{"id":54618,"date":"2015-03-09T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=54618"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:59","slug":"tragedy-of-nemtsovs-death-hijacked-by-denigrators-of-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/tragedy-of-nemtsovs-death-hijacked-by-denigrators-of-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy of Nemtsov\u2019s Death Hijacked by Denigrators of Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Mar 2015 – <\/em>The day following Boris Nemtsov\u2019s murder on Friday, February 27, Western media were in a gluttonous frenzy over the tragedy. The death is being offered as affirmation of the nearly-unanimous villainous image that Putin has in the West. He is believed to be a \u201cruthless dictator who will stop at nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a result, media stories need merely mention that opposition politician Nemtsov was murdered and an immediate connection is made in people\u2019s minds. It reinforces existing beliefs, even if they were never based on factual evidence.<\/p>\n

Some media outlets suggest it\u2019s too early to know exactly what happened. CNN, for instance, stated, \u201cIt\u2019s not clear who is behind the killing.\u201d But the network then went on to present an expert guest who said \u201cthis points to some kind of government involvement.\u201d What was his evidence? He responded that \u201canyone who gets in the way of the state is killed.\u201d The network even replayed an earlier program on which CNN feature reporter Anthony Bourdain remarked, \u201cBad things seem to happen to critics of Vladimir Putin.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Headlines in the New York Times played to Putin\u2019s stereotyped image as well:<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Obama, Kerry Condemn Killing of Russian Opposition Figure<\/a>
\n\u2014\u00a0After Boris Nemtsov\u2019s Assassination, \u201cThere Are No Longer Any Limits\u201d<\/a>
\n\u2014\u00a0Fear Envelops Russia After Killing of Putin Critic Boris Y. Nemtsov<\/a><\/p>\n

Some outlets referred to Nemtsov as \u201cthe\u201d opposition leader, as if he were the head of organized opposition.<\/strong> For example, a Reuters headline read, \u201cRussian opposition leader Nemtsov<\/a> shot dead in Moscow.\u201d<\/a> That left media audiences to assume that Putin had knocked off someone who was his main opponent.<\/p>\n

A lot of skepticism is expressed about the murder investigation. Most suggest in some way that Putin taking charge of the investigation is like putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen house. Kurt Volker, former U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO and now executive director of the McCain Institute told Fox News, \u201cWe\u2019ve seen other political murders in the past, journalist Anna Politkovskaya for example, and the killers there nearly always escape.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Senator John McCain issued a personal statement:<\/a> \u201cBoris is dead because of the environment of impunity that Vladimir Putin has created in Russia.\u201d McCain is chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. James Inhofe, the senior member of McCain\u2019s committee authored the bill to send Ukraine lethal military aid. When asked about Nemtsov\u2019s murder, Inhofe told the media that he could see by a picture of Putin\u2019s face that he did it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Inhofe\u2019s expertise in analyzing photographs that led him to introduce his legislation to send lethal arms to Ukraine. He presented his Senate colleagues with photographic evidence that Russia had invaded Ukraine. Unfortunately for Inhofe\u2019s credibility, it was later demonstrated that he had used photos of Russian military vehicles in the 2008 South Ossetia conflict.<\/p>\n

Was Inhofe being dishonest or had someone duped him about the photos? An Inhofe aid is reported to have explained \u201cThese were presented to the Armed Services Committee from a delegation from Ukraine in December.\u201d He added they had \u201cthoroughly checked our sources again prior to releasing the photos, and felt confident proceeding because the photos also match reporting.\u201d I find it very distressing to see the level of incompetence on which the bill to arm Ukraine with lethal weapons is based.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interestingly, Ukraine is already playing a role in the Nemtsov death story. The Telegraph reported<\/a>, \u201cUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Saturday Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was murdered because he planned to disclose evidence of Russia\u2019s involvement in Ukraine\u2019s separatist conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

That reminded me greatly of the 2006 Alexander Litvinenko case. There, Putin was accused of ordering the poisoning of Litvinenko because he was about to reveal proof of Putin\u2019s culpability in the murder of Politkovskaya. Although Litvinenko lived for several weeks after his poisoning, he never released his evidence. I wonder if we\u2019ll ever see Nemtsov\u2019s evidence. And if we do, I wonder if it will include Inhofe\u2019s photographs.<\/p>\n

Do the Litvinenko and Nemtsov cases really have that common thread? If so it would appear that in the end, Nemtsov was reduced to being just another Litvinenko: an expendable human being used to advance someone\u2019s unsubstantiated allegations against Putin.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

William Dunkerley is a media business analyst and consultant, and is author of the books <\/em>Ukraine in the Crosshairs\u201d and <\/em>The Phony Litvinenko Murder. Mr. Dunkerley is a senior fellow at the American University in Moscow.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 orientalreview.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Mar 2015 – The day following Boris Nemtsov\u2019s murder on Friday, February 27, Western media were in a gluttonous frenzy over the tragedy. The death is being offered as affirmation of the nearly-unanimous villainous image that Putin has in the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}