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DEEP DIVE – As the U.S. begins a direct engagement with Russia for the first time in more than three years, and Ukrainians and other Europeans worry about the consequences, Russian media outlets appear to have been as surprised as the rest of the world by the pace of Washington’s pivot to Moscow. Prominent Russian broadcasts and websites that not long ago produced a steady diet of diatribes against the U.S. – and even calls for nuclear attacks against the West – have in the last few days turned to quoting Donald Trump in glowing terms and praising the new U.S. approach. Among the objects of praise have been Trump’s willingness to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his criticisms of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (he called him a “dictator“ Wednesday) and Trump’s false charge that Ukraine started the war.
In the wake of these developments, The Cipher Brief spoke with three Russian expatriates who now live in the West and study the patterns and impact of Russian media and propaganda: Vasily Gatov, a fellow at the Center for Communication Policy and Leadership at USC; Ksenia Kirillova, a scholar and analyst at the Jamestown Foundation; and Stanislaw Kucher, a former Russian TV anchor who now serves as editor-in-chief of Samizdat Online. They offered their own reactions to the sharp shifts in U.S. policy, as well as their assessments of the Russian media response, which have generally cheered the changes. But they also noted that an end to the war may be problematic for the Kremlin in some ways – a view that has also been reflected in the media coverage.
