Russophobia showed off its underrated versatility this week. It has proved useful to explain election losses that haven’t even happened yet, being blamed for historical racial tensions, and used to boost military spending.

RT takes a look at the last seven days or so of Russophobia.

Charlottesville made in Russia

Republican Congressman Tom Garrett from Virginia attempted to get some bad vibes off of America’s conscience, a year after the infamous Unite the Right in Charlottesville saw the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and the alt-right clash with counter protesters, and an alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer drive a car into a crowd. Turns out, it was probably Russia’s fault.

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Garrett has spoken to the FBI about this and he told ‘SiriusXM Patriot Radio’, “let me be clear, I don’t want to overstate this, my question was did the Russians exacerbate the events in Charlottesville using the internet and social media, and the answer was yes.”

There it is, it wasn’t racial tensions going back centuries, the guys with pillow cases on their heads, or even the gentlemen carrying semi-automatic rifles and swastikas. In fact, the violence in Charlottesville was the fault of someone with a Russian name setting up a Facebook page. Overturning society is as easy as that in the mind of the Russophobe.

Midterm Mania Metastasizes

The upcoming US midterms feed Russophobia like a cow’s corpse feeds a vulture. When an 11 year old girl managed to hack an election website at a US hackers conference this week, panic ensued. Trump hating website Raw Story saw the little girl’s skills, ran the headline “Russian hackers could provoke an election apocalypse in the 2018 midterms” and concluded “People who believe the Russians aren’t trying — and succeeding — to do the same [hack elections] in real life are lying to themselves.”

It takes a rare kind of paranoia to go in that direction that fast. They should look up the phrase ‘non-sequitur’, because these two stories are not related.

Perhaps instead of worrying about Russians everywhere, the US should be updating its election equipment, and finding out where that girl goes to school, because she has a talent. Hopefully she didn’t go to school in St Petersburg!

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Putin hunts tigers for fun

So in the mind of the Russophobe, when Vladimir Putin isn’t personally hacking America’s Got Talent or any number of other votes, how does he spend his leisure time?

‘Journal de 20 heures’ on France’s channel 2 revealed the secret last Friday. The Russian President, among other things, hunts tigers, because that’s what all fairy tale villains do. Journalist Valerie Astruc had proof, a picture of Putin and a group of men smiling next to a prone tiger, taken a mere decade ago. Turns out, the tiger wasn’t actually dead but had been tranquilised so a tracking tag could be fitted, before it was later re-released.

“Putin likes to protect endangered species” just doesn’t have the same Russophobic ring to it does it. “The propaganda never takes time off,” said Astruc in her report. She should be applauded for self-awareness if nothing else.

Sub-standard Russophobia

When a cash-strapped military-type in Britain needs a few extra bullets or submarines, Russophobia is usually the first port of call. A report in Britain this week says Russia could attack from the ‘Arctic flank’ at any minute, which is at least a nice change from the English Channel, or straight down the phone lines. And guess what the nattily titled report ‘On Thin Ice: UK Defence in the Arctic’ concludes … yep, the military needs more cash.

READ MORE: Royal Marine annual Arctic warfare exercises scrapped due to lack of cash

The report admits that the Arctic region is “characterized by close multilateral cooperation” and that there are typically “low levels of tension.” It then goes on to say that these facts can no longer be guaranteed - especially one presumes if the likes of Britain starts sending its submarines up there as well!

READ MORE: Earlier on Russophobia Digest

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