Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

A Putin Crony's Unrequited Love for Europe

Head of Russia Today wants EU to lift his travel ban.

September 8, 2015 at 6:28 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Staycation.
Photographer: Kirill Kudryatsev/AFP/Getty Images

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Dmitry Kiselyov, the public face of President Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine and one of the regime's top functionaries, is suing the European Union for subjecting him to a travel ban and asset freeze on the grounds that he backed Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.

The case provides an interesting insight into the psychology of Putin's acolytes, who have long viewed Western Europe as their playground. Now, they refuse to believe they have been cast out.