He who pays the piper calls the tune, and Western mass media sources, subservient to their powerful owners, are making every effort to stigmatize the Russian leadership, US author Eric Zuesse notes, stressing that the West's ultimate goal is to topple the country's present government and to seize Russia's natural resources.

Interestingly enough, while selling stories about Russia's phantom menace, Western media remains silent about disturbing facts which cast a shadow over the US's image, US author and investigative historian Eric Zuesse points out in an article published by Strategic Culture Foundation.

"A 2013 Gallup poll of 65 countries that was co-sponsored by the US Government and thus never fully published, reportedly found that among people worldwide, "The US was the overwhelming choice (24% of respondents) for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today. This was followed by Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%)," Zuesse underscored, adding that Russia was not even in the top five.

Curiously enough, there was no report of any such poll made afterwards, the historian stressed. On the one hand, the results were nothing like Washington expected; on the other, the US government knew that its press "would to do a lot more work in order to get Russia to be number one on that list," he added.

And indeed, Western media is still making vain attempts to stigmatize Russia and its leadership. Their black-and-white narrative does not include stories of US interference in domestic affairs of other states and efforts to redraw the map of Eastern Europe.

"Also important, however, is to black out entirely from all US reporting, the US Government's now very active campaign to conquer Russia by installing next door to Russia, in its former buffer states (the Warsaw Pact nations), new NATO nations," Zuesse noted referring to the Obama administration controversial role in the Ukrainian coup of February 2014.

According to the investigative historian, America's hostile attitude toward Russia first surfaced when US president Bill Clinton rejected Russia's request to join NATO. Instead, Washington invited three former members of Warsaw Pact — Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland — to join the Alliance, leaving Russia out in the cold. The United States was not considering Russia an ally and was unwilling to cooperate with it on par.

"The US aristocracy had wanted, actually, to conquer Russia; they didn't want merely for the Cold War to end — this was now clear. They want to keep it going until Russia itself is conquered," Zuesse underscored.

The current US administration and NATO are actually following in their predecessors' footsteps, encircling Russia and at the same time banging the war tom-toms over Russia's imaginary threat to Europe and to NATO.

"In February, President Obama issued his "National Security Strategy 2015" and it used the word "aggression" 18 times, of which 17 referred to Russia as the alleged "aggressor." If this is merely a mental illness that Obama has, then why are the US 'news' media in lockstep behind it?" the historian noted.

According to the historian, at the root of all these disinformation and manipulation lies the intent of the US financial and political establishment to overthrow the Russian government and grab Russia's natural resources via "privatizations" — finishing what was started after the collapse of the USSR by the Bush and the Clinton administrations.