The Washington Post: “The audience of Russian and Ukrainian television live on …
2 March 2015 – 9:39am
More than six months have passed since the crash of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 in the Donetsk Region. 280 passengers and 15 members of the crew were on board. Immediately after the disaster the Kyiv and militias exchanged accusations of involvement in the crash. The prime minister of the Netherlands stated that the results of the investigation into the Boeing’s crash would be ready in the second half of 2015.
The Washington Post also published an article for a blog entitled “The audience of Russian and Ukrainian television live on different planets.” The crush of Malaysian Airlines airliner over Eastern Ukraine was a terrible crime, the article informs. “Existing and indirect evidence reinforce the theory that the plane was shot down by anti-aircraft missile fired from a complex Buk-M-1 “with the rebels controlled the territory of Ukraine.” But Ukrainian audience was offered not the same version of who is to blame for the death of the liner than the Russian audience.
“The Ukrainian government and private TV channels by the President Poroshenko stated from the outset that the blame for the destruction of the plane lies on the Russian “terrorism”.
On the other hand Russian TV channels, on the contrary, drew parallels between tragedy and Kyiv campaign against the rebel forces, implying that Kyiv “anti-terrorist operation” is to blame.
Western politicians and experts should be more careful with forecasts: claims about the death of Russian economy may be premature, writes The Bloomberg View in an article entitled ‘No, Barack Obama, the Russian economy is not torn into shreds’. In January, President Obama said that the Russian economy is “torn into shreds”. Last Wednesday, an expert Anders Aslund predicted in his article that Russia’s GDP this year will fall by 10%. He wrote that “the situation with the Russian foreign exchange reserves is nearing a critical point.” The Bloomberg View objects: Russia’s foreign debt is reduced along with the reserves, because the money goes to pay off the debts of state companies. And significant proportion of the remaining external debts of the companies is in fact an element of tax evasion. Price reduction in oil sphere is also not so dangerous: after the weakening the ruble the oil revenues grew, if we counts them in rubles. Economic sanctions affect Russia much less than many in the West would like to believe, states the Bloomberg View.