The discord of American politics, U.S. military engagements abroad, the English-language dark web—all these offer myriad opportunities for criticism. And Russian President Vladimir Putin took advantage of them with gusto after his June 16 Geneva summit with U.S. counterpart Joe Biden. One journalist called Putin’s deft deflection of tough questions from reporters “a masterclass in whataboutism”—which might be defined as the strategic practice of countering criticism with an accusation of wrongdoing against the criticizer, implying hypocrisy and/or disregarding circumstances that could weaken the latter charges, but not addressing the original criticism.
Read Full Article »
