(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) After receiving billions of dollars in financial aid and sanctions support from the United States, a so-called disinformation center established by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that several high-ranking US figures, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, are “Russian propagandists” bent on spreading anti-Ukraine narratives.
Paul and Gabbard were joined on the Ukrainian blacklist by a raft of other Western politicians, intellectuals, academics and activists who have had the temerity to not blindly accept every utterance and act by the Ukrainian government as the gold standard for defending democracy, according to UnHerd.
The alleged aim of the Zelenskyy-created “Center for Countering Disinformation,” which has reportedly been operational since last year, is to root out and refute “propaganda” and “destructive disinformation” and to prevent the “manipulation of public opinion.”
To that end, any trace of criticism of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian fight against Russia henchman Vladimir Putin’s aggression is apparently ripe as disinformation that needs to be rebuked or censored.
While the disinformation center’s website doesn’t provide specific criteria for what it considers egregious enough transgressions to warrant blacklisting, or offer any repercussions for those blacklisted, Gabbard and Paul have both been critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Paul even had the audacity to request a proper accounting of the billions of dollars that the US is giving Ukraine.
In the case of military and geopolitical analyst Edward N. Luttwak, the disinformation center cited his alleged “pro-Russian” opinions that got him blacklisted. Those heretical stances included Luttwak’s suggestion that “referendums should be held in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions” to determine their status with Ukraine and that Putin’s regime couldn’t be derailed by Ukraine.
“It is a fantasy to believe Russia can be squarely defeated,” Luttwak told UnHerd. “In Kyiv they have interpreted this stance as meaning I am pro-Russia.”
The revelation of Zelenskyy’s disinformation center comes on the heels of the Ukrainian parliament banning Russian books and music, and the Zelenskyy government abolishing its main opposition party and seizing the assets of its rivals.
Renegade journalist Glenn Greenwald also made the disinformation center’s blacklist, which he blasted as “standard McCarthyite idiocy.”
“The Ukrainians have the absolute right to pursue whatever war policies they want,” Greenwald said.
“But when they start demanding that my country and my government use its resources to fuel their war effort, then I, along with all other Americans, have the absolute right to question that policy or to point out its dangers and risks.”
