MOSCOW (Sputnik) — He added that such media attacks on Russia were "unimaginable" in countries such as Germany, France, Italy or Greece.
"Anti-Russian hysteria in the American media apparently switches to a new level. The mainstream media and the establishment have already zombified each other with the history of 'Russia's meddling into the elections.' The Congress spawns 'Russia' investigations. It’s now common to label Russia a 'hostile foreign power," Lakhonin said.
Healing of t/ US mainstream media's xenophobia towards Russians will take time. Let's start w/ 2🇮🇱texts➡️https://t.co/gaL4GjAlx0
— Nick Lakhonin (@RusEmbUSApress) 24 мая 2017 г.
T\ 3rd is🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3zg7gDjwp7
The Russian diplomat said that the next stage would be "a return to the instincts of the height of the Cold War times."
"But if in the past we clashed over ideological confrontation, now it’s over. The only option left is to present Russia and its people as enemies, additionally using old recipes of manipulation, to drive a wedge between Russians and other ethnic groups and nations," Lakhonin added.
The press secretary mentioned the Fox News channel as an example of media that promotes xenophobia. Lakhonin referred in particular to a program aired earlier in May, when TV host Julie Roginsky, sticking to her script, declared Russians to be enemies of US democracy, adding that the Russian language had become an instrument of suppressing entire nations.
The program faced sharp criticism on social media, with people accusing the channel of Russophobia, however, the comments were ignored, and the same host claimed in the next broadcast that "the Russian majority suppressed every single minority," citing east Germans as an example of victims of the Russian language and cultural propagation.
"Perhaps the American audience is no longer aware of how the Russians ended up in Germany in 1945 and how a part of Germany became a Soviet occupation zone. These events took place during the Second World War… It is difficult to speak for all Germans. But from German media, it is known that Russian, as well as English, were favorite school subjects of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. She never complained about the Russian language. Which still helps her at work," Lakhonin added.
According to the official, it was a planned "reaction test of the audience to xenophobic propaganda."
"Falsification of history would be absolutely inconceivable if the mainstream media accomplished their basic journalistic function — to give balanced information instead of propaganda. Propaganda is still flourishing. In many regards, the situation is already more severe than it was during the Cold War," Lakhonin stressed.
The Russian official pointed out that the United States was one of the three states, alongside Palau and Ukraine, which voted every year against the UN resolution titled "Combating glorification of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."
