– Stoltenberg is an obvious rhetorical target, almost regardless of what he says or does, says senior researcher Håvard Bækken at the Institute for Defense Studies (IFS). It was during the TV program “Dokkene til Tutti’s heirs” that NATO’s Secretary General had several absurd accusations leveled against him. The program airs on Channel 1, which is one of the two largest state channels in Russia. – This is disinformation Jens Stoltenberg was accused, among other things, of being “one of the world’s foremost Russophobes” and was called an “anti-Russian hawk”. – So-called “Russophobia” in Western countries is a recurring theme in Russia, says Bækken, and continues: – And with the fresh “foreign policy concept” from the turn of the month, it has become doctrine for the first time. One of the participants in the panel is said to have also analyzed the handwriting of the NATO chief. The conclusion, which was not further substantiated, was that Stoltenberg was a “confined person with great inner tensions”. Jens Stoltenberg was in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Thursday. Photo: GLEB GARANICH / Reuters Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv researches fake news at UIT Norway’s Arctic University. She believes that Russia will portray Stoltenberg as a “weak person”. – They are trying to give an image that Jens Stoltenberg is “weak”. This is disinformation that the Russian state gives its own population and the Ukrainian population that follows Russian broadcasts, she says. – Explaining away problems Håvard Bækken at IFS believes this will not affect the increasingly close cooperation between NATO and Ukraine. – But in the Russian mass media it is important to sell the USA/NATO as the main enemy. Both to explain away Russia’s problems on the battlefield, and to sell the war (falsely) as a necessary defensive war against an expanding NATO, the senior researcher believes. Another on the panel made unsubstantiated claims about the state of health of the Nato chief. The person believed to know that he is deeply depressed and that it is not unlikely that he abuses drugs. But no documentation was presented. – Uses systematic personal attacks Several photos from his youth were shown. The program showed a picture of Stoltenberg with longer hair, and claimed that he had a dream of becoming a kind of Che Guevara. Photo: SCREEN DUMP One of the pictures showed the Nato chief with longer hair. They claimed that he had a dream to become a kind of Che Guevara, but that instead he was bought up by “globalists”. In addition, Stoltenberg was criticized for taking part in a Pride parade. The panelists thought these were examples of his and the West’s values as “rabid and unacceptable”. The accusations have been presented to NATO and Jens Stoltenberg. In an e-mail to news, NATO writes that Russia systematically uses personal attacks as part of its disinformation campaign. – Secretary-General Stoltenberg’s views on Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine are public, as are his views on fundamental values such as freedom and tolerance. The presenter convicted in the USA The program is hosted by Marija Butina, who is a well-known figure in Russia. – Butina is not a neutral person who is known for dealing with matters in a balanced way. And that’s not her intention either, says Hoogensen Gjørv. Butina was convicted in 2019 of conspiring to act as an agent of Russia in the United States. Marija Butina was sentenced in the USA in 2019. She now leads the TV program on Kanal 1 in Russia where fake news about Stoltenberg was disseminated. Photo: SOCIAL MEDIA / Reuters Butina came to the United States on a student visa in 2016, and is said to have infiltrated the American arms organization NRA and made contacts with Republican politicians. Russian President Vladimir Putin denied at the time that the arms activist had any connection to the Russian secret services. Marija Butina herself is said to have told fellow students at American University that she “had a direct line to Vladimir Putin”. Also listen:
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