MOSCOW — The outside world knows Russian-backed militants shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, using missiles supplied by Moscow, even if few leaders are yet willing to say outright that Vladimir Putin has blood on his hands (again).
But the Russian public is happy to buy Putin’s lies.
“It’s obvious the Ukrainians did this, the separatists don’t have the weaponry or the ability to shoot down aircraft at that altitude,” a partner at a major law firm told me.
Never mind that the “separatists” had shot down at least two Ukrainian planes in the week before, or that the Ukrainians had no reason to shoot at any plane because the militants have no airpower.
Then there’s an economist at the Ministry of Finance: “The Ukrainians are fascists, of course they’re responsible.”
One university professor was a bit more honest: “You don’t understand. We’re Russians, we will never admit guilt to outsiders, especially to Americans. Even if we know we’re guilty.”
In the outside world, people know the “rebels” have done all they could to impede any impartial investigation even seizing the bodies of the 298 innocent victims, and that the missile launchers were quickly pulled back into Russia after the atrocity.
But this is a schizophrenic society. People distrust their own government, but they distrust and hate foreigners even more. Many understand that Russia is probably responsible, but they’ll never admit it; it’s not a society given to self-criticism or honesty.
And with incomes up 10-fold over the last decade and a half as Russia recovered from the humiliations of the ’90s, many are drunk on the idea of Russian success.
So Putin’s approval ratings are at record highs, as Kremlin-controlled state media present a starkly different universe in which it is inconceivable that their country or President Putin bear any blame whatsoever.
For years the public has been subjected to a rising drumbeat of rhetoric about Russia’s enemies, internal and external.
According to the mass media here, especially state-run TV, Russia is surrounded by innumerable hostile states under US leadership, all dedicated to the ultimate destruction of Russia.
Any criticism of Russia or its criminal ruling class is branded as treasonous.
The propaganda machine starts with obfuscation, as in Putin’s first remarks on the shootdown:
“I want to point out that this tragedy wouldn’t have happened if there was peace in this land, or at least if fighting hadn’t resumed in the southeast of Ukraine. And undoubtedly, the state on whose territory this happened is responsible for this awful tragedy.”
Never mind that the “rebels” are led by outsiders and supplemented by Russian special forces, all supplied, supported and possibly paid by Moscow. Never mind that Putin has been fomenting strife and violence in eastern Ukraine from the very start of this conflict.
Add to this careful omission:
Russian media simply don’t mention the evidence that the deadly missile was launched from an area under the control of Russia’s puppet rebel government in eastern Ukraine, or the news that the separatists have obstructed access to the crash site or tried to remove critical physical evidence.
Instead, they “report” at face value the rebels’ implausible complaints that European investigators have failed to show up after the crash.
The state media even feverishly speculate that the Ukrainian government deliberately shot down the flight to discredit the militants and their patrons in Moscow.
Worse, the fact that Putin’s personal Airbus vaguely resembles the Malaysian Boeing jet, and both passed over Poland earlier in the day, has been widely cited on the air and the ’Net as “evidence” that the actual target of the missile launch was Putin himself.
Putin will never accept responsibility for this atrocity, and it’s all too likely that most Russians will take him at his word.
Mark Nuckols teaches law and business in Moscow, and has lived in Eastern Europe most of the last 20 years.