Earlier this month in a small village in western Ukraine, a group of political pranksters met to declare self-government and to fly the country’s yellow-and-blue national flag upside down as their new symbol. The tiny group of misfits, led by a former plumber named Anatoly Balakhnin, was ignored by most Ukrainians; only Radio Liberty reported on the meeting, noting 10 people had shown up to it. Yet across the border, in Russian media, the new group was declared an “alternative state” and held up as an example of how Ukraine was supposedly facing “issues of separatism” in its western regions.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Anna Nemtsova: How Russian media tries to undermine Ukraine
A Russia's state-controlled Russia Today (RT) television broadcast van is seen parked outside the Luzhniki stadium ahead of an international friendly football match between Russia and Argentina in Moscow on Nov. 11, 2017.