Freedom House of journalistic neutrality are fraudulent and atrocities but actually show events in Mexico, Syria, self-serving. There is, he contends, no difference lraq, or other zones of civil conflict. Ordinary Russians between his role and the role of a chief editor of and many Ukrainian consumers of Russian media Reuters or the Associated Press. In one inter- have told foreign journalists of fears that “fascism” has view, Kiselyov equated those two news services come to power in Ukraine.*® with Rossiya Segodnya: “Both are propaganda agencies—they shape the dominant narrative In George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, the Ministry and tell their audiences what and how to think.” of Truth advanced what today would be called a re- He continued: “In today’s world, information— gime narrative, with accounts of never-ending conflict how it is gathered, analyzed, interpreted and abroad and treasonous enemies within. In similar processed ... pushes a value system, certain fashion, though with considerably more finesse and views on good and evil, and shapes attitudes to sophistication than was described in Orwell's master- different events."” piece, Russian media today preach a strident message of external encirclement by Russophobes in Ukraine, 7. The irrelevance of truth: “For the Soviets, the the Baltics, Georgia, and elsewhere, and internal idea of truth was important—even when they fifth-columnists among bloggers, civil society organi- were lying,” Peter Pomerantsev has written. “So- zations, and advocates of gay rights. viet propaganda went to great lengths to ‘prove’ that the Kremlin's theories or bits of information The media in democracies, especially in Europe, were fact.” By contrast, in today’s Russia the idea proved unprepared for the deluge of Russian propa- of truth is seen as irrelevant and “the borders ganda during and after the seizure of Crimea. Putin between fact and fiction have become utterly was thus able to drum home the portrayal of Ukraine blurre