Those Russian men who fled last fall’s mobilization after thinking that the West sincerely supported them starting new lives in their countries were manipulated by the Mainstream Media. They were never anything more than pawns in that side’s information warfare campaign. The US’ quiet decision to resume deporting them sends the message that they’re no longer useful and can thus be discarded by those other Western countries who also hate Russians and don’t want to host them anymore.

The US, its vassals across the Golden Billion, and their proxies in Kiev have all insisted that Russia’s special operation is “illegitimate”, yet the sincerity of that stance is now thrown into doubt after the Biden Administration quietly resumed the deportation of mobilization-fleeing Russian men. The Guardian was the first to break this story, citing immigration advocates who expressed shock at this policy reversal. Those who are interested in the details can read their exclusive report about it here.

The present piece won’t rehash The Guardians’, but will instead delve into the deeper soft power meaning behind this unexpected flip-flop. The US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) previously waged an intense information warfare campaign in support of those eligible males who fled Russia from late September onwards, claiming that they supposedly had the “right” to do so as a form of “peaceful political protest” against the ongoing campaign that they regard as “immoral”.

The latest development spearheaded by none other than the same country that’s leading NATO’s proxy war on Russia in Ukraine reveals in hindsight that the aforementioned perception management operations were only intended to manipulate the minds of their targeted audience. The whole purpose was just to stoke panic in Russia and make it look bad in the eyes of others abroad. There was never any genuine intent to help those who fled start a new life in the West.

They were always pawns of that de facto New Cold War bloc in one way or another, which they should finally begin to realize. These men naively believed that the US would welcome them with open arms, yet now they’re being deported. They don’t have to worry about being punished for having left on the pretext of avoiding mobilization, however, since the American authorities wouldn’t have sent them back home if they truly believed that there was a “credible fear” that they’ll get in trouble.

President Putin himself promised as much in his national address late last month when he said “Let's not settle scores with those who stepped aside, who backed away from their homeland. Let this remain on their conscience, let them live with it. The main thing is that the people, the citizens of Russia, gave them a moral assessment.” Despite the US publicly implying that everything that the Russian leader says is a lie, this time they clearly believed him and felt confident that deportees won’t be punished.

A lot was earlier said about the speculative socio-economic status of those who fled, with the MSM reporting that many of them were highly educated and well-experienced in the tech sector. One would therefore think that they’d make perfect immigrants and that the US would thus have a self-interested reason in letting them stay even though it doesn’t really believe that they meet the criteria for political asylum. This suggests that the form of bigotry known as Russophobia might have been at play.

After all, the US has an interest in encouraging so-called “brain drain” from Russia or at the very least employing what Ivy League researcher Kelly M. Greenhill described in 2010 as “Weapons of Mass Migration”, which can sometimes take the form of encouraging emigration to weaken one’s enemies. It therefore doesn’t make sense why the US would send the signal that they should stay in Russia by quietly resuming its deportation of these individuals who fled last fall’s mobilization.

The only explanation that accounts for why America would inflict such damage to its own soft power by discrediting the MSM’s information warfare campaign that was previously aimed at supporting mass emigration from Russia on this pretext is that it simply doesn’t want any more Russians in its country. That’s why they’re now being deported despite that aforementioned campaign having earlier speculated that many of them meet the criteria of what most would agree are perfect immigrants.

The takeaway is that those Russian men who fled last fall’s mobilization after thinking that the West sincerely supported them starting new lives in their countries were manipulated by the MSM. They were never anything more than pawns in that side’s information warfare campaign. The US’ quiet decision to resume deporting them sends the message that they’re no longer useful and can thus be discarded by those other Western countries who also hate Russians and don’t want to host them anymore.

Courtesy Andrew Korybko

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