Putin Letter Tricks Conservative Media

The Putin letter making the rounds on (mostly) conservative media outlets is a phony, according to Snopes.com.

On Friday, the alternative news website Before It’s News ran the letter as if it was from the Russian president himself.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent an open letter to Americans and what it says might make you look at him in an entirely different light,” the report stated. “In fact, in reading his letter, I can only wish that Barack Obama thought much the same way as him on the most pertinent issues. Why is it that Barack Obama is supporting these same Unholy, Unruly, Jihadi Muslims that Vladimir Putin is hoping to crush?”

The letter to which BIN was referring begins with this simple statement: “How do I put this politely? You Americans are dumb. Today, Russia and America are fighting each other over fighting the Muslim radicals. Instead, we should be uniting to crush these violent Islamists, once and for all.”

We won’t bore you with the full details of the faux Putin letter. (You can read it in its entirety at — where else? — Breitbart.)

However, it’s worth noting what Snopes dug up regarding the letter’s authenticity.

According to the website, “Even though this item may have been cast in the first person and mockingly bylined as something penned by ‘Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,’ it’s not an actual open letter to Americans written by the Russian president. It’s a political opinion piece that uses a ‘literary ventriloquism’ device through which an author expresses his viewpoint by putting his words into someone else’s mouth — highlighting what the writer wants the audience to understand by presenting the author’s words as another person’s, as if the audience were ‘inside the mind of’ that other person.”

To be clear, Breitbart ran it as an actual opinion piece, but did not likely “believe” the Putin letter to be from the man himself since it was likely written in-house. However, other alt-news sites like BIN and a number of conservative commenters and Facebookers have bought into it hook, line, and sinker.

Of course, none of the tomfoolery presented above gets the Obama administration off the hook for pursuing the possibility of another unpopular war or spying on millions of Americans, but if you see the Putin letter circulating, don’t share it, okay?

[Image via Before It’s News]