Culture
Monday 16 July 2018
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“Croatian President Thanks Putin for Fighting Acts of Hatred at World Cup."
FIFA has fined several countries for fan and player behavior during the World Cup, including Russia. The article also leaves out other things discussed by the two presidents. -
“The results of a poll conducted by the Gallup Institute showed that in 2018 only 47% of Americans are proud of their country.”
Gallup used a scale from “extremely” to “not at all” to determine how proud Americans are of their country. The actual number of these who said they are proud is 95%, while 3% responded they are “not at all proud.” The Russian media misrepresented the Gallup results, using only the 47% of those who said they are “extremely” proud as the total number. -
“It’s unacceptable to impose on #children ideology of #nationalism, to teach them false history and values. They should not be discriminated on national origin or be denied the right to learn in native language. We’ll continue to draw intl [international] attention to such violations in some States”
The Mission does not name individual countries or violations. And Russia routinely subjects young children to militaristic “patriotic” indoctrination and false historical narratives, and it also suppresses the use of non-Russian languages in schools. -
“I am sure that President Putin … is trying to create a situation in which the balance of powers is more stable, and a little more logical and predictable” [as quoted in Russian].
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014, along with numerous Russian snap military drills and violations of the airspace of neighboring countries, Putin has made the balance of power less stable and far less predictable. -
“[T]he main objectives of Russia here are the building of economic cooperation with mutual benefits and the maintenance of sustainable cultural and humanitarian ties with the Balkan peoples. All this certainly applies to Albania. Any other speculation about Russia's ‘aggressive plans’ or ‘expansionist appetites’ is nothing more than part of a major Western strategy to portray Russia as an imaginary enemy of NATO and the EU.”
Russia has annexed foreign territory, is involved in several regional conflicts, and has reportedly been meddling in sovereign countries’ domestic politics, including in the Balkans. Moscow has repeatedly said it sees NATO as an enemy and a threat to Russia’s national interests. -
"A veteran of the anti-Russian direction at CNN, Jill Dougherty said: “Much insane news from Ukraine. It’s good news that Babchenko is alive, but it’s a huge blow to Ukraine's reputation; after all, nobody is going to trust their words anymore."
The mistranslation of the quote could only have been intentional, which means that Russian TV used the American journalist’s words as part of its propaganda war against Ukraine. -
I am opposed to raising the retirement age [in Russia]. As long as I am president, no such decision will be made. Altogether, I believe that there is no need in our country to raise the retirement age. We can and need to boost the economy and the interest of people to continue working but without infringing on their rights to retirement. I will say this again: I am against raising the retirement age.
While Putin’s said in 2005 that the retirement age would not be raised as long as he was president, the Russian government has decided to raise the retirement age 8 years to age 63 for women, and five years to age 65 for men. Putin’s press secretary says Putin was not involved in the recent decision to raise the retirement age in Russia. -
“Russia is ready to host the World Cup. The stadiums are open. The cops are polyglots. That is a quick recap of many years of work.We're not going to lose face in front of the planet. It’s not for nothing we terrified [the planet] with a missile. In general, all is well. But there is only one “but”: Our team, frankly, is sh-t.”
The International Federation of Football Association, the world soccer authority better known as FIFA, ranked Russia’s national team #70 and labeled it a “worst mover.” -
“For each date, the star actor [Johnny Depp] took a thousand dollars, which at the current exchange rates is about 62 thousand rubles. Roughly forty Moscow girls wanted to meet one-on-one with the Hollywood star, qualified roughly forty Moscow girls. If you add up the entire amount Depp earned, it turns he was enriched by Russian girls to the tune of about two and a half million rubles … Earlier it became known that Depp landed in a car accident in St. Petersburg. Fortunately, he managed to avoid serious injury.”
Johnny Depp had neither a car accident in St. Petersburg, nor paid for dates with women in Moscow -
“No Racism in Russia, FIFA 2018 Set to Be Great Tournament – Shanghai SIPG Player.”
The Russian Football Union is currently under investigation over racism charges from world and European football authorities. In the past, Russian football authorities had paid financial fees for racist behavior and Russian clubs have played in empty stadiums around Europe as punishment for racism. -
“American newspapers presented the use of napalm in Vietnam as forest fires. Since then nothing has changed.”
There is no indication @Current_Policy is a creation of the Russian government, but the Twitter account Tweets a stream of pro-Kremlin messages – including a false interpretation of an ad promoting press freedom. -
“I’m just saying they [Americans] wouldn’t report to us. Look at the amount of abuse those children were subjected to. I am not saying that it happened everywhere. But there were a lot of cases like that. We weren’t notified about them because the child would lose their citizenship.”
Russian lawmaker Irina Rodnina’s statement justifying the Russian ban on U.S. adoptions overstates instances of abuse of adoptees in the U.S., ignores Russia’s own lack of accountability in inter-country adoptions and misstates laws in Russia and the U.S. governing citizenship.