Online Project Makes Fun of Mainstream Media's Portrayal of Russia

Culpa de Rusia, or Russia is Guilty, is a Spanish-language internet project making fun of the tidal wave of Russophobic materials that the European and US mainstream media is awash with these days.

Launched in October 2016, the project quickly spread to major online platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube with nearly 4,000 members  and more signing up each day.

In an exclusive interview with Sputnik Mundo, the project’s founder said that he was “a bit Argentinean, a bit Spanish and Venezuelan and also a bit of Yugoslavian.” He added that he preferred not to mention his name in order “to add a veil of secrecy” to his persona.

He works on Culpa de Rusia in his spare time, is happy with the results but hopes that the idea will spread on.

When asked when and why this project appeared in the first place, the unnamed author said that it came about in October 2016 ”inspired” by constant, always negative and “almost delirious” coverage of Russia by European mainstream media, especially in Span and other NATO countries.

“El País, El Mundo, La Sexta, TVE, CNN and just about any other mainstream media outlet are hell-bent on badmouthing Russia, the Kremlin and Putin,” he said.

“Sometimes I find it hard to come up with funnier headlines that those which I try to lampoon.”

Culpa de Rusia ridicules the distorted picture of Russia that is being spread by mainstream media in the West, where one can’t find anything positive about Russia no matter how hard he tries.

“They never tell you anything good about the Russian government, they never write about new Russian movies or technological achievements. All they talk about are Russian homophobes beating up women and invading other countries in their spare time,” he said.

Que pensará '@culpaderusia de esta reunión entre #erdogan y #Putin?!
Querrán apoderarse del mundo hackeandolo?!
'@ElLuchinRuso #Ilyushin pic.twitter.com/qfpcg7KVkb

— Sultan Suleiman (@SultanAksalC13) 10 марта 2017 г.

​​When asked how he posts Culpa de Rusia news on Twitter and Facebook, he said that he picks up negative stories about Russia that appear in major mainstream media outlets and “makes them worse” to make fun of.

“I also choose positive stories about Russia just to make them look bad,” he noted.

He added that some verbs and expressions from media headlines about Russia always  “threatening,”  “oppressing,” “destroying,” and “breaking in” while NATO “offers,” “negotiates,” “apologizes,” “accommodates,” and “liberates,” look comical enough as they are that he doesn’t even have to make them even funnier.

“My other sources of inspiration are my subscribers on Twitter and Facebook who keep sending in news to my @CulpaDeRusia account to parody.

Some of them also expand and improve our news or wrote their own stories and I want to thank them for contributing to our project,” he said.

#LOL
Próximamente en nuestras pantallas pic.twitter.com/Vt8SjSfBNq

— Esperanza (@pechosboys) 3 марта 2017 г.

​Speaking about the project’s take on the issue of the imaginary “Russian hackers,” the founder of Culpa de Russia said that Western media’s obsession with the “almighty Russian hackers” is one of the main focuses of his and his subscribers’ attention and a great source of inspiration too.

“For mainstream media Russian hackers are an ideal means of dodging responsibility for just about anything,” he said.

“They are also an ideal subject for parody: If Hillary Clinton blames Russian hackers for her electoral defeat, Culpa de Rusia faults them for its videos taking time to upload on YouTube. Or our subscribers blame Russian hackers for flunking their exams.”

“I don’t know where we at Culpa de Rusia would be without Russian hackers!” he laughed.

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