Re: The Unknown Wladimir Putin
There is something interesting I want to point out.
RT, previously known as Russia Today is a well known television/news network now.
_http://rt.com/
We can read the following about it on wikipedia:
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Network said:
RT, previously known as Russia Today, is an international multilingual Russian-based television network. It is registered as an autonomous nonprofit organization[2][3] funded by the federal budget of Russia through the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.[4][5]
RT presents round-the-clock news bulletins, documentaries, talk shows, and debates, as well as sports news and cultural programs on Russia aimed at the overseas news market.[6] The network's signal is carried by 22 satellites and over 230 operators, which allows some 644 million people to watch the channel in more than 100 countries.[7] RT America is available to 85 million people in the United States.[8] In 2011 it was the second most-watched foreign news channel in the U.S. after BBC World News,[9] and the number one foreign station in five major U.S. urban areas in 2012.[10] It is also very popular among younger American people, U.S. college students, and in U.S. inner city neighborhoods.[11] In 2013 RT has become the first TV news channel in history to reach 1 billion views on YouTube. According to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board between 2.25–2.5 million Britons tuned their televisions to RT during the second half of 2012, making it the third-most watched rolling news channel in Britain, behind BBC News and Sky News.[12][13]
History
Foundation
The creation of Russia Today was a part of a larger effort by the Russian government intended to improve the image of Russia abroad.[14] RT was conceived by former media minister Mikhail Lesin,[15] and Vladimir Putin's press spokesperson Aleksei Gromov.[16] At the time of RT's founding, RIA Novosti director Svetlana Mironyuk stated: "Unfortunately, at the level of mass consciousness in the West, Russia is associated with three words: communism, snow and poverty," and added "We would like to present a more complete picture of life in our country."[15]
So RT has become a huge network with a very big reach in the World and also in America,
while they clearly seem to expose many lies and propaganda from the US Israel and its puppets.
It could be described as the biggest alternative media nowadays,
while the reach it gets now can not be considered alternative anymore (in terms of numbers of people who it is reaching).
On _http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rt.com
RT it is ranked on place 345 of the most popular websites in the world and on place 526 within America.
That is far ahead of any alternative media out there.
Just to give you a comparison, _http://www.prisonplanet.com/ is ranked at place 10410 in the world and on place 3022 within America.
Also interesting to see how high RT is ranking within other countries in the world:
Another interesting thing to note is that
RT America is a TV channel based in Washington D.C., supposedly with its studios just a stone's throw away from the white house, as it is stated within this video: _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuBYbdwaaQ8
Interestingly they also say (in the video above) that
Abby Martin with her popular show „Breaking the Set“ on RT, which seems to be very upfront with the lies of the US, is working there.
I've tried to find out the exact address of their studios in D.C., to see if that is actually true, but with no success. But I think it is reasonable to assume that this is the case since the moderator in the video above said it.
Here is the wikipedia page on RT America:
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_America
So now what had Putin to say about this Network back in 2013?
See here: _http://rt.com/news/putin-rt-interview-full-577/
And here is the video that is also within the article above:
Notice that I wasn't able to find the full video of the interview above on any englisch website. All the videos I could find in english, start where the video above is starting,
but there is a part at the beginning of that interview above, that was cut out, in which Putin had something interesting to say.
I literally couldn't find that beginning part, on any video in the english speaking world.
Since I watched a couple of videos the last couple of days about Putin, I came across this missing part on a german/russian video.
Here it is:
What he had to say there is the following:
Putin on RT in 2013 said:
Margarita Simonyan: Mr. Putin, thanks again for visiting us.
Vladimir Putin: Thanks for inviting me.
Margarita Simonyan: According to the Russian tradition, as hospitable hosts we are always happy to have such guests.
Vladimir Putin: I have to say, it was somewhat unexpected for me that our talk would be on air, not to mention it being live. But I was happy when Margarita just told me about it. I knew that we were having a meeting with journalists but I had no idea that you’d arranged such an ambush as live broadcast of it. Well, it’s all yours.
Margarita Simonyan: Well, we have nothing to hide.
Vladimir Putin: There’s nothing to hide, indeed.
Margarita Simonyan: My first question is a bit immodest – about our channel. What are your impressions of it?
Vladimir Putin: I have good impressions.
When we designed this project back in 2005 we intended introducing another strong player on the world’s scene, a player that wouldn’t just provide an unbiased coverage of the events in Russia but also try, let me stress, I mean – try to break the Anglo-Saxon monopoly on the global information streams. And it seems to me that you’re succeeding in this job.
I’d like to emphasize something of the key importance. We never expected this to be a news agency or a channel which would defend the position of the Russian political line. We wanted to bring an absolutely independent news channel to the news arena.
Certainly the channel is funded by the government, so it cannot help but reflect the Russian government’s official position on the events in our country and in the rest of the world one way or another. But I’d like to underline again that we never intended this channel, RT, as any kind of apologetics for the Russian political line, whether domestic or foreign.
The above is what was cut out from this video interview with Putin on RT, and on every english video I could find.
Putting what Putin said above in connection with what I've researched above, certainly makes me wonder quite a bit what is going on there...
Any ideas?
A questions that comes to my mind:
How was it possible for RT to reach such a high level of popularity all over the world and especially within the US since 2005, while a couple of their most popular, interesting, hard hitting and controversial shows/news (in the sence of "exposing the lies and propaganda of the US and its partners") are being produced in Washington D.C., just a stone's throw away from the white house?
