{"id":11725,"date":"2013-08-07T17:41:38","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T17:41:38","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-08-07T17:41:38","modified_gmt":"2013-08-07T17:41:38","slug":"behind_putin_s_campaign_against_gays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/08\/07\/behind_putin_s_campaign_against_gays\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind Putin\u2019s Campaign Against Gays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019ve got a story here from BuzzFeed on why Russia turned against gays. And it\u2019s actually a pretty fascinating story about Putin. And this story, as far as it goes, makes the point here that Putin decided in the early stages of his reign — that would be r-e-i-g-n for those of you in Rio Linda — that he would rule with no apparent ideology. <\/p>\n

“Three months before Russia\u00c2\u2019s parliament unanimously passed a federal law banning the propaganda of ‘non-traditional relationships\u2019 — that is, same-sex ones — the bill\u00c2\u2019s sponsor went on the country\u00c2\u2019s most respected interview show to explain her reasoning. ‘Analyzing all the circumstances, and the particularity of territorial Russia and her survival\u00c2\u2026I came to the conclusion that if today we want to resolve the demographic crisis, we need to, excuse me, tighten the belt on certain moral values and information, so that giving birth and raising children become fully valued.'” This is a Russian female lawmaker by the name of Yelena Mizulina. And she told this to our old buddy Vladimir Posner. Did you know Vladimir Posner\u2019s still alive? <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Do you know what Vladimir Posner is? Oh, dawn, Vladimir Posner is a former KGB agent who became a go-to guy for Ted Koppel and ABC\u2019s Nightline. He and another KGB agent disguised as an ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, these guys, I loved \u2019em, they were as American as you and me. I even interviewed, when I went to Sacramento, had my show there, they sent me to Washington. They were so insistent that I do interviews and have guests. So they sent me to Washington for a week, and I did the program from the ABC broadcast center which was on DeSales Street right across from the Mayflower Hotel. And since I had to do this, I wanted to get Vitaly Churkin. <\/p>\n

Vitaly Churkin fascinated me. I mean, I tried to imagine what this guy\u2019s childhood had been, when he was first spotted by the KGB or the Politburo as somebody with the potential. He lived out with the natives in Arlington, or McLean. I mean, he was as American as anybody. I asked him, he got the biggest kick out of this. I looked at him dead straight in the eye, and I said, “Are you KGB?” And he just laughed himself crazy, thought I was the biggest kook in the world. He said, “No, that\u2019s the committee for state security, and I don\u2019t have anything to do with that. I\u2019m at the embassy.” <\/p>\n

But Vladimir Posner and Churkin, they were in America at pretty much the same time. Yeah, yeah, Posner eventually teamed up and cohosted a show with his communist buddy Phil Donahue. Do you remember this now on MSNBC? Back when MSNBC actually had an audience. I mean, there was a time when MSNBC was worth watching. It was \u201992 to \u201995, it was a legitimate news network. They did news during the day. They had the right kind of synergy with NBC News. I thought they had tremendous potential, what they were trying to do. And then it all went to hell. Snerdley screened a couple radio shows over at MSNBC at that time. One time Chris Matthews guest hosted this show, before he went Looney Tunes on everybody. <\/p>\n

Anyway, Posner was a regular guest on American TV, PBS, ABC, Nightline. Vladimir Posner was unabashedly pro-Soviet, anti-US, hated Reagan, loved Gorbachev and all these Soviet leaders. I look back on these guys now and I have all kinds of affection for \u2019em now looking back, but they were good. They humanized a despotic regime like nobody ever has. Vitaly Churkin and Vladimir Posner were able to make the Soviet Union look like a paradise, when of course it was the exact opposite. It was a Third World country with a superpower military, is what it was. And I hadn\u2019t heard of Vladimir Posner in years. I thought he was Phil Donahue\u2019s majordomo up at his estate there in upstate New York with Marlo Thomas. But apparently he\u2019s back home, and he\u2019s got a TV show now. <\/p>\n

So, anyway, I\u2019m sorry for the distraction, I just had to do this little stream of consciousness about these guys. I mean, Vitaly Churkin even looked like — I mean, Wall Street, Ivy League, you know, blue-blood American elitist. Sounded like one, too. They were good. They were superb, and of course the US media loved \u2019em, too, and Posner was just everywhere. <\/p>\n