ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Media Lens When Russian and Syrian forces were bombarding 'rebel'-held East Aleppo last year, newspapers and television screens were full of anguished reporting about the plight of civilians killed, injured, trapped, traumatised or desperately fleeing. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, both Official Enemies, were denounced and demonised, in accordance with the usual propaganda script. One piece in the Evening Standard  described  Assad as a 'monster' and a Boris Johnson  column  in the Telegraph referred to both Putin and Assad as 'the Devil'. As the respected veteran reporter Patrick Cockburn  put it : 'The partisan reporting of the siege of East Aleppo presented it as a battle between good and evil: The Lord of the Rings, with Assad and Putin as Saruman and Sauron.' This, he said, was 'the nadir of Western media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Syria.' Media reporting focused laser-like on 'La

First three Russian-made Ka-52 reconnaissance and combat helicopters have been delivered to Egypt, the Russian state-run news agecny TASS reported Tuesday citing a source in the Russian Defense Ministry. According to the agency, Egyptian pilots are currently undergoing training to use the helicopters. In 2015, Moscow and Cairo made a contract on delivery of 46 Ka-52 helicopters to Egypt. TASS added  that Russia will also sell Ka-52K ship-based helicopters for Mistral-class amphibious assault ships recently obtained by the Egyptian Navy: Russia also won the tender on delivery of Ka-52K ship-based helicopters for Egyptian Mistral class amphibious assault ships , Director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugaev said in June 2017. Russia and Egypt will hold talks on deliveries of Ka-52K helicopters at MAKS 2017 airshow , Shugaev said earlier today. Click to see the full-size map