Is Putin Walking into a Propaganda Trap

By Paul Craig Roberts

May 02, 2021 "Information Clearing House" -  Before we give in to hopes that the Biden/Putin Summit will result in better relations between the US and Russia, we should remember the Trump/Putin Summit in Helsinki in July 2018.  The US media and the Democrat Party used the Trump/Putin Summit to blacken the event as where Putin “cemented his status and the status of Russia as US public enemy #1.”

The American Establishment made certain the summit would fail. Three days prior to the summit the Department of Justice indicted 12 Russian GRU officers.  Two days prior to the summit Senate Democrats urged Trump to cancel the summit meeting.

CIA Director John Brennan said that the press conference following the summit showed that Trump exceeded “the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors. It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecile, Trump is wholly in the pocket of Putin.”

In other words, the Democrat Party, the US military/security complex, and the American media considered Trump’s meeting with Putin an act of treason.  Regardless of whether anything good happened at the Trump/Putin Summit, the media presstitutes, Democrats, and CIA controlled the narrative.

The question before us is:  If it was treason for Trump to meet with Putin, why is it permissible for Biden to meet with Putin?

The answer perhaps is that the Biden/Putin Summit is a propaganda trap for the Kremlin.  Just as the Kremlin walked into a propaganda trap when it allowed Navalny to take his poison complaint to Germany, the Kremlin might be repeating the folly by agreeing to the meeting with Biden.

We know from reports of the pre-summit meeting of Lavrov and the US Secretary of State that Biden’s agenda is a list of accusations against Russia.  In other words, Biden’s intent is to hold Putin accountable.  Obviously, no improved relations can come from such a meeting unless Putin confesses to the accusations and promises to behave better in the future.  Otherwise Washington’s narrative will be that the summit was a failure due to Putin’s unreasonableness.  Putin wouldn’t agree to stop poisoning people. Putin wouldn’t agree to stop invading countries. Putin would not agree to stop interfering in elections.  Putin would not agree to stop cyber attacks.

In other words, Washington will use the summit to reiterate the status of Putin’s Russia as “US public enemy #1.”  This is almost certain to be the outcome. Washington is using the Russian desire to be accepted by the West to draw an incautious Kremlin into a propaganda trap.

The Biden regime consists of ideologues and is probably the least professional government in US history.  But professionalism has nothing to do with it.  Biden has many of the same people—Victoria Nuland for example—who organized the “Maidan Revolution” and installed in Ukraine a government hostile to Moscow.  Despite Kremlin diplomatic efforts in the European Union, recently the European Parliament voted to support regime change in Russia.  With such a high degree of Western hostility toward Russia, how can the Kremlin expect any positive result from a summit?

The Kremlin has not understood that Russia is worth far more to Washington as an enemy than as a friend.  The “Russian threat” is the basis for the one thousand-billion-dollar annual budget of the US military/security complex and the power that goes with this enormous sum.  Without the “Russia threat,” what is the justification for the budget.

The “Russian threat” also keeps Western Europe and NATO in line with US policy.  If there is no Russian threat, what is the point of NATO?  What would prevent European countries from having independent foreign policies, thus contributing to a multi-polar world?  Biden’s interest is to heighten, not reduce, tensions with Russia. We should remember that the CIA, FBI, Democrats, and the US media orchestrated “Russiagate” in order to prevent Trump from normalizing relations with Russia.  There is no basis for believing that Biden will be permitted to do what Trump was prohibited from doing.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West, How America Was Lost, and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order.  https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/pages/donate/ 

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