Lavrov Is Right: It’s “Embarrassing” To Fantasize That Russia Is Arming Iran Against The US
“Non-Russian Pro-Russians” need to realize that they were lied to by many of their top influencers about Russian-Iranian relations and Putin’s personal approach towards Israel since continuing to cling to the lie that he’s an anti-Zionist with all that entails only discredits their community as a whole.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offended many “Non-Russian Pro-Russians” (NRPR) last week with his harsh denial of reports that his country is arming Iran against the US. In his words, “For no apparent reason, the West, and Washington in particular, are now stoking a narrative that Russia and China are directly supplying Iran with the weapons to attack US targets. Well, you know, it is embarrassing to even hear that.” He probably didn’t realize that many top NRPR influencers have been pushing the same lie.
The false narrative has been propagated by them alleging that Russia isn’t just giving targeting intelligence to Iran, the earlier reports of which were assessed here and here to be accurate despite Russian and US denials, but has also given Iran drones and missiles. Many average NRPRs have been preconditioned to believe it due to the top influencers among them lying for years that Putin is an anti-Zionist who’s secretly allied with Iran against Israel. That lie is now their community’s de facto dogma.
In their minds, Putin couldn’t be anything but since they project their dislike of Israel onto him due to believing that he always supports whatever causes they consider to be just, such as Palestine’s. Whenever they’re confronted with indisputable facts from reputable sources such as this collection of his quotes about Israel between 2000-2018 from the official Kremlin website, they dismiss it as him “playing 5D chess to psyche out the Zionists”. They can’t accept that he’s a proud lifelong philo-Semite.
After all, many top NRPR influencers have laundered this lie since the start of Russia’s anti-terrorist operation in Syria in 2015, which they falsely spun as opposing Israel despite Putin and Bibi clinching a deal in the run-up thereof for coordinating their strikes there. While Russia bombed ISIS, Israel bombed the IRGC, Hezbollah, the Syrian Arab Army, and allied militias hundreds of times, all without Russia ever intervening in their support due to its Iranian-Israeli balancing act that was explained here and here.
Making their lies even more compelling was many of these same top NRPR influencers being platformed by publicly financed Russian media, where they parroted this same lie without being fact-checked, as well as being invited to Russia for events. These developments made average NRPRs believe that those influencers were telling the truth since they couldn’t imagine the Russian state continuing to associate with people who lie about its policies, let alone never nudging them to recalibrate their takes next time.
The reality is that many of these “soft power supervisors”, or the state representatives who promote these top NRPR influencers, practice a soft power approach that can be called “Potemkinism”. This refers to the creation of alternative realities about Russian policy for “strategic purposes”, which can cynically be described as getting people to like Russia even on false premises such as believing that Putin is an anti-Zionist with all that entails. It’s still practiced despite being provably counterproductive.
With this context in mind, many NRPRs might spin Lavrov’s insult as him “playing 5D chess to psyche out the Zionists”, but that doesn’t explain why Trump confirmed that Russia isn’t arming Iran even though that lie could justify his “war of attrition” against Russia, which is now targeting civilians. Few NRPRs are likely to accept that they’ve been brainwashed by their top influencers, and the more that they cling to the cardinal lie of Putin being an anti-Zionist, the more that they discredit their community as a whole.
I like to complement this with some of the things John Helmer posted in the past on his site, i.e. the disclosed transcripts of conversations between Poutine and various US presidents, where he shows contempt towards Iran, and willingness to fully collaborate with the US in shackling Iran, on the penetration of Islamist money and how the Jewish capital is better and should win. Furthermore, Poutin, according to Helmer, had no problem in letting Cuba hang out to dry, cancelling shopments to crude, and redirecting them to Brazil. It seems that he doesn't realize that no level of ingratiating himself to the US presidents will ever be enough, and that the US cannot stand a strong Russia, with a modern and dangerous nuclear arsenal. At least not this version of the US and not the one coming along in the shadow of Trump...
Projecting one's dislike of US imperialism and hegemony and Israeli genocide of wishful thinking that Russia or China, both usually known to be quite reactive countries in their mien, is a deluded person. All should remember that it was South Africa that took Israel to the International Court of Justice. It wasn't Russia and it wasn't China.
I don't understand these cuddly gestures from Putin toward Israel. Israel screwed Russia in Syria, Israel screwed Russia in Azerbaijan, and the most fierce Russophobes in the West are all ultra-Zionists—and conversely, all ultra-Zionists are fierce Russophobes. Sometimes I wonder. Lavrov is totally hypocritical. Who, if not he himself, receives the most eminent NRPR as if they were active diplomats? Who never puts them back in their place when it suits him? Right now, one can note a wind of change among the NRPR, and they will end up no longer being 'PR' at all, after being contradicted by those very people who encouraged them to spew cargoes of male bovine excrement. Watch out, Lavrov; watch out, Putin—if these people turn against you, the most hardcore NATO fans will look like nice little boys in comparison. You must not take your fans for idiots.