

Vladimir Putin is not omnipotent - memracom
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114234/lawrence-odonnell-yells-julia-ioffe-about-putin-and-snowden#
Finally, an American journalist who has a grasp of what really goes on in Russia. For that matter she seems to have a clearer understanding of Washington than most media people. In this piece she takes some potshots at Lawrence O&#x27;Donnell because she was invited on his show as a Russia expert, and then he basically didn&#x27;t let her explain her views. Why has so much of the American media become a circus of repetition, mirroring the &quot;official&quot; views of some Washington power broker.<p>It&#x27;s almost as if they want us all to believe that everything happening in the world today is the result of somebody, who is in total control, pulling strings behind the scenes. Who, then, is pulling the strings on global warming?
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osmsiberiano
As a Russian citizen I can only add that in the same days Putin accepted the
new digital copyright law, more severe than SOPA, lobbied by media
corporations, allowing domains seisure (like the 3-letter agencies do in the
US), and other ridiculous measures. All in the name of movie and music
corporations.

This means Putin is totally loyal to the US.

What also fascinates me is that CNN/FOX/3 other letters TV anchors speak
EXACTLY like Soviet TV in '70s and '80s, making statements in place of
questions:

 _" Julia, to start [the White House statement canceling the summit] with the
Snowden factor, for the Russian statement to say, 'this is a situation which
we did not create,' is of course a lie._

Welcome to the USSR :)

On the situation: punishing Snowden does not make any difference: he is
already punished, and others won't dare whistleblowing. On our side, the
government is involved in anti-American campaign, so they can't afford sending
Snowden to the "enemy" after Manning has been sentenced that severely.

(sarcasm on) Why bother insisting on extradition? I think to an average
American who saw Russia in Hollywood movies, Snowden is like in hell already.

I think our state diplomacy and propaganda could have negotiated the Russian
SOPA with the US & corporations better, they should have demanded making more
noise and scandal, accept Assange and somebody else. (sarcasm off)

~~~
x0x0
I think americans and russians both generally think the other country is more
homogenous and more in control of their government than they are. To cite
examples from US politics (because I'm American), we have many problems with
the classic setup for democracy to fail: a few parties with concentrated
benefits or costs and on the other side many parties with diffuse costs or
benefits. Plus we have private financing of elections, and thus, as the joke
goes, corporations have the best government money can buy.

Hopefully Snowden will be allow to stay in Russia; he'll have fun learning
Russian though; it's a difficult language (source: I spent 4+mos at mgu
studying russian full time.)

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thufry
What is the purpose of the word "mansplaining" in the opening paragraph? It
sounds like the author is claiming sexist dismissiveness while offering no
evidence of such.

~~~
akuchling
She quotes the host of the show as saying "Julia, Julia, Julia. You aren't
seriously suggesting that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government did not
have complete, total, absolute control over the outcome of Edward Snowden
entering that airport in Moscow?" That certainly sounds dismissive and
infantilizing.

~~~
thufry
Sure, but I see people going at each other like this all the time on TV,
regardless of gender - we no longer have the mutual respect of the Edward R.
Murrow days. I think this is actually how Bill O Reilly speaks to every single
one of his (predominantly male) guests.

