© Sergey Guneev/Sputnik Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
One of the main reasons Russia has a "bad" global public image is the ongoing information war being waged by Anglo-Saxon media, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said, while blaming Turkey's leadership for a deadlock in relations.Peskov made his remarks in an interview with Russian channel TVC that aired on Saturday. The fairly frank assessment was disclosed while he was speculating on why it was so hard for Russia to improve its international image. Peskov added that he believes both Moscow and Washington have suffered as a result of the infowar.
"They say that Russia has a bad public image. Do you know who else now has a bad image - the United States. We are currently in a state of information warfare with the trend-setters in the information space, most notably with the Anglo-Saxons, their media," Putin's spokesman said.
Peskov added that, regardless of whether one considers this war
"declared or undeclared," it reduces some important political matters to
"propaganda and counter-propaganda."He also said he believes Russia would be better off if it was more deeply integrated in the global economy.
"We need to advocate for it. We need to make our economy more competitive and involved in global competition. Only then will we confidently stand on our feet," he stressed.
Commenting on the prospects for an improvement in US-Russian relations, Peskov cautiously noted some progress, but stressed that the Kremlin, doesn't have any
"illusions.""I think it is possible to say that there have been positive advances. They lie in mutual atmosphere, because if we compare the atmosphere with what it was a year ago, then of course there is an evident desire to communicate, and there is readiness. At least now the understanding has matured that there is no alternative to dialogue in resolving issues which cannot be delayed," he observed.
'If I was Erdogan's spokesman, I'd resign'Commenting on an even worse diplomatic crisis, Peskov called the rift in Russian-Turkish relations a
"handmade disaster," saying that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesperson should have resigned over the way he mishandling the crisis.
"If I held that office and things had gone the way they went, I would have resigned. Six months ago our relations with Turkey could be called exemplary. Then this disaster happened, and that disaster was handmade. Ankara was its author, and only it can control the damage," Peskov said.
Apparently, neither Erdogan, nor his spokesman or chief policy advisor, Ibrahim Kalin, has ever apologized for Turkey shooting down Russia's Su-24 bomber in November. Erdogan's government insisted that Turkey had been defended its
"sovereignty" when it responded to the Russian jet's alleged seconds-long violation of its airspace. The warplane had been striking terrorist positions in Syria.
Interestingly, Erdogan's spokesman, Kalin, is a fellow at Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Russia didn't get much
understanding with respect to this incident, however, despite having set up a special direct hotline with the Turks to avoid just such a situation during the Syrian air campaign. Moscow denied that its plane had crossed the border and demanded an apology for the tragedy, which resulted in the death of two Russian servicemen - a pilot, as well as a marine sent to an area controlled by Turkey-backed militants as a member of a rescue mission.
As the crisis unfolded, Turkey made several moves that, in Russia's view, only worsened the situation. Ankara failed to communicate with the Russian military immediately after the incident, instead calling an emergency session of NATO, which Moscow perceived as an attempt to hide behind the block in order to avoid possible retribution.
Turkey also failed to take any steps to arrest the ethnic Turkish rebel fighter who bragged about killing the Russian pilot as he was parachuting down to the ground, an act that is considered a war crime by international law. The pilot's killer, who is a member of a radical Turkish nationalist group, has since visited Turkey and given interviews to the Turkish media.
"I believe that the fallout from this disaster will not be fully cleared up for generations to come." Peskov noted, adding that at the moment, Russia simply won't talk to Turkey.
"This is out of question until Ankara does what has to be done is such a situation," he said.
The Kremlin spokesman also voiced skepticism over offers from Azerbaijan to play mediator between Turkey and Russia to mitigate the damage.
"Those attempts ended in nothing. Any attempts to mediate this situation can't but fail, for obvious reasons," Peskov said.
Other topic covered in the interview included the Ukrainian conflict, the war in Syria, the prospects for Kurdish independence, and other policy items that fill Peskov's plate as Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman.
"Nato commander calls for return to service of U-2 spy plane to help conduct surveillance on a resurgent Russia
Exclusive: General Philip Breedlove said the iconic jet was among ‘additional intelligence collection platforms’ needed to effectively counter an increased threat posed by Moscow "
[...]
"The general, a former US Air Force fighter pilot, said: “EUCOM finds itself in a shifted paradigm where the strategic threat presented by [Vladimir] Putin’s Russia requires we… provide a credible assurance against what remains the only nation capable of strategic warfare against the homeland."
[...]
"Military experts said it was highly unlikely that any U-2s deployed in Europe would seek to overfly Russia. Instead the planes would remain in the airspace of Nato allies, using their powerful cameras and sensor arrays to “peer” into hostile territory from an operating altitude of 70,000ft.
[...]
The Pentagon did not respond to requests from The Independent for comment on whether it was acceding to General Breedlove’s request, but Washington last month announced a quadrupling of funding for its European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) to rebuild America’s military presence on the Continent after decades of running it down." [Link]
Are they saying that to protect the "homeland" which somehow goes all the way to Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, the Ukraine in fact most of the EU and a bit more, and that is only in Europe, we need the U-2 spy plane?
Knowing what happens to dissident parts of the homeland like South America, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa, one can give an estimate of what awaits Continental Europe.