Make no mistake: Radio Sputnik is spewing Russian propaganda

Fault Lines co-hosts Lee Stranahan (L) and Garland Nixon in the newsroom of Sputnik, a radio station funded by the Russian government. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
July 16

The July 13 Metro article “Kremlin to K St., live on Sputnik 105.5 FM” perfectly illuminated that station’s designed role as a state-sponsored purveyor of Russian disinformation. Sputnik’s D.C. bureau website blithely noted that the station points the way to “a multipolar world that respects every country’s national interests, culture, history and traditions.”

Not quite. Since the Yeltsin period, the Kremlin has advanced the notion of a multipolar world as a direct challenge to the international order led by the United States and Western Europe based on universal principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights and backed up by our combined economic and military power.

The Kremlin views Western democratic values as a direct threat to President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime, so these aspirations are countered by the innocuous-sounding concept of a multipolar world. Sputnik 105.5 FM forgets that the strategic essence of multipolarism is an international order based upon spheres of influence and military force. In this world, Russian hegemony over the former Soviet Union, central and southeastern Europe and other areas where Russian interests are in play is unchallengeable. Do not be fooled, Russian multipolarism has nothing in common with the benign internationalism enshrined in the charter of the United Nations.

The Russians have a term for the American staffers at Radio Sputnik: “useful fools.” Regardless of motivation, each of these folks is contributing in a very small way to Mr. Putin’s vision of tomorrow’s world order.

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