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While the English version of Strategic Culture Foundation's website looks relatively ordinary, its Russian version (there's also a Serbian one) is outright bizarre. The 'About' section states harmlessly enough: “Benefiting from the expanding power of the Internet, we work to spread reliable information, critical thought, and progressive ideas.” But right beside this text is an op-ed by Dmitry Sedov full of diatribes so astonishingly racist that you want to rub your eyes to make sure you've understood. “The trumpeters of democracy from [liberal radio station] Ekho Moskvy don't need those grants," Sedov says of supposed US government funding for aspiring journalists in the Baltic countries to counter "propaganda" out of Russia. "They are already covered in chocolate like the negroes in Harlem!” In another piece, titled “America's Dark Side,” published on August 6, Sedov (whose credentials are unclear, as no biography is provided and his writings can only be found on SCF's website, or reprinted on other loyalist outlets) explains that the US, led by a black president, is falling to the onslaught of "black racism": there are bars that are off-limits to "dogs and whites" and armed gangs of "black fascists" facilitate white flight from major American cities.
A Whois search reveals that the domain strategic-culture.org was registered in Moscow by a certain "Andrej G Areshev"—apparently a Moscow-based political scientist specializing in Asian and Caucasian affairs, who pens op-eds like “Frau Merkel's Karabakh Fantasies” in publications like Regnum and Lenta.ru—outlets considered to toe the Kremlin's line. (In 2009, for instance, Regnum's chief editor was barred from entering Latvia and Estonia.) Areshev is also a prolific author on the Strategic Culture Foundation's website. One of his latest pieces is titled "Climate Warfare: Is It Really a Conspiracy Theory?" There, he blames the latest wave of droughts and wildfires in Russia on "climate warfare" waged by the United States by way of HAARP, an ionospheric research program based in Alaska. "HAARP as a tectonic weapon" is a popular conspiracy theory, but what's peculiar is the source that Areshev uses to support his argument: the findings of “Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa Michel Chossudovsky.” While Chossudovsky is indeed a tenured professor with verifiable credentials, he is also known as the founder of the Center for Research on Globalization. Despite the grand-sounding name, it's a fairly standard conspiracy rumor-mill that runs the whole gamut from 9/11 truthery and to anti-vaccination hysterics.
What makes GlobalResearch.ca different from other similar websites is the disproportional weight it enjoys in news coverage by the Russian state media. Global Research is prominently featured as the only source in numerous stories by Russia's leading newswire RIA Novosti, where it's referred to as a "think tank" or "publication" whose "experts" or "journalists" regularly reveal or uncover some fact that fits into the Kremlin's current foreign policy agenda. RIA's latest story based on content that appeared on GlobalResearch.ca is titled “Media Uncovered a US Resolution that 'Recognizes' Donbass' Sovereignty,” and refers to the Captive Nations resolution, otherwise known as Public Law 86-90, adopted in 1959 by US President Dwight Eisenhower. While the original draft of the resolution did include some dubious claims (the list of "captive nations" included the nonexistent states of Cossakia and Idel-Ural) and was criticized by prominent American scholars for being based on historical misinformation, it doesn't take much effort to "discover" the resolution, as it's not classified and is widely available online. Describing GlobalResearch.ca as "the media" is also problematic, insofar as it is less a news outlet and more an amateur conspiracy website whose founder has subscribed to the Kremlin's narrative simply because it opposes the one promoted by the “deep state” and its subservient “mainstream media.”
full: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2015/08/14/the-kremlin-s-manichaean-delusion
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