“Greek Protests” On Moscow Streets

By Vesnovskaya Maria

This week saw the US Fox News TV channel’s coverage of the latest protests in Moscow. In a bizarre twist, the footage showed green grass and palm trees apparently on Moscow streets in the month of December, as well as policemen wearing uniform of the Greek Interior Minister forces. Experts say in this connection that US media outlets have repeatedly made factual errors while covering protest rallies in Russia.

The protests over the parliamentary election results have been taking place in Moscow and St.Petersburg since Sunday. Taking to the streets are both the winners and the losers, with the law enforcers keeping an eagle eye on public order. Several hundreds of protesters have already been detained without the use of tear gas and fire arms. It appears, however, that Fox News editors are of a different mind given that one can distinctively hear shots fired in the first seconds of their channel’s coverage of the 5-6 December protests in Moscow . The footage showed streets ablaze and firebombs thrown at police by demonstrators.

The broadcast also included protesters in summer clothes rallying against the backdrop of green grass, palm trees and the Greek National Bank sign. The gaffe is already being actively discussed by bloggers, with even the protests’ supporters lambasting the lack of professionalism on the part of Fox News staff.

It seems, experts say, that the aim of the footage was to show that the situation in Russia deteriorated – something that was first all intended for domestic consumption.  In Moscow, political analyst Alexander Gusev says that even pro-republican Fox News demonstrates their footages to confirm the Democrats’ stance on alleged vote fraud in Russia’s elections.

“That this footage has been shown is not accidental,” Gusev says. “There are plenty of insinuations of thois kind given the significance of what is going on in Russia ahead of the presidential elections there. Many people are interested in what is happening in our country now . I mean both Russian citizens and those living abroad. This is why someone is taking advantage of the situation to pursue their own interests. There are people who are trying to take care of their own PR image,” Gusev concludes.

It is worth noting that aside from Fox News, CNN also raised eyebrows when in 2010, it aired footage of protests in the Russian Far East against the abolition of time zones in Russia. The footage showed Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square where thousands of protesters who were infuriated about the way the probe into the killing of Russian football fan Yegor Sviridov had been conducted . Back then, the CNN offered its official apologies about the incident. It has not taken long to see another gaffe, this time by Fox News.

Its misleading video of Russain protests has already been blocked on the FOX News website, but the footage is still available on blogging sites and YouTube. So far, there has bene no word on the incident from Fox News officials.