Again, having lived here for the past 25 years, I have NOT YET met ANY Russian (or Belarussian or Ukrainian) family that was not affected significantly and severely by World War II. Russia's annual tribute for 70 years now since 1945 to the immense human sacrifices made by the Soviet people in World War II against fascist Hitler and then Nazi Germany is UNDERSTANDABLE, all the more so when thus far there are still many people living who endured the war. An estimated 27 million Soviet people died (est. 16 million of them civilians), with Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus collectively accounting for over 23 million dead (14 million of them civilians) or 86% of the 27 million total. What is NOT understandable is my America's official "boycotting" at the presidential level of the Victory Day parade held in Moscow on May 9, 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945.
On May 9, 2015, my America and President Barack Obama missed the important opportunity to say "thank you" to the Soviet Union for its sacrifices and, at the same time, to advocate for PEACE all over the world, including in Ukraine and between Ukraine and Russia. For many millions of ordinary Russians, this intentional disrespect by America is painful. On behalf of my country, I apologize to the elderly Soviet military and civilian men and women who survived World War II and lived to see my country's intentional disrespect paid to their and their families' tremendous sacrifices.
(4) Regarding your statement "they might not be able to convince audiences who downed MH17", do you yourself know who exactly downed the MH17 flight, and do you know of anyone who can prove this in a court of law, as opposed to "proving" it by biased media reports and official government statements that are long on conclusions but totally short on facts? In my America of the 1960s I grew up with a profound belief, instilled in me by my parents, in my schools and universities, in churches, in my community, by my government, and by the media that ALL people are INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. Unfortunately, my America and the European Union have totally forgotten this long-held and fundamental democratic and constitutional principal as regards the Donetsk People's Republic and Russia. And, as regards the potential that Ukraine itself be could be the culprit, my America and the European Union take a "double standards" position that Ukraine is INNOCENT regardless of whether it might ultimately be PROVEN GUILTY. In fact, if you want to know a truly wicked and hypocritical example of America's and the European Union's propaganda, their treatment of the downing of the MH17 is exactly that. Personally, Victor Konovalenko and I do NOT know WHO (which side, persons, equipment, etc.) downed the MH17 flight, but I can tell you that America's and the European Union's "finger pointing" is not leading us to any answers and in fact totally undermines the critically important "innocent until proven guilty" principle of law.
(5) Regarding your mention of documentaries, Russia already has a lot of them, both foreign and domestic, including on mainstream Russian television channels and a dedicated channel "24Doc". As with any foreign or Russian documentary, the statements made therein must be vetted for objectivity, accuracy, and truth.
(6) Regarding BBC Media Action's (BBC's charity arm's) work with a Ukrainian public broadcaster to produce short dramas about young people caught up in the Ukrainian war, I can only hope that such documentaries are NOT one-sided but rather reflect the dilemma of often inexperienced and quite young people fighting on both sides, many of them without any interest whatsoever in fighting and killing their Ukrainian "brothers and sisters". If government leaders and politicians (and their families) who start wars had to fight in them, there would be a lot less wars. Likewise, if journalists (and their families) who resort to propaganda in reporting on wars had to fight in them, there would be a lot less propaganda.
(7) Regarding your statement that "the west made a bad error in the 1990s, abandoning the development of media in the former Soviet Union to the free market: instead, media were captured by oligarchs or corrupt regimes," intellectually this is quite an interesting statement for two reasons. First, the USA, European Union, and any other countries on a governmental level (whether directly or indirectly through funding of private or quasi-private initiatives) do NOT have the right to meddle in Russia's (or any other country's) media "development". Radio Free Europe (1949), Radio Liberty (1951), and Voice of America (1942) were all founded with a strong anti-communist platform, with the British Broadcasting Corporation (1920) serving much broader interests and historically tending to be more objective in its broadcasting. Regardless, all four were involved in Cold War broadcasting, including propaganda to various degrees.
However, in today's world, they and others need to use much less propaganda and much more facts, transparency, critical thinking, and independence and compete in the free market pursuant to the laws of the countries to which they are broadcasting for any trust, credibility, and respect that they may develop with the peoples of such countries. Second, I cannot understand why you would single out Russia as having media "captured by oligarchs or corrupt regimes," but remain silent as to the horrendous state of the media in my America -- see, for example, an excerpt from the article "Don't be Fooled by the Political Game: The Illusion of Freedom in America" by John Whitehead at http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/august/11/don-t-be-fooled-by-the-political-game-the-illusion-of-freedom-in-america/ :
"The Media. Of course, this triumvirate of total control would be completely ineffective without a propaganda machine provided by the world's largest corporations. Besides shoving drivel down our throats at every possible moment, the so-called news agencies which are supposed to act as bulwarks against government propaganda have instead become the mouthpieces of the state. The pundits which pollute our airwaves are at best court jesters and at worst propagandists for the false reality created by the American government."
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