Following the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 , an article in the Indonesian version of Business Insider described the way that Russia Today was covering the incident as " ridiculous " and " in the only way it knows how : Blaming everyone except for the Russian government " while Daniel Drezner noted how the Russian media narrative of the Malaysian airline shoot-down was a " grab bag of conspiracy theories " and suggested that Putin could become trapped by the nationalist rhetoric created over the incident . Moreover , an '' RT '' reporter , Sara Firth , resigned in protest against the network 's coverage of the crash , which she said was heavily biased . She stated , " We are lying every single day at RT . There are a million different ways to lie , and I really learned that at RT. " The '' Associated Press '' reported that the theories presented by Russian broadcasters and newspapers " vary wildly in content " but " all point the finger at Ukraine . None admits the possibility that Russia may bear responsibility . " Julia Ioffe of '' The New Republic '' wrote that they were " peddling conspiracy theories " and " trying to muddy the water " . Writing for '' The Atlantic '' , Peter Pomerantsev said " Russian media were trying not so much to convince viewers of any one version of events , but rather to leave them confused , paranoid , and passive — living in a Kremlin-controlled virtual reality that can no longer be mediated or debated by any appeal to ' truth . ' " In early March 2014 , Shaun Walker of '' The Guardian '' reported , " Russian state television has gone out of its way to manufacture an image of the protests as a uniquely sinister phenomenon ; a far-right movement backed by the west with the ultimate goal of destabilising Russia . ... On the ground in Crimea , what is particularly odd is that the most vociferous defenders of Russian bases against supposed fascists appear to hold far-right views themselves . " In August 2014 , BBC News reported , " Russian state TV 's coverage of the crisis has been consistently sensationalist , using a wide repertoire of propaganda techniques to incite revulsion and hostility towards the authorities in Kiev . " The Institute of Modern Russia wrote , " Inside Russia , and in areas of eastern Ukraine where Russian television is popular , the Kremlin 's political technologists have managed to create a parallel reality where " fascists " have taken power in Kiev , ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine are in mortal danger and the CIA is waging a war against Moscow . " In March 2014 , historian Timothy D. Snyder rejected the claims of a " fascist coup " , stating " Although one can certainly debate the constitutional nuances , this process was not a coup . And it certainly was not fascist . Reducing the powers of the president , calling presidential elections , and restoring the principles of democracy are the opposite of what fascism would demand . " Some observers were critical of the Russian media 's heavy focus on radical and right-wing groups during Euromaidan , finding that the protests were broad-based . Commenting in the Kyiv Post on " fascist " accusations against Ukraine , Lily Hyde wrote , " Today 's Russia , with its focus on a strong leader , primacy of the state , and aggressive imperial ambitions , is far more text-book " fascist " than Ukraine . " The Kyiv Post 's Oleg Sukhov and BBC News ' Stephen Ennis accused Russian media of " demonization " of Ukrainians . Sukhov said Russian media regularly used fascist labels " without pointing out the relatively low support for far-right groups among the Ukrainian population or the presence of neo-Nazis among Russian-backed insurgents , " and he criticized their presentation of the Ukrainian crisis as " orchestrated by the United States while ignoring Russia 's direct involvement in support of separatists . " Bernard-Henri Levy said the claims of " fascism " in Ukraine were part of a " misinformation campaign . " Sergei Loiko , a '' Los Angeles Times '' correspondent interviewed by '' Novoye Vremya Ukraine , '' criticized Russian channels , saying " there were no reasons for this war . They are all fictional . They are built on lies , spread by Russian television . There was no reason for people to kill each other . It is a theatre of the absurd . " In an article for '' The Irish Times , '' Conor O'Clery wrote , " When leafing through Zhirinovsky 's rag in Vnukovo airport it occurred to me how close his extreme outpourings are to those emanating from the mainstream Russian media . " Timothy D. Snyder criticized the presentation of Russian-speakers in Ukraine as ethnic Russians who desired Russia 's " protection . " In October 2014 , Taras Kuzio wrote in the '' Financial Times '' that " the world view created by Putin 's state controlled media has never corresponded to reality . Putin always mixed up " Russian speakers " with " Russians " in Ukraine , believing they were one and the same . So he was always unable to fathom the fact that a large proportion of Ukrainian armed forces and National Guard are Russian speakers . " The Russian media 's depiction of the mainly Russophone city of Kharkiv as eager to join Russia was called " wishful thinking " by Katya Soldak of '' Forbes '' , who said that events in the city and a survey conducted by Alexei Navalny did not support the portrayal . The University of Helsinki 's Michael Gentile and Lucian Kim of '' Reuters '' were critical of the focus on ethnicity and language to explain the conflict in Donbas . Gentile stated that " rather than being divided between Ukrainians and Russians , the Donbas is divided between people who believe in the concept of Ukrainian sovereign statehood and those who are nostalgic of the Soviet past . " Kim wrote , " As strenuously as the Kremlin propaganda machine raises the hobgoblin of Ukrainian nationalism , the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is n't about ethnicity or language — it 's about the kind of country that people want to live in . " Pierre Vaux , writing in Left Foot Forward , criticized " the efforts of Kremlin propagandists to portray the Ukrainian government as waging a war on Russian speakers " , stating that " large swathes of the government are Russian speakers . So are many of the military leaders in the east , including commanders of volunteer formations , such as Semyon Semyonchenko " . In addition to Russophones from Ukraine , about a hundred Russian citizens joined pro-Ukrainian forces , " discrediting incessant Kremlin propaganda that Russian speakers are being persecuted in Ukraine " , according to the '' Kyiv Post ''
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis