"Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a 'Stepping Stone' to Invade Europe"- Is This Newsweek Scoop For Real?
it's still too early for me to tell
I still want to know more about the remarks quoted in a September 9, 2023 MSN/Newsweek report, from a July 2023 interview with this guy- Colonel General Mordichev, recently promoted from Lieutenant General by Putin.
"...In a recent interview with Moscow's state-run Russia-1, a clip of which circulated widely on social media Saturday, Mordvichev said he believes Putin's war will last quite a long time and expand in the future.
"I think there's still plenty of time to spend. It is pointless to talk about a specified period. If we are talking about Eastern Europe, which we will have to, of course then it will be longer," the general said.
"Ukraine is only a stepping stone?" the interviewer then asked.
"Yes, absolutely. It is only the beginning," Mordvichev responded, who went on to say that the war "will not stop here."
Newsweek reached out to the Russian embassy via email for comment..."
(and then the topic is dropped.) Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a 'Stepping Stone' to Invade Europe Story by Jason Lemon • 4d
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-general-admits-ukraine-just-a-stepping-stone-to-invade-europe/ar-AA1gtZQc
The story is clearly framed as proof of the narrative of Russian militaristic expansionism- that the Ukraine invasion is intended only as the first step in a plan of military aggression that includes marching into eastern Europe with the aim of reclaiming the former Eastern bloc.
One notable feature of the article is that there's only one Mainstream Legacy Media out let that's reported this story- MSN/Newsweek. The rest of my top search results consist of repetitions of the Newsweek report by outlets of (shall we say) lesser reputation, like the NY Post, Daily Beast, and the Hindustan Times. The top rank major league Legacy Media outlets- like the NY Times, Washington Post, and the television networks- continue to be silent about the claim, which gives me pause. Really- how is this not big news?
In its currently updated edition as of today, the MSN/Newsweek story contains no link to the interview, which was broadcast on Russian TV back in July 2023. The Daily Beast report links to a transcript of the speech. Putin Promotes General With Eye for Attacking Eastern Europe LONGER AND LONGER Shannon Vavra National Security Reporter Updated Sep. 08, 2023 1:04PM EDT https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-promotes-general-andrey-mordvichev-with-eye-for-attacking-eastern-europe
However, the link embedded in the Daily Beast report leads only to a transcript of the interview in the original Russian, Cyrillic alphabet and all. https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2023/07/23/986566-vsu-do-kontsa-leta
I can't even be sure that the linked site is a reliable source that provides the original unabridged interview transcript.
That doesn't work as a checkable source for me. I suppose I can feed it into a translation program to convert it into English, but I have no confidence that the result will yield the intended sense of the content.
Frankly, at this point my skepticism is deepening in regard to what General Mordichev actually said. The lag time of well over a month since Mordichev's original remarks and lack of follow-up or mirroring by the A-list of Western media outlets indicates that the Newsweek report may possibly be an exaggeration, or a quote misleadingly translated outside of its proper context. A story of this sort has implications that are too important for it to be dismissed, but at present I'm not going to simply swallow it as presented.
Both the lack of corroborating references and the absence of the MSN/Newsweek story being picked up by any other A-list Western media outlet give it the hallmarks of laundered propaganda. My worries on that score may eventually be mollified. But that doesn’t mean that they’re unjustified. At least not the way the story is currently being reported.
Even if everything inferred in the Newsweek report is eventually shown to be accurate, what’s being represented as factual support for the article is not diligent reference work. Speaking as a one-person operation, if I were reporting on the speech, there's no way I'd run it without a reference link to its original source (the way Jason Lemon did, in the linked MSN/Newsweek article). Nor would I offer such a reference while failing to supply a complete English translation of the interview in addition to the primary source in the original Russian (the way Shannon Vavra did, in the linked Daily Beast article.) I write in English. My readers read English. I can’t expect the readership to be fluent in Russian as well.
Also, there's no way I'd ever re-run this story in an MSN content aggregator with a clickbait headline like this:
"Putin’s New General Wants to INVADE Eastern Europe! When Will Russia’s Mad Dogs Stop?"
which leads to an article presented as a slideshow! Sentence by sentence (with frequent commercial interruptions.) Like we’re all primary schoolchildren.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-s-new-general-wants-to-invade-aol-europe-when-will-russia-s-mad-dogs-stop/ss-AA1gybqQ#image=7
If the claims implied in the Newsweek story are true, it’s a serious story for the adults in the room. It has blockbuster implications. At least it does for me, and anyone else who has ridiculed the notion that the Putin regime is bent on expanding its campaign of military aggression beyond Ukraine into nations that are covered under the mutual defense provisions of NATO membership.
Of course, for anyone who’s already bought into the narrative that the invasion of Ukraine is only the first stage in a Russian Blitzkrieg that includes the re-conquest of the Baltic nations and eastern Europe, the statements allegedly made by General Mordichev in the interview merely comprise more corroboration of conclusions they’ve already accepted, and are hence overlooked more easily.
However, if the claims of the Newsweek report are false- or wildly exaggerated inferences drawn from statements taken out of context- that’s also a blockbuster story, with very different implications.