Putin held a meeting with top BRICS journalists on Friday, the transcript of which was already available in Russian here on Saturday morning while the English one here has yet to be published in full at the time of writing. He discussed a wide array of issues, but the present piece will focus on the important insight that he shared about Russia’s policy towards Israel, which is misportrayed by the Alt-Media Community (AMC) and their Mainstream Media (MSM) rivals alike. Here are a few background briefings:
* 25 October 2023: “Both Sides Should Appreciate Russia’s Principled Neutrality Towards The Israeli-Hamas War”
* 31 December 2023: “Clarifying Lavrov’s Comparison Of The Latest Israeli-Hamas War To Russia’s Special Operation”
* 26 September 2024: “Lavrov Reminded The World That Russia Is Committed To Ensuring Israel’s Security”
* 4 October 2024: “Russia & The Resistance Axis Will Always Fundamentally Disagree About The Future Of Palestine”
* 11 October 2024: “Russia Sells Processed Oil Products To Israel & Facilitates Kazakhstan’s Oil Exports To It”
To summarize, Russia has always supported a two-state solution and the need to ensure Israel’s security, but it’s against acts of terrorism against Israel driven by Palestinian frustration over the lack of progress on the aforesaid solution and Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians whenever this happens. Russia also opposes all calls for Israel’s destruction and the imposition of sanctions against it that aren’t first approved by the UNSC. The AMC and the MSM, however, rarely inform their audience of these facts.
Both have instead propagated the false perception that Russia is secretly allied with Iran against Israel, each in advance of their own ideological agenda, with the AMC considering this to be something praiseworthy while the MSM deems it condemnable. Putin knows that his country’s policy towards Israel is grossly misportrayed by the MSM and that’s why he took the opportunity to clarify it when he was asked about this several times on Friday, the first being about a resolution to the ongoing hostilities.
He began by reminding everyone of Russia’s commitment to a two-state solution and his belief that the failure to implement it is at the root of all the current problems. He then referenced his many conversations with the Israeli leadership on this and his view that their envisaged economic-centric solution isn’t viable since he’s convinced that spiritual, historical, and other issues need to be addressed as well. He also believes in reviving multilateral talks and expanding the number of participants in them.
Putin was later asked about Israeli-Iranian tensions. He confirmed that Russia has a trusting relationship with both and would thus help mediate between them if requested since it doesn’t want a larger war. He refused to comment on Israel’s recent strikes, which might be a reference to its bombing of the Iranian Consulate in Damascus and assassination of Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, but he wasn’t as reticent when it came to terrorism against Israel. He said that he condemns every manifestation thereof.
The final question about Israel came near the end of their meeting and also once again concerned its tensions with Iran. Putin reaffirmed that Russia won’t interfere in their relations but repeated his offer to mediate between them, including over Lebanon which was referenced in the question, if it’s requested. That was all that he had to say about Israel, but everything that he shared during the meeting debunked the false perception of Russian policy towards it that’s been pushed by the AMC and the MSM.
The MSM is irredeemable since it’s driven by the desire to discredit Russia and will therefore deliberately lie about its policies, especially towards Israel, but the AMC is supposed to be different since it’s considered to be Russian-friendly. The latter observation makes it all the more confusing why top influencers rarely inform their audience of the facts about its policy towards Israel. The reason for this is that the vast majority of them are pro-Palestinian activists and not analysts of Russian foreign policy.
They accordingly prefer to misportray Russia as being on their side against Israel instead of share the truth about its balancing act since that same truth won’t help them generate as much clout, push their ideology, and/or solicit as much donations as feeding into their audience’s wishful thinking expectations. These ulterior motives account for their inaccurate reporting, which massively misleads their audience whenever this is done by top influencers who are considered to be “state-adjacent”.
This refers to those who are invited to Russia to participate in official events like February’s Multipolarity Forum, summer’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and fall’s Eastern Economic Forum, et al. Casual observers therefore assume that there must be some truth to their innuendo and in some cases even outright claims that Russia is secretly allied with Iran against Israel otherwise their Russian partners who invited them to those events would gently nudge them to correct their inaccurate reporting.
The reality though is that something that can be described as “Potemkinism”, or the calculated creation of artificial realities for strategic purposes, appears to be at play. Misportrayals of Russian foreign policy, especially towards Israel, are tacitly allowed to proliferate unhindered due to the expectation that they improve its soft power standing in the eyes of the intended audience. This is a risky approach though since those that later come across the truth, which Russia doesn’t hide, might feel duped and upset.
Others might trust “state-adjacent” top AMC influencers so much that they reject the truth after they discover it, such as imagining that Putin is “playing 5D chess to psyche out the Zionists” upon learning about his decades-long praise of Israel or Friday’s meeting, thus clinging to the lies that they were told. Regardless of the outcome, any soft power policy built upon deception and falsehoods like the “Potemkinist” one about Russian-Israeli ties ultimately proves counterproductive, yet the show goes on.
That’s because those inside of the country who invite these top AMC influencers to official events sincerely believe that this approach helps Russia, ergo why they don’t gently nudge them to correct their inaccurate reporting about its foreign policy. There also aren’t any viable feedback loops for assessing how counterproductive this is, nor can concerned figures from outside this soft power network intervene to fix the problem due to the strictly segmented nature of Russia’s “stovepiped” system.
The end result is that top AMC influencers like the one who claimed that “two intel agencies from two separate Asia nations” corroborated his story about Russia shooting down a nuclear-armed Israeli F-35 over Jordan last April never set the record straight yet still remain “state-adjacent”. As was earlier written, the impression that casual observers have is that there must be some truth to it otherwise corrective action would have already been taken, thus further muddling perceptions of Russian policy.
The consequent confusion is exacerbated among those who are aware of Article 282 from the Russian Criminal Code prohibiting the “Incitement of Hatred or Enmity, as Well as Abasement of Human Dignity”. Anyone who does this “on the basis of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, attitude to religion, as well as affiliation to any social group” is liable for prosecution, yet the top AMC influencer above regularly refers to “Talmudic psychos” on their Telegram channel while others use even harsher language on X.
This is done with impunity despite some of them being inside Russia while posting those messages, though an average Russian citizen or foreign guest would never be able to express themselves that way without fear of being fined or jailed. Likewise, the National Guard is now working with the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia to fight anti-Semitism (which Putin condemned during a Holocaust event in Jerusalem in January 2020), but these top AMC influencers have nothing to worry about.
They’re protected by their Russian partners who invite them to participate in official events and are thus untouchable no matter what they might say or do because the “Potemkinist” ends of promoting soft power in this way are considered to justify the legally questionable means that are employed. It was already explained why this approach is counterproductive but won’t change so no one should expect the AMC to correct the false perceptions that “Potemkinism” associated with Russian policy towards Israel.
