Russian media is covering up Putin's complicity in the MH17 tragedy

A pro-Russian fighter holds up a toy found among the debris at the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines jet near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, Friday, July 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

In Russia, errors like shooting down a Malaysia Airlines jet could not have happened, so they simply won't have happened

Masha Alekhina, Pussy Riot / Zona Prava
theguardian.com, Saturday 19 July 2014

On Thursday in eastern Ukraine – where Russian-supported separatists have declared an autonomous state – a plane with civilians on board was shot down.

The plane did not crash and it did not "collapse" – as was written by some of the Russian media – it was shot down from the ground. We in Russia know this – if not from our own news organizations, then from several video commentaries, including one in which a little boy says, "Look! A junta plane has been shot down! Well done, DPR!" (The DPR is the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic, and the "junta" is the legally elected government of Ukraine – the typical way for Russian propaganda to refer to the present government in Kiev.) This child does not know – and may never find out – that the downed aircraft had children like him on board.

In their reporting on the tragedy, the Russian media defined the accident scene as "east of Ukraine", forgetting the terms such as "New Russia", "DPR", "LPR" – the Lugansk People's Republic, another separatist territory in Ukraine – for the evening. In the new Russia, such errors could not have happened, so they simply won't have happened. Our government, and its collaborators in the media, will see to that.

The people do not need to see tragedies, they seem to believe – only victories of the Russian soldiers, the heroes of their homeland, and the brave patriots in eastern Ukraine that we should support.

(More here.)