Oliver Stone Defines Useful Idiot in ‘The Putin Interviews’
From Matthew Gault at War Is Boring: http://warisboring.com/oliver-stone-...in-interviews/
Introduction:
Quote:
Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin is a charmer, and after four hours of Oliver Stone’s softball questions he drew me in. Here was a world leader with the calm, intelligence and presence of mind lacking in so many other leaders these days. To here Putin tell it, he cares about climate change, nuclear disarmament and peaceful relations with the West.
Russia’s president smiles when he’s supposed to, cracks all the right jokes and flatters Stone into submission. When Stone asks an easy question, Putin tells Stone he’s quite cunning and is forcing him to divulge too much. But, as with so much media about Russia, Stone’s much vaunted interview with Putin is equal parts smoke, mirrors and bull####.
Putin makes the following claims that go unchallenged by Stone:
- The U.S. supported the Chechen insurgents during the 1990s (Stone cuts to their various terrorist atrocities, such as the school siege in Beslan)
- There are no restrictions on homosexuality in Russia
- Russia has hundreds of media companies that are not state-owned or controlled
- Russia does not “interfere within the domestic affairs of other countries”
Given Stone’s adulation of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, as well as his promotion of the conspiracy theory that the “military-industrial complex” assassinated Kennedy as part of a coup d’état, it is hard to take Stone seriously on politics and especially, foreign policy.