DISINFO: The West created a dangerous image of Russia to justify their criminal actions against it
SUMMARY
Vladimir Putin is not dangerous, but the West is dangerous. It is the West who conduct brutal aggression against our country, and who, in order to justify their aggression and criminal actions against Moscow, have deliberately created the dangerous image of Russia.
The new Putin has been around since 2014. That year, the West trampled on all its professed principles of democracy, freedom of speech, and everything else, by supporting the coup in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Russophobia. This claim has been neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.
The message implies that the West's policy on Russia, such as the introduction of sanctions, were a result of a fundamental dislike of Russia or Russians rather than of blatant violations of international law by Russia, foremost when it comes to the annexation of Crimea and substantial support to separatists in the east of Ukraine.
Further, there was no coup d’état in Kyiv in 2014; The demonstrations which began in Kyiv in November 2013 – called "Maidan", or "Euromaidan" – were a result of the Ukrainian people's frustration with former President Yanukovych's last-minute U-turn when, after seven years of negotiation, he refused to sign the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement and halted progress towards Ukraine's closer relationship with the EU.
The demonstrations were not provoked by the West but were a spontaneous gathering of different categories of Ukrainian citizens: students, journalists, activists etc.
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that the West's vision of the world politics has been built on Russophobia, the US and EU countries are Russophobic, fascist and Nazi regimes, and that the US and the UK are using Skripal case to start a crusade against Russia. For background, see EUvsDisinfo analysis "The “Russophobia” Myth: Appealing to the Lowest Feelings" here.