In a recent appearance on Russia’s state-run television, Russian political scientist Sergey Mikheyev suggested that the country’s “empire” should grow to encompass three American states.
“I want the Russian empire with Alaska, Hawaii, California, Finland, and Poland,” he said, as translated by Gerashchenko for the clip he shared. “Although Poland and Finland are so stinky, I’m not sure, to be honest. We’ll clean them.”
Some random guest on Russian state TV wants that, according to a translation done by a Ukrainian. Newsweek then goes with “Russian State TV wants”, implying endorsement of the idea by the Russian government.
Can you imagine if random Fox News guests were quoted as if they spoke for us? Obviously bullshit, right. That’s what this is. Nothing on Russian TV can be taken at face value.
And it wasn’t the host of the program that called it wishful thinking, it was the random guest himself only seconds later. Watch the video clip in the tweet embedded in the article to see it.
Trash journalism, Newsweek. But they knew it’d get clicks because apparently I’m the only person here who spent 25 seconds to watch the video and another 25 seconds to think. We need do better than this, people.
The real interesting bit is the “We’ll clean them”, salivating about ethnic cleansing of all non-Russians. It was a different voice than the guest - I think THAT might have been the host but I can’t tell as I don’t recognize the people involved.
To sum up:
- Russian TV airs some bullshit.
- Ukrainian propagandist carefully selects a tiny segment, puts it into whatever context suits him. Provides translation which no one checks.
- US rag misquotes segment and misattributes statements.
- We sound off on social media.
Bullshit from start to finish.
