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“A Nightmare Painted by Goya”: Russian Media Coverage of the Syrian Chemical Weapons Attacks in Comparative Perspective

The Western powers and Russia came head-to-head over the August 2013 chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Not only did Moscow stridently oppose Western plans to intervene militarily, it also steadfastly refused to accept that the Syrian regime had been responsible, a position that the U.S. president described as an “insult to reason.” This article examines how it can be that the Russian government was able to maintain such a seemingly absurd stance. It does so by analyzing how the Ghouta attacks were presented in the Russian media, and comparing this with coverage in the United States, United Kingdom, and France.