Kremlin propaganda

Alexander Arefiev’s letter refers (“Russophobia must end”, June 22). According to an old adage, “a diplomat is a person sent abroad to lie for the good of his country”. Arefiev seems to fit this depiction to perfection.

In typical Kremlin propaganda mode he uses lies and innuendo to project his skewed version of the unpalatable truth. For instance, he depicts my reference to brutal and unlawful Russian territorial piracy in the Crimea, Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern Europe as “threadbare fakes”. Seriously?

Arefiev seems to live in an Orwellian world where the truth is only what Big Brother tells you it is. His understanding of democracy is similarly questionable. Justifying the constitutional vote for the extension of President Vladimir Putin’s term of office as “democratic procedure involving all Russian voters” is a lie.

In Russia today there is no democratic rule; there is no press freedom, no freedom of speech, the opposition (including figures such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexei Navalny, as well as numerous critical journalists and business people) have been ruthlessly eliminated, while voting is routinely manipulated by the Kremlin.

The upcoming referendum will be no different. I never wrote Russians are inborn liars, but referred to assessments by former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (hence his policy of “glasnost”), former US diplomat George Kennan and mainstream journals such as The Economist and The Guardian.

Arefiev does not seem either to have read or understood my article properly, asserting I offered no arguments for Putin’s initial withdrawal from the crisis. The reasons were amply explained.

I have great admiration for Russia, its culture, history and people. After spending five years there, I am a serious Russophile. What I find hard to justify, and sad, is the country’s inexorable drift back towards Soviet authoritarianism. I honestly believe the Russian people deserve better.

Gerrit Olivier Somerset West