening. We should look into circumstances behind the events and their geopolitical context and treat them correspondingly," the lawmaker added.
The fuss around Russia and its president are systemic. According to Kosachev, they are phenomena rolled out about 25 years ago, after the end of Cold War.
"The West believed themselves to be victors. They believed that the entire world was under their feet and that the world had become irreversibly unipolar. In fact, the only power that stood up against the concept of unipolar world was Russia," he said.
"The fact that the world is multipolar now and that the West has no monopoly to solve global problems in exclusively own interests can be unconditionally attributed to Russia," Kosachev added.
It is a victory of Russia, of common sense and personally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said.
"The continuous campaign of defamation, label, fake news that pin blames on our country has been waged against him and our country," the lawmaker said. "Media are not the only ones, as they are just tools here, while lots of very serious think tanks have been employed for the task."
Among them Kosachev named the US Entrepreneurship Institute, Heritage Foundation, Atlantic Council, Carnegie Foundation and others, pointing out that they actually employ methods of the Cold War.
Unprofessional to make it personal
Independent in its article says that in September Putin equaled Leonid Brezhnev’s time in office (6,602 days) and was closing in on Joseph Stalin’s record.
Kosachev said that such personal attacks were inadmissible and unprofessional for journalists, who indulge themselves in assessing a foreign state’s top official.
"It is an absolutely unprofessional and intolerant policy for media outlets which indulge in poking into individuals, moreover when they speak about foreign top officials," the lawmaker added.
The Russians have the right to give assessments to their president and those assessments are known across the globe, he said.
"They are totally impartial and evident. What is going on now is an attempt to influence from outside on the public opinion in Russia and to create additional problems for the policy embodied by Russia’s president through public opinion and its radicalization," the politician concluded.