A New (Old) Normal.

Obviously the recent scandal in Dutch Kingdom with its Foreign Minister lying about Putin (and Russia) in 2006 didn't make huge headlines and this is the way it is supposed to be since it is normal.  

Dutch foreign minister Halbe Zijlstra has admitted lying about attending a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin as he prepares for his first visit to Russia as a member of the government.Mr Zijlstra has issued a statement confirming the admission he made in an interview published in the respected Dutch daily De Russia, Volkskrant. He has in the past said he was present as an employee of energy giant Shell at Mr Putin's country retreat in 2006, when the Russian president said he considered Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states as part of a "Greater Russia". In a written statement, Mr Zijlstra said that he was not present at the meeting, but heard a story from somebody who was there. He said he considered Mr Putin's statements so geopolitically important that he spoke about them publicly and took credit for hearing the comments as a way of protecting his source."The manner in which I wanted to protect my source and underscore my message about Russia was not sensible, that is crystal clear," Mr Zijlstra said.He is due to fly to Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

You see? No biggie. I don't know what kind of bacteria killing hands sanitizer will Lavrov use after shaking hands with this Dutch loon, but it is patently clear that BSing about Russia long ago became a Modus Operandi for Western media and political "elites". In fact, as this blog documented for years now, it is a new (or old) normal. This is the only way it is supposed to be. As an example, let's say I want to become Newsweek or NYT Russia "expert". How can I do this? Easy! I need to write an "analytical" material on how I had an access to top secret KGB (GRU, FSB, MVD... whatever) general who told me about plans to subvert US Presidential Elections... oh, wait--it has been done already. I am sure Christopher Steele met very many "top" Russian generals from all those organizations and they told him about Russians interfering in the elections. 

But jokes aside, this is not new in the West. As was noted in 1988 by Whitman Bassow in an openly apologetic work for a drab, at best, US journalism in the USSR, The Moscow Correspondent:

"Thirty years ago as UP correspondent, I met a middle-aged Florida couple in Metropole dining room who were astonished that the average Russian seemed so well dressed.  "Why," exclaimed the woman, "they even wear fur hats!" The American scolded me for not reporting such important news. I countered that I frequently wrote features on women's styles, clothes, and shopping in Moscow but that not a single editor on the thousands of newspapers served by the agency would print a story, if I did write one, that a quarter million Russians walked down Gorky Street today wearing shoes. Americans, I said, should have learned in high school, not from the pages of their local newspaper, that Russians wear coats and hats." 

So, the proud tradition of lying about Russia and Russians didn't go away with the end of the Cold War, it only reinforced itself and, in some sense, it is good, since leaves no illusions about kind of people who today define West's foreign policy. For Lavrov, meanwhile, I would suggest this brand--inexpensive and "kills 99% of germs and bacteria". 

Only $ 15.88 for a pack of four.

Yet, until there are still people like this Dutch farmer in beautiful Holland, who knows, maybe not everything is lost... yet.  One may only hope. 

UPDATE:  I'll be damned--he resigned!

In conclusion, the thing which absolutely got me going was this in his BS:

The official claimed that he heard Putin talk about a “Great Russia” which included “Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states,” while “Kazakhstan was nice to have” as well.

Overwhelming majority of Russians not only do not consider Baltic States a part of "Great Russia", but do not want to have anything to do with them. As bypassing their ports recently proves beyond any shade of a doubt. As long as they respect rights of Russians living there nobody gives a damn about them--let them eat their EU and NATO membership.