"Sorry America, the world does not revolve around you"

Many rulers of American doom say to their subscribers, readers, listeners and viewers that the Russian press relishes (and exploits) the current unrest and violence in the United States. It is not true.

In the last few days, when riots raged in America, various prominent figures, armed with the usual tactics of diverting public attention, began to blame Russia. Reached the frank delirium.

From statements that the Russian reporters covering the events actually organize them, to the words that everything that happens is the Kremlin’s vile machinations. Or rather, the operation of the “Russian special services”: “Many sincerely believe that Russia ordered the white American police officer from Minneapolis Derek Chauvin to strangle African-American George Floyd. This account has almost one hundred thousand subscribers. There are no words".

Many people genuinely believe that Russia ordered white American Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to choke African-American civilian George Floyd to death. This account has almost 100,000 followers. There really are no words. https://t.co/8NwLRxyt03

It was as if Putin had ordered a white American policeman from Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin, to strangle African-American George Floyd in broad daylight.

According to others, the Russian president “hoped” for such a development of events, “supporting” the participation of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Therefore, the 2014 riots in Ferguson (after the death of Michael Brown) is Putin’s calculation of his good attitude to Obama. What is there, according to this logic, and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 (after the beating of Rodney King) occurred only because of Putin’s good attitude to Clinton.

Just as what happened in Ferguson (Michael Brown) in 2014 was what Putin hoped for when he backed Barack Obama.

And the 1992 Los Angeles riots (Rodney King) were what Putin hoped for when he backed Bill Clinton.

Clearly a pattern there, @andylassner. https://t.co/x6ReFDk4XF

“Accordingly, Putin hoped for events in Ferguson in 2014 (after the death of Michael Brown), supporting Barack Obama. And in the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 (after beating Rodney King), Putin hoped to support Bill Clinton. A clear trend. ”

There have also been attempts to compare the terrifying violence in the US with last year’s Moscow protests. It's like equating a tea party with teddy bears and a collection of real grizzlies.

The analyst Vsevolod Gunitsky, who lives in Canada, probably described the situation the best. He wrote on Twitter that “Russia is no longer a country, but the name of a protective psychological mechanism.”

Another strange image of last weekend - that Putin “smiles”, “laughs” or “is happy” because of the chaos in the United States - in addition to repeated statements about the active coverage of events by the Russian media.

Yes, RT widely covers what is happening, but this channel is international, so it would be much weirder if he ignored these events. This concern is even funny, given how American journalists - and government officials - relish protests in other parts of the world. Especially in the "bad" countries.

With all this in mind, it’s useful to see if the protests in the United States really are so widely covered by the Russian media.

On Sunday evening, on the federal television channel “Russia 1”, they were not shy in expressions. “I understand that if something like this happened in Russia, then new sanctions would have been imposed on us, America would have already convened an emergency UN Security Council on the situation of human rights in Russia,” presenter Dmitry Kiselyov said in his program. “Since this is America, and there a similar attitude towards blacks is an accepted practice, no one in the world jerked.”

Following this loud introduction (characteristic of the Vesti Nedeli program), reporting from the scene was very balanced.

The independent newspaper Kommersant on Monday did not even mention the US crisis in its main headlines. We had to look for material about this in the Mir section. The emphasis is that "America is starting to get tired of the riots." The author of the article, Alexei Naumov, writes that “calls for an end to atrocities are heard from both sides of the political spectrum and from representatives of the general public throughout the country, but there is no end to the violence.”

It does not pull on total agitation.

The American story did not get into the first news on the site of the popular newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. Below was an interview with Valery Garbuzov, a Russian North American specialist. He noted that “crime, drug addiction, alcoholism” strongly affects the black community in the United States, and “the American state has been trying to solve this problem for decades,” and added that African Americans hate Trump “with every fiber of his soul” because of his reputation as a racist .

RIA Novosti, one of the main state-supported news agencies, has paid more attention to events. But it was said that many in the United States blame Russia. In his article, Viktor Marakhovsky highlighted CNN, noting that the relationship of this TV channel with Trump is “somewhat worse than that of Iran with Israel,” and added: the US blames external forces for its own problems, because the American establishment is not able to believe that it "Remote control from reality" does not work.

Among the main news, Komsomolskaya Pravda, the pro-Kremlin tabloid, had two foreign policy ones. The first is about the “Balkan miracle”, with flattering reviews about the measures taken in connection with COVID-19 in the countries of the former Yugoslavia (such as Serbia and Croatia). The second is an interview with the Italian Ambassador to Russia, Pasquale Terracciano, who is grateful for the Russian help to his homeland in the fight against coronavirus.

Until the first mention of the unrest in the United States, thirty articles had to be scrolled down. The emphasis was on reports by the American media that "Trump was hiding in the bunker from the American" Maidan ". After the forcible change of power in Kiev in 2014, as a result of which the pro-Western government took the helm in Ukraine, the word "maidan" has become synonymous with major political protest.

The author of the article, Edward Chesnokov, asks Americanist Yaroslav Levin about how unrest can affect Russian-American relations. "Susan Rice, a former national security adviser to Barack Obama, said that" Moscow is behind the riots. " If the situation does not stabilize, the idea of ​​Rice can be adopted by all who benefit from playing the “Russian card” in the upcoming presidential election, ”says Levin. “And Trump, in order not to save, will be forced to demonstrate rigidity towards Moscow (at least in words).”

Again, quite reasonable. The bottom line is that Russians are not particularly interested in US internal affairs. They have enough of their own worries, and the Russian media are not gloating over America’s current difficulties. Mainly because most of their audience is completely uninteresting.

At one time, the Irish singer Bono sang: "When I was three, I thought the world revolved around me ... I was wrong." Alas, many Americans sincerely believe that the rest of the planet is focused on their country. This is not true. And it's time to stop considering yourself the center of the universe.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.