Professional vs Amateur Liars

You might notice that Vladimir Putin never tweets. He seldom has reactive, impromptu conversations with the press, and he has no need for Fox News, since the state directly controls all media. Most of his statements of denial of the many things Russia is accused of are actually issued though various other government officials. Putin learned to deal in the currency of disinformation, deflection and denial as a professional intelligence officer.

“Putin was a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before resigning in 1991 to enter politics in Saint Petersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined president Boris Yeltsin's administration where he served as director of the FSB, the KGB's successor agency, and then as prime minister.” Wikipedia. When Putin or his administration lie, there is a specific national policy or goal behind that mendacity. It is never random or self-aggrandizing. That latter function is reflected in his athletic poses, hockey play, swimming in cold rivers and training in martial arts. But Putin’s Russia lies a lot.

So does Donald Trump, often reactive, ill-conceived, off-the-cuff and almost always self-aggrandizing or aimed at putting someone else down. Difficult to maintain as long as democratic principles survive (and they might not), Trump’s pattern of lying appears to have alternative ambitions: it riles up the opposition, confuses the electorate, empowers his constituency and the sheer volume of lies has rendered the dramatic impact they should carry… a big nothing (“here we go again”).

The underlying purpose is simple: Trump above everyone else… and if you are not with him, you are the enemy. After six significant Trump corporate bankruptcies and a tsunami of business litigation, much of it lost, there may be really good reasons why Trump doesn’t want his tax returns released; his claim to be the best businessman in the world will probably reside in a flood of continuous losses. His claim to be good with loopholes flies in the face of parallel tax returns from his very sophisticated father’s dealing with comparable real estate… showing profits.

Putin identifies with Russia. He revels in his power but deploys his cruel autocracy with surgical precision. Russia is entitled to Crimea. Those obviously Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine are local freedom fighters. Russia clearly did not interfere in US or western elections. Russia did not supply chemical weapons and sophisticated missiles and bombs to Syria. Russian agents did not assassinate operatives in London or Berlin. Russian athletes do not use “enhancing” drugs; they are simply superior. And so on and so on. He is consistent, does not reverse himself and thinks carefully before he speaks or authorizes someone to speak on behalf of Russia.

For those who believe Donald Trump’s whitewashing of Putin’s mendacity, that “all that bad stuff never happened” – and there are many including many in Congress now pursuing a debunked Ukrainian conspiracy theory from an alternative universe – nothing bring home how lying is just the way the USSR and now Russia operate than sports doping. What do you expect from a former high-ranking officer in both the Soviet and Russian equivalent of our CIA? Putin is obviously so much better at it than amateur Trump.

Russia has denied that it officially condones, and then hides, the support of supplying and encouraging the use of muscle-enhancing chemicals (steroids, etc.) that are uniformly banned in international competition. Repeatedly caught by objective blood tests and substantiated by defectors, Russians have simply attempted to upgrade their chemicals and find better ways to hide the results. Nothing really changed. Except they got caught… again… and again. Business as usual.

This is simply a metaphor for the bastion of continuous mendacity that defines Mother Russia… and has for a long time. David Wharton, writing for the December 10^th Los Angeles Times, writes: “A decision to ban Russia from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and other major sporting events over the next four years has drawn immediate, angry reaction from critics who insist the punishment is not severe enough.

“The World Anti-Doping Agency announced the sanction Monday, the latest development in a long-running scandal in which Russian athletes, coaches and officials have been caught in an orchestrated doping scheme… Though Russia cannot participate as a nation — its name, flag and anthem barred — WADA ruled that individual athletes may compete as ‘neutrals’ if they can persuade authorities they have not cheated.

“The penalty extends as far as the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and is similar to one that was instituted at the 2018 Winter Games at Pyeongchang, South Korea. The International Olympic Committee voiced its support, but others were infuriated… ‘To allow Russia to escape a complete ban is yet another devastating blow to clean athletes,’ said Travis T. Tygart, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, adding: ‘Here we go again. WADA says one thing and does something entirely different.’

“In Russia, where leaders have traditionally viewed sports as a national showcase, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dismissed the ban as ‘a continuation of the anti-Russian hysteria that has already grown chronic,’ according to a report from the Tass state news agency.

“The scandal dates to allegations from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Though media reports and a WADA investigation subsequently detailed a state-run doping program, Russia was allowed to compete on a limited basis at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. At the Winter Games two years later, the nation was banned, but 168 Russians participated as ‘Olympic athletes from Russia,’ marching into the opening ceremony under a neutral flag. None of this stopped President Vladimir Putin from lauding a gold-medal performance by the men’s hockey team… ‘This success is a wonderful tribute to the Russian ice hockey school and a great example for our younger athletes,’ Putin said… Many in the Olympic movement saw excluding all Russian athletes from Tokyo and Beijing as a logical next step.”

We accept this because that’s the way it has always been. Russian intelligence is based on deception and disinformation. But Russia is not a democracy. We are. We do not have any excuse to condone, tolerate or justify our chief of state’s pattern of lying like no other American leader in our history, no matter the reason. The whole world has labeled him a liar, an epithet that has decimated America’s global credibility and influence.

            I’m Peter Dekom, and as the ability to manufacture “genuine looking” fake news blends with our President’s addiction to lying, I wonder exactly how American democracy can survive this horrendous change in our political landscape.