The Washington Post has found another Russian secret agent in America’s own backyard, this time reprimanding US-based streaming service Netflix for doing the Kremlin’s bidding by showing a Russian historical drama.
The WaPo has sounded the alarm over perhaps the most unlikely Russian stooge yet, putting Netflix on a par with the usual suspects, like RT and the St. Petersburg ‘troll factory’, as supposed tools of the Moscow propaganda game.
The liberal publication has taken aim at the 2017 Russian mini-series ‘Trotsky’, currently being streamed on the platform. The eight-episode series, which depicts the life of famous Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, was produced to mark the centenary of the Russian revolution and was initially oriented towards domestic audiences.
However, the WaPo’s Luke Johnson has found hidden seeds of the Russian government’s propaganda planted in ‘Trotsky’s plot, calling on Netflix to “be explicit about the source of its content to viewers, rather than passing it off as just the latest television series.” Johnson blames the series, and Netflix, of “taking contemporary Russia’s anti-revolutionary ideology global” by including scenes of a German agent helping Russian revolutionaries with money (incidentally, a well-knownhistorical fact), and portraying the upheaval as a coup rather than a revolution.
Falling short of suggesting that Netflix should register as a foreign agent, the WaPo advises the media giant to “think carefully whether it wants to be in business…with Russia’s propaganda channels.”