Eccentric Star: A Public Diplomacy Weblog

Putin: US Making the World More Dangerous; US Responds

"Putin Accuses US of Sparking Arms Race," by Slobodan Lekic - AP (Munich, Germany), 11 February 2007

MUNICH, Germany - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday blamed U.S. policy for inciting other countries to seek nuclear weapons to defend themselves from an "almost uncontained use of military force" — a stinging attack that underscored growing tensions between Washington and Moscow.

"Unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem, they have become a hotbed of further conflicts," Putin said at a security forum attracting senior officials from around the world.

"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way."...

In what the Russian leader's spokesman acknowledged was his harshest criticism of the United States, Putin attacked Bush's administration for stoking a new arms race by planning to deploy a missile defense system in eastern Europe and for backing a U.N. plan that would grant virtual independence to Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo...

"Putin Accuses US of Making the World Unsafe," by Peter Spiegel (in Munich) - the Los Angeles Times, 11 February 2007

MUNICH, GERMANY — Russian President Vladimir V. Putin berated the United States in a major speech Saturday before senior American and European officials, declaring that Washington's militarism had fostered global instability and forced vulnerable nations to seek nuclear weapons.

In harsh language sometimes reminiscent of the Cold War and at other times pleading or mocking, Putin accused the United States of attempting to create a world in which it was free to ignore international law and impose its economic, political and military will.

"We are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper-use of military force in international relations," Putin said. "One country, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way."...

The speech was a first for a Russian president at the increasingly high-profile Munich Security Conference. It was delivered with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates seated stoically in the front row flanked by a stone-faced congressional delegation led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, considered a leading candidate to be the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

The symbolism was all the more stark given that it came on the new defense secretary's first formal trip to Europe and that it occurred at a conference once dominated by his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld. Putin spoke in a prime first-day time slot once used as a platform for Rumsfeld; Gates is to address the gathering today.

U.S. analysts said Putin's remarks appeared timed to take advantage of the Bush administration's weakness as it struggled with Iraq policy and dwindling support at home. Putin in the past has lashed out at U.S. criticism of Russia's human rights record, turning the tables last month to focus on the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Putin did touch on some areas of common interest with the U.S. He criticized Iran for not responding positively to United Nations proposals to suspend its nuclear program. His comments were among Russia's most pro-Western remarks on the topic in several months.

But he also defended Moscow's sale of antiaircraft weapons to Tehran, and most of the address focused on perceived American unilateralism and hegemony.

"Unilateral, illegitimate actions have not managed to resolve any problems, but made them worse," Putin said. "The wars, local and regional conflicts, have only grown in number."...

The text of Putin's speech (in English) is available from the Munich Conference on Security Policy website. As the LA Times reporter noted, the speech covers a number of issues -- nuclear proliferation, European-based U.S. missle defense, NATO expansion, etc. -- and actually says (at least obliquely) some positive things about Russia's interest in contributing to joint solutions to common problems. One analytical question that might be asked about this speech is whether it achieved what Putin intended it to, or whether his intended messages are being lost in the flood of response to his criticism of the US and its European partners.

"Speech at 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy," Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, Munich, Germany, 10 February 2007 (NOTE: Evidently this is the planned text of Putin's speech, posted to the Conference website before he actually spoke. Check the Conference website for any changes made to reflect the speech as delivered.)

Thank you very much dear Madam Federal Chancellor, Mr Teltschik, ladies and gentlemen!

I am truly grateful to be invited to such a representative conference that has assembled politicians, military officials, entrepreneurs and experts from more than 40 nations.

This conference’s structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms. This conference’s format will allow me to say what I really think about international security problems. And if my comments seem unduly polemical, pointed or inexact to our colleagues, then I would ask you not to get angry with me. After all, this is only a conference. And I hope that after the first two or three minutes of my speech Mr Teltschik will not turn on the red light over there.

Therefore. It is well known that international security comprises much more than issues relating to military and political stability. It involves the stability of the global economy, overcoming poverty, economic security and developing a dialogue between civilisations.

This universal, indivisible character of security is expressed as the basic principle that “security for one is security for all”. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said during the first few days that the Second World War was breaking out: “When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries everywhere is in danger.”...

Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force – military force – in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts. As a result we do not have sufficient strength to find a comprehensive solution to any one of these conflicts. Finding a political settlement also becomes impossible.

We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state’s legal system. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?....

In conclusion I would like to note the following. We very often – and personally, I very often – hear appeals by our partners, including our European partners, to the effect that Russia should play an increasingly active role in world affairs.

In connection with this I would allow myself to make one small remark. It is hardly necessary to incite us to do so. Russia is a country with a history that spans more than a thousand years and has practically always used the privilege to carry out an independent foreign policy.

We are not going to change this tradition today. At the same time, we are well aware of how the world has changed and we have a realistic sense of our own opportunities and potential. And of course we would like to interact with responsible and independent partners with whom we could work together in constructing a fair and democratic world order that would ensure security and prosperity not only for a select few, but for all.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates used his speech to the Conference to respond to Putin - but also to acknowledge that the US needs to do a better job of explaining its policies and actions. (Assuming this AP report is accurate, the text of the Gates speech posted to the Munich Conference website was OBE. Look for an official transcript of the speech on the DOD website.) [Note, added 12 February: DOD now has the text of Gates' speech and a report on the question-and-answer session that followed posted to its website. The comments about Guantanamo were made in the Q-and-A session, not in the speech itself. Click here to see the American Forces Press Service account of the Q-and-A.)

"Gates: Prisoner Abuse Scandals Hurt US," by Lolita C. Baldor - AP (Munich, Germany), 11 February 2007

MUNICH, Germany - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that prisoner abuse scandals in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay and other mistakes have damaged America's reputation, and work must be done to prove the U.S. is still a force for good in the world.

While he did not mention the war in Iraq, he told a conference of top security officials from around the world that the U.S. has to do a better job of explaining its policies and actions....

Delivering his first speech as Pentagon chief, Gates also made an urgent call for NATO allies to live up to their promises to supply military and economic aid for Afghanistan, saying that failing to do so would be shameful.

And in a carefully worded rebuke, he used both humor and some pointed jabs to blunt Russia's sharp attack against U.S. foreign policy a day earlier.

In remarks before a prestigious security forum, Gates dismissed as dated Cold War rhetoric Russian President Vladimir Putin's charge Saturday that the United States is seeding a new arms race....

The bulk of his speech was devoted to the future of the NATO alliance, and the need to work together to defend the trans-Atlantic community against any security threats....

40% of Russians See NATO as a Threat

"Some 40% of Russians Think NATO Poses Threat to Russia, Polls Show" - RosBusinessConsulting (Moscow), 25 May 2006

Some 40 percent of Russians think NATO poses a threat to Russia, a poll carried out by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center shows. 34 percent of respondents are of the opposite opinion.

According to the poll results, 35 percent of Russians consider Russia to be the Alliance's non-member partner, while 27 percent believe Russia is the Alliance's opponent. Some respondents (9 percent) believe Russia to be a member of NATO, especially young people aged 18-24 (14 percent).

Russians have an ambiguous understanding of NATO's mission, the poll shows. 26 percent of the people polled believe that the Alliance's mission is to defend and promote the interests of the US in the international arena, 24 percent think that NATO is fighting against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, 21 percent of respondents are positive that the Alliance's mission is to carry out aggressive military action against other countries; 21 percent believe that NATO is fighting the drug industry and organized crime. Only 17 percent of Russians consider NATO's mission to be carrying out peacekeeping operations and 13 percent - exchanging military experience and technology with other countries.

For an example of NATO efforts to improve its relations with the Russian public, see:

"Russia Rally Comes to 'Hero City'" - a NATO Update (news release), 17 May 2006. Volgograd's old name was Stalingrad; it was under seige by German forces for months during WWII.

Historic Volgograd was the fifth stop on the NATO-Rally Russia route, 17 May, with events focusing on overcoming stereotypes and building trust.

The programme kicked-off with an evening celebrating local culture, music and dance, and continued the next day with a conference on “NATO-Russia historical perspective – from stereotypes to mutual trust”.

The very frank and open discussions, which included students, representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, NATO as well as local officials tackled both easy and quite difficult subjects in NATO-Russia relations.

Parts of the discussion became quite heated, but Isabelle Francois, Director of NATO’s Information Office in Moscow said that building trust, required open – even if passionate – discussions.

“We received a very, very warm welcome,” she said, “The discussions focused on building trust and were very open.”

Highlights included an award ceremony for winners of an essay content on NATO-Russia relations, a video conference with NATO Headquarters in Brussels, and a boat cruise on the river Volga, where participants had a chance to mingle in a relaxed and informal atmosphere....

The Rally is a series of public events held in nine cities across the Russian Federation from 11 to 26 May.

The aim is to give the Russian public a chance to hear more about, and to debate, cooperation between the Alliance and Russia in the framework of the NATO-Russia Council.

Ketchum Hired to Polish Russia's Image for G8 Summit

"Moscow Hires US PR Firm for Image Revamp" - BBC News, 1 May 2006

Russia is hiring a US public relations company to improve its image as it hosts the G8 summit of world leaders, according to the Financial Times [see article excerpts, below].

The government has completed a deal with US agency Ketchum worth millions of dollars, to advise Russia on how it should communicate with western media.

Russia's G8 presidency in 2006 includes a summit in July in St Petersburg.

The agency will address how to boost Russia's image as tensions about its strong position in the oil sector grow

President Putin's reputation has been under fire in recent months following the decision to sever gas supplies to Ukraine in January.

And most recently fears increased when Mr Putin accused European countries of increasing fears over the reliability of Russian energy supplies.

He said Russian companies could consider new markets in Asia if they were unable to operate freely in Europe - a statement interpreted by some as a veiled threat.

While Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's deputy press officer, said it had decided to hire advisers last year, but he added that "[the presidency] didn't get off to a good start on the communications front".

"And this is connected to the misinterpretation [in the west] of what happened with Gazprom and Ukraine," added Mr Peskov.

"Perhaps if we had been already working then with some kind of communications company things would have been different."...

"Kremlin Hires PR Group to Improve G8 Image," by Neil Buckley (in Moscow) - the Financial Times, 30 April 2006

The Kremlin, not renowned as one of the world’s most media-savvy organisations, is signing up western public relations advisers for the first time to improve the presentation of Russia’s presidency of the Group of Eight leading nations.

Russia’s presidential administration has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Ketchum, a US-based PR firm, to advise on communications with western media during its G8 term, which started on January 1 and lasts for 12 months, as well as the St Petersburg summit in July.

The contract is a coup for Ketchum, which adds the Kremlin to clients including IBM, Kodak, FedEx and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Work will be co-ordinated by Ketchum’s Washington DC office, and a sister company, GPlus Europe, a Brussels-based public affairs group founded by Peter Guilford and Nigel Gardner, two former European Commission trade spokesmen.

They face a unique PR challenge in trying to win recognition of Russia’s G8 work amid growing international suspicion of its record on democracy under Vladimir Putin, president, and of how it plans to use its oil and gas might.

Moscow’s G8 presidency has been marred by the decision by Gazprom, the state-controlled natural gas giant, to cut off supplies to Ukraine in a pricing dispute on January 1, undermining Russia’s decision to make energy security a top G8 theme.

It has also faced calls from John McCain, US senator, for member countries to boycott the St Petersburg summit over Russia’s authoritarian tendencies....

[Deputy press attaché to President Putin] Mr Peskov said Mr Putin had approved the decision, but it had taken time to persuade all the necessary Kremlin officials. Observers said they did not expect to transform overnight western media coverage that Moscow believes is often excessively negative. However, the Kremlin does want to gain credit, where due, for the handling of its presidency and summit.

Gorbachev Says US Is Drunk on Power (Also: WPost on Russian Views of US)

"US 'Intoxicated' by Power: Gorbachev" - AFP (Washington), 2 April 2006

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who triggered the demise of the Soviet Union's Communist empire, said in an interview that the United States was "intoxicated" by its power and should not impose its will on others.

"This talk of pre-emptive strikes, of ignoring the UN Security Council and international legal obligations -- all this is leading toward a dark night," Gorbachev told Time magazine.

"I think some people may be pushing president Bush in the wrong direction," he said of the US leader.

"America is intoxicated by its position as the world's only superpower. It wants to impose its will.

"But America needs to get over that. It has responsibilities as well as power. I say this as a good friend of America," said Gorbachev Sunday, who considered his US contemporary, president     Ronald Reagan, a friend as well, and attended his funeral.

The former Soviet president, 75, was in the United States last week to promote his book on the history of his government's reforms.

Also see:

"Russians Sense the Heat of Cold War," by Peter Finn (in Moscow) - the Washington Post, 4 April 2006 (registration required)

MOSCOW -- In this city, it's beginning to feel like a new Cold War, driven by what many people here see as an old American impulse: to encircle, weaken or even destroy Russia, just as the country is emerging from post-Soviet ruins as a cohesive, self-confident and global power.

The specter of a U.S. nuclear first strike even resurfaced this month. An article in Foreign Affairs magazine, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, suggested that the United States could hit Russia and China without serious risk of retaliation. That sent heads spinning here with visions of Dr. Strangelove.

"The publication of these ideas in a respectable American journal has had an explosive effect," former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar wrote in an article in London's Financial Times newspaper. "Even those Russian journalists and analysts who are not prone to hysteria or anti-Americanism took it as an outline of the official position of the U.S. Administration."

"Today, it's accepted by most of the establishment that we are under pressure, that we are being surrounded, and it's leading to a defensive nationalist vision," said Sergei Rogov, director of the Institute of the United States and Canada in Moscow.

Intensifying U.S. criticism -- that Russia is rolling back democratic institutions, interfering in the countries of the former Soviet Union and using its vast energy resources to further its interests -- is leading to widespread resentment here and seen as little more than self-serving rhetoric. Russians widely believe that U.S. programs to promote democracy in Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus are a Trojan horse intended to sideline Russia and expand NATO.

Academics point to reports such as one released recently by the Council on Foreign Relations: "To ease Russian pressure on neighboring states," it said, "the United States should work to accelerate those states' integration into the West."

"We are gradually being pushed to the northeast of the Eurasian continent away from the seas . . . to the place where the depths of freezing is more than two meters," said Natalia Narochnitskaya, vice chairman of the international affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, and a member of the nationalist Rodina Party.

She rues the loss of the three Baltic states to European Union and NATO membership and the possible loss of Russia's naval presence on the Black Sea.

"The messianism of American foreign policy is a remarkable thing," she said. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks, Narochnitskaya said, "it seems like Khrushchev reporting to the party congress: 'The whole world is marching triumphantly toward democracy but some rogue states prefer to stay aside from that road, etc. etc.' "

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks appeared to put U.S.-Russian relations on a new and remarkable footing. President Vladimir Putin facilitated the stationing of American troops in Central Asia to support military operations in Afghanistan. In 2002, Putin, still regarded as a reformer, was offered a year-long chairmanship of the Group of Eight leading industrial democracies.

Today, some public figures in the United States, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have suggested that President Bush boycott the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg this summer to register dismay at Russia's foreign policy and its internal direction.

Many U.S. officials hold up the administration of President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s as imperfect but headed in the right direction; people here say those years were simply chaotic.

"For a person of democratic and liberal persuasions, I can say that Russia has never been freer or more affluent," said Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. "Putin inherited a non-state, so he first wants to build a state and create the conditions for modernization and democracy. Do I worry about some domestic developments? Of course. I could be more critical than most Americans. But it's like blaming winter for following autumn."

In Moscow, strains in the relationship are viewed more as a result of the United States' inability to accept the fact that Russia is no longer the servile entity of the 1990s -- when it blustered but, in the end, always caved because it was weak.

"We have safeguarded and will safeguard our national interests," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters last week. "If someone dislikes this, this is not our problem."...

This might be the Foreign Affairs article alluded to in the Washington Post piece:

"The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy," by Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press - Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006

Summary:  For four decades, relations among the major nuclear powers have been shaped by their common vulnerability, a condition known as mutual assured destruction. But with the U.S. arsenal growing rapidly while Russia's decays and China's stays small, the era of MAD is ending -- and the era of U.S. nuclear primacy has begun.

"Double Standard" Undermines Russia's Public Diplomacy

This article highlights several important flaws in a public diplomacy campaign. One is a problem of "double standards" -- trying to be hospitable to select audiences but hostile to others, and open on some topics but closed on others. Another is the tight relationship between corporate and government public relations personnel and the values and thinking they carry with them from one arena to another. A third problem is what happens when a government invests in a high-profile venture (the Russia Today television service) that makes internal audiences (Kremlin bosses) happy but has little if any impact in the outer world. All of these problems can likewise be seen, to some degree and in some form, in recent US public diplomacy.

"Spinning Russia," by Julian Evans - Foreign Policy, November 2005

It’s no secret that Moscow has an image problem. When Russian President Vladimir Putin makes headlines, it’s usually for jailing a businessman or cracking down on dissent. A 2003 poll commissioned by Putin’s government revealed the depth of the problem. The survey asked Americans to name the top 10 things they associated with Russia. The top four were communism, the KGB, snow, and the mafia. The sole positive association—Russian art and culture—came in dead last. A poll conducted in August on foreigners’ awareness of Russian brands did even worse. The only “brands” foreigners could think of were Kalashnikov rifles and Molotov cocktails.

The Kremlin is convinced the culprits responsible for this distorted view of their country are people like me—foreign correspondents based in Moscow. Putin aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky said in 2001 that “Russia’s outward image is ... gloomier and uniformly darker compared with reality. To a great extent, Russia’s image in the world is created by foreign journalists who work in our country.” Michael McFaul, a Russia scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says: “There’s an incredible hostility to Moscow-based journalists [among Kremlin advisors and senior bureaucrats]. They believe Moscow correspondents have become captive to the Moscow liberal intelligentsia.”...

In late 2003, the Kremlin decided to make the state news agency, Novosti, its main instrument for image improvement. It booted upstairs the agency’s previous chairman, and hired in his place Svetlana Mironyuk—a former senior public relations advisor to Gusinsky, one of the most PR-savvy of the old generation of Russian business tycoons. Mironyuk had great success selling Gusinsky to Western investors, partly by teaming up with Western PR firms. Mironyuk was given a large budget (the exact amount is undisclosed) and told to do for Russia what she had done for Gusinsky.

The Kremlin and Novosti are bypassing the pesky Moscow-based journalists with a two-pronged strategy. Soon, the news network will go global with its own recently launched English-language TV channel, Russia Today. With a staff of 300 journalists, including around 70 imported from abroad, the channel will offer “global news from a Russian perspective.” In addition, Novosti has hired some notably Kremlin-friendly foreign journalists to work for its own newswire service. It has even launched its own English-language magazine, Russia Profile, written by an in-house staff.

On a second front, Moscow last year inaugurated the Valdai Discussion Club, an annual meeting for foreign experts and foreign journalists invited to Russia on the Kremlin’s dime. Invitees meet and mingle with senior figures from the Russian political scene. They are even treated to a one-on-one session with President Putin himself, which lasted more than three hours last year and nearly as long this year. Moscow-based journalists are pointedly not on the invite list.

The success of these ventures in altering Russia’s image has so far been mixed. Russia Today is still waiting for licenses to broadcast globally, so it’s too early to make a definitive judgment of its quality or success. But already, it has become something of a joke among Moscow correspondents (to whom the channel is, after all, a recrimination). The Kremlin has spent $30 million setting it up and has attracted foreign journalists to Moscow with salaries starting at $60,000 a year. But the imported journalists are, in many cases, fresh out of journalism school, know not a word of Russian, and lack basic knowledge of Russian politics or history....

[O]ther parts of Novosti’s strategy make more sense, particularly the Valdai Club. This year, the group of 30 foreign experts and non-Moscow-based journalists traveled down the Volga River on a boat. Participants said they were impressed by how balanced the selection of speakers was at the event—it included such harsh critics of the Kremlin as liberal politician Irina Khakamada, as well as Kremlin advisors such as Sergei Markov. Professor Marshall Goldman of Harvard University said, “It was bewildering how open the event was. It seemed to go against everything else that is happening in the country.”...

Mironyuk persuaded Kremlin heavyweights to meet the visitors, including Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, chief domestic spin doctor Vladislav Surkov, and Putin himself. “It shows Mironyuk’s clout that she could arrange such a long meeting with Putin,” says David Johnson of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information. The gamble of giving foreigners such access to the usually closed and secretive Kremlin has paid off. Putin in particular handled himself extremely well, fielding tough questions from Russia experts for more than two hours, without notes or advisors....

Some dismiss the Novosti initiatives as blatant propaganda. But, in fact, they mirror what many rich countries do to improve cultural and diplomatic relations with the rest of the world. The aberration is not that Russia is trying its hand at public diplomacy, but that it had avoided it for so long. Its communication policy with the West was often inept, even as late as last year, during the Yukos saga and the Orange Revolution, when the Kremlin would too often retreat into stony silence, leaving it to pro-Kremlin foreign businessmen to try to make the case for its actions. British Petroleum, disturbed by the sudden cooling of relations between the EU and Russia, even set up a special department to improve communication between the two....

Putin may well succeed in giving the West better vibes about Russia. But there is the danger of a double standard. Even as Novosti slowly opens up the Kremlin to foreign experts and journalists, Russia’s domestic media remain as tightly controlled as ever. Foreign experts and journalists may have been granted a three-hour, uncensored interview with Putin, but no Russian journalists were allowed access. The Kremlin, in other words, pays foreign audiences the respect of being relatively straight with them. When will it pay its domestic audience the same respect?

Also see:

"Criticism of Kremlin Ends Career of Russian Anchor," by Andrew Osborn (in Moscow) - The Independent (UK), 26 Nov 2005

One of Russia's top television news anchors has been unceremoniously driven off air for apparently being too critical of the Kremlin, a move which drew fierce criticism from free speech advocates and from Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president.

Olga Romanova, the host of REN TV's daily news programme 24, discovered she had been dropped after she found her way to her Moscow broadcast studio physically blocked by security guards. The men told her they had orders from Alexander Ordzhonikidze, REN's director general, not to allow her to go on air.

Mr Ordzhonikidze has denied his decision was political and claimed it was driven by the programme's allegedly low ratings, the need to get in fresh talent and natural rotation.

It was, he claimed, "a normal working process". However, Ms Romanova, who is preparing a lawsuit against the station, has revealed that she ran into trouble after she accused REN TV's management of deliberately suppressing news so as not to upset Russia's government.

In a chat show on Ekho Moskvy, one of Russia's most liberal radio stations, she claimed she had been forced to drop two news items for political reasons. The first concerned the closure of an investigation into a hit-and-run incident involving the Defence Minister's son, and the second the building in central Moscow of a $15m (£8m) clock tower/church by a Kremlin-backed sculptor loathed by the general public....

Russian Afghan War Film Marks Changing Attitudes - and Evokes Chechnya

"From Bitter Memories, a Russian Blockbuster," by Peter Finn (in Moscow) - the Washington Post, 20 Oct 2005, p. A16 (registration required)

The young soldiers, unsure what they're fighting for or even where, are abandoned on a lonely plateau that is eventually overrun by a faceless enemy. After a bloody but heroic denouement, the lone survivor is left to return to a home country that is itself in crisis, where his experience will be ignored if not scorned.

This plot of myriad American movies about Vietnam is in fact the story line of a new and hugely successful Russian film about the Soviet war in Afghanistan, a 10-year military folly that ended in 1989. Russians are flocking to see "Company 9," the first blockbuster about the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and one that pulls no punches about the bitterness of defeat.

"During the Soviet Union there was no possibility to make such a film," said Fyodor Bondarchuk, the film's 38-year-old director, who served in the Soviet army from 1985 to 1987. "And for a long time Russia didn't want such a film because Russia didn't want to remember this 10 years of shame. It's an incredible success for a serious film and it shows the audience is ready to think."

Russia's film industry, crumbling just five years ago, is suddenly resurgent and a host of movies including "Company 9" are drawing Russian audiences away from Hollywood staples. "Company 9," which opened Sept. 29, grossed $9 million in its first seven days on screens nationwide, smashing all previous records for both foreign and domestic films.

It tackles a difficult subject without any imposed patriotism or sentimentalization of the country's past. Similar in some respects to the 1987 American film "Full Metal Jacket," it follows a group of soldiers from a brutal boot camp to a bewildering battlefield. The $8 million production, a fat budget in Russia, was shot in Crimea and along the Afghan border in Uzbekistan....

"Company 9" also resonates with the country's continuing conflict in Chechnya, the Russian republic where raw recruits often end up brutalized or dead.

"For the Russian audience, the experience of the Afghan war is completely mixed up with our experience in the Chechen war, and that's why this is so timely and urgent," said Valery Kichin, a leading Russian film critic. "This film is about any war where people don't understand what they are dying for. The audience remembers Afghanistan, but they also see Chechnya...."

A Russian History of Cultural Diplomacy (Added 9/16: Russian TV)

"Roszarubezhtsentr: 80 Years Of Public Diplomacy," by Sergei Kisilev - Rising Nepal (Kathmandu), 10 Sept 2005. Kisilev is identified as Director of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture (I assume in  Kathmandu - but I could be wrong).

The Russian Centre for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (Roszarubezhtsentr) is 80 this year.... [It] is entrusted with the task of carrying out humanitarian, information, scientific, technological and cultural contacts of the Russian Federation with foreign countries....

In many respects, it was due to the [Roszarubezhtsentr's predecessor, the National Society of Cultural Connections with Foreign Countries, NSCC] that the flow of objective information about Russia filtered out of the Iron Curtain, which separated Soviet Russia from the rest of the world. The NSCC was engaged in organising exhibitions, acquainting foreign visitors with various aspects of life of the Soviet people, and in the exchange of books, periodicals and films. It was through the NSCC that the first trips were arranged for Soviet citizens abroad and also the other day around. Representatives of Soviet art began to take part in foreign festivals and competitions....

But the global geopolitical situation has changed in the past one decade. Not only has the Iron Curtain fallen, but the Berlin wall has also been destroyed. And Russia has taken the road to a democratic society. Against these changes, Roszarubezhtsentr’s activity in promoting international cooperation in the humanitarian sphere has received fresh impetus....

Roszarubezhtsentr now has a long-term complex programme, which seeks to present Russian achievements in the humanitarian, cultural, scientific, technical and educational spheres, besides promoting Russia’s business and economic potential. Work on each of the listed directions is being carried out actively. Scientific and technical exhibitions, conferences, forums and seminars on topical issues related to development of civilization are regularly organised.

A lot of attention is paid to maintaining the interest in studying of the Russian language abroad....

The Roszarubezhtsentr intends to expand and strengthen its infrastructure and open a line of new representations and cultural centres. Besides, it has plans to turn it into a so-called regional organisation of activity. For example, the large cultural centres will expand their work not only to a host country, but also to the nearby countries where there are no Russian cultural centres.

Among its new priorities, it wants to work with non-governmental organisations that are active in the socio-economic development of a country.

The Roszarubezhtsentr aims at strengthening ties with Russian compatriots living permanently abroad and assisting in their activity in expanding the cultural, scientific and business cooperation with Russia.

Added 16 Sept 2005:

"Russia Tests 24-Hour English TV Channel," by Maria Danilova - AP (Moscow), 15 Sept 2005

Russia launched experimental broadcasts Thursday of a 24-hour English-language satellite TV news channel aimed at polishing its image abroad and presenting foreign audiences with its view of the world.

Boasting a staff of 344 people and $30 million earmarked from the state budget, Russia Today kicked off test broadcasts with a British anchor reading news against a pink-and-orange background and dozens of editors and producers busily working on their computers in spacious newsrooms. The channel will be broadcast in North America, Europe and Asia.

"All too often, the view of Russia does not correspond to reality: information on Russia is either distorted or incomplete or just nonsense," said Margarita Simonyan, the chief editor.

The channel's founders say Russia Today aims to counter the often negative stereotypes of Russia created by foreign media and present a balanced view of this vast country of 143 million....

For background, see Russian TV to Promote Patriotism, Enhance Int'l Image.

Russians Want Tighter Control of Adoptions to US (Updated 9/14)

About two months ago, a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) called for a moratorium on international adoptions to the US, following reports of several cases in which Russian orphans were violently abused and even killed by Americans who had adopted them.

I tripped across this story when I was looking for Russian press comment on Hurricane Katrina. The adoption story doesn't seem to have gotten much attention in the US, outside of message boards on international adoptions. It seems a pretty big story in Russia, though. It also seems to reflect a trend of Russians demanding that their government do more to defend the rights and welfare of Russians abroad (see this post on Russian-Polish tensions following the mugging of Russian teenagers in Warsaw).

A gap between what Americans think is news and what other people think is news isn't unusual. It's one reason why US diplomatic missions need to be able to conduct their own public diplomacy, rather than simply executing a global PD program designed in Washington.

"Top Russian Prosecutor Reports Foreign Adoption Violations" - MosNews.com (Russia), 13 Sept 2005. This page has links to many other news reports involving Russian adoptions.

...Earlier this month [Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Mikhail] Fridinsky said at a meeting with Thomas Atwood, president of the U.S. National Council for Adoption, that the Prosecutor General’s Office intends to strip foreign adoption agencies of their accreditation in Russia if they break the law [on accreditation of such agencies].

In 2004 the number of children adopted by foreign nationals surpassed the number of those adopted by Russians. Foreigners adopted 9,600 Russian orphans, while Russian nationals adopted only 7,400.

At the same time society has been shocked by the notorious trials of adoptive parents from the United States.

The court hearings in the case of Peggy Sue Hilt, charged with killing her 2-year-old adoptive Russian daughter, recently began in the U.S.

Another woman, Irma Pavlis was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May for killing her 6-year-old disabled adoptive son. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in April but was acquitted of the more serious charge of first-degree murder.

Altogether, 13 Russian children have been killed in the U.S.

In Aug. 2005 the Pennsylvania State Court found adoptive father Matthew Alan Mancuso guilty of incest and the rape of his 12-year-old daughter adopted from Russia.

Several days earlier an American couple was charged with manslaughter, first-degree child abuse resulting in death and reckless endangerment after their adoptive son from Russia died of starvation.

"Duma Calls for Urgent Measures over Child Adoption" - ITAR-TASS (Moscow), 10 Sept 2005

The Russian parliament's lower house State Duma sent a written statement to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on Friday in connection with the need to take urgent measures for state protection of rights and interests of Russian children when they are adopted by foreigners....

The deputies noted that there were repeated cases of physical violence committed by such adoptive parents. In the United States alone, twelve adopted children from Russia have died from physical violence. Two of them have died this year....

"AFOA Launches Letter-Writing Campaign to Congress, Appealing for Help to Address Proposed Moratorium of Russian Adoptions" - Press release, the American Foundation for Orphans Abroad (AFOA), 29 Aug 2005

...There are no excuses for these horrific crimes [against children by adoptive parents]. However, the implementation of a moratorium is not the answer to this problem. A moratorium will result in approximately 5,865 [Russian] children not being placed into American families in the coming year. This is the present threat facing the orphans of Russia.

An equally alarming and more serious threat to the future of these children is that [Duma member Yekaterina] Lakhova and her supporters have not proposed any plans to improve the lives of the more than 700,000 orphans in the Russian orphanage system; 40,000 of whom are being turned out to the streets yearly. They have failed to say anything about the injustices these children are made to suffer every day they are in the Russian orphanage system. "These children fall prey to sexual predators; they fail to receive adequate medical attention; and they receive the poorest of educational opportunities. We are concerned about these violations of orphaned children's rights in modern Russia," says Eileen Kadletz, executive director of AFOA....

Also see:

"American Family Starves 8-Year-Old Boy Adopted in Russia to Death," by Igor Parfinenko - Pravda (Moscow), 8 Sept 2005

"Duma Member Seeks to Ban US Couples from Adopting Russian Children" - RIA Novosti (Moscow), 2 Aug 2005

...[Yekaterina] Lakhova, Chairwoman of the State Duma Committee on Women's Issues, the Family and Youth, is well known for her high-profile stance on adoption of Russian children by foreign nationals.

"Thirteen Russian children were killed in the United States ... Nothing of the kind happened in European countries. It is necessary to set a moratorium on the country," Lakhova said...

Added 13 Sept 2005:

"Overseas Adoptions Have a Somber Side," by Steve Friess - USA Today, 14 Sept 2005

...A recent spate of highly publicized cases of U.S. parents charged with or convicted of killing their children adopted out of Russia cast a disturbing light on what has long been a problem downplayed by the adoption industry: Many children brought to the USA from abroad have physical and emotional problems that can't be forecast from photos or brief visits in orphanages.

Russia has long been a top nation for Americans who adopt abroad. Last year, American parents brought home 5,865 Russian children, about 25% of all children adopted abroad.

In all, 14 Russian children have died in these cases. That number has spurred outraged Russian politicians to push for reforms and even a moratorium on foreign adoptions.

In each of the criminal cases, the parents' lawyers have argued that the defendants lost control as they tried to cope with unruly children who are beset by hard-to-fathom troubles. No one is arguing that the deaths are excusable, but Victor Groza, a social work professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, says the cases do point to questions of whether adoption agencies are so eager to close the deals that they fail to warn parents of the potential problems....

Russian TV to Promote Patriotism, Enhance Int'l Image (Updated 8/12)

"Russian TV Takes Soviet-Era Turn," by Fred Weir - the Christian Science Monitor, 4 Aug 2005

Islamic bandits. Sandstorms. A Red Army officer fighting venal bureaucrats to bring Communism to the wilds of Central Asia, liberate Muslim women from their veils, and spread the light of Soviet power.

It's "White Sun of the Desert," and just about every Russian has seen this 1960s film. Even now when it comes on TV, people drop everything to watch it....

[I]f Ivan Kononov has his way, it's the kind of programming that will help revive the traditional my-country-first patriotism that guided Russians for centuries and led to great triumphs in war, culture, and science.

Mr. Kononov is a top producer at Zvezda, a newly-launched state-run TV network. Zvezda, which means "star," is one of several government-funded initiatives ostensibly aimed at correcting what the Kremlin perceives is a dearth of national pride and identification with the state - especially among Russia's rudderless youth. "Until now, there is not a single TV channel oriented on the ideas of the Fatherland where priority is given to all things Russian," Kononov says. "You may call it propaganda, but we need to stop this tendency to beat ourselves up, stop selling out our country."

Zvezda, which kicked off in March and currently reaches about 50 million Russian households, so far spends most of its 24-hour cycle showing Soviet films, plus a few military documentaries and interviews with notable Russians. Kononov says programming will soon expand to include talk shows and open forums for young people to discuss their "burning questions," particularly the widespread aversion to military service.

Last month the Kremlin signed off on an ambitious five-year program, involving 22 government ministries, to buck up Russia's image at home and abroad as well as unspecified, but potentially ominous, efforts to "resist attempts to discredit and devalue patriotic ideas in the media, literature, and the arts." In addition to Zvezda, state subsidies will be offered to artists, journalists, and educators for introducing themes of national pride into their work, software experts will be hired to develop patriotic computer games and, for the first time since the Soviet era, schoolchildren will be required to take rudimentary military and civil defense training.

Also projected are steps to correct the allegedly false image of Russia held by many in the outside world, which Kremlin officials have often suggested is the work of "anti-Russian" and "cold-war minded" foreign journalists. A $30 million English-language, 24-hour satellite news channel called Russia Today will be launched later this year by the state-run RIA-Novosti news agency, to bring the "positive news" about Russia to the world. "I frequently watch the foreign television channels, and almost everywhere they are saying the same things [about Russia]," President Vladimir Putin told leaders of the Kremlin-sponsored patriotic youth group Nashi last week. "All they can talk about is crisis and breakdown...."

Also see:

"RIA Novosti Launches a TV Channel, Russia Today" - RIA Novosti (Russian News & Information Agency) (Moscow), 7 June 2005

Russia Today, a RIA Novosti English-language TV channel to be launched later this year, will become a sort of "Russia's BBC", said Margarita Simonyan, a famous journalist and the project leader.

"It will be a perspective on the world from Russia. We do not want to change the professional format developed by such TV channels as the BBC, CNN, and Euronews. We want to reflect Russia's opinion of the world and to make Russia clearer for understanding," she said.

She said the foreign media were not always unbiased in covering events in Russia.

"Many foreigners are surprised to see that Russia is different from what they see in media reports. We will try to present a more balanced picture," said Simonyan....

Evidently there's a somewhat longer history to Russia's current PD focus than the CSM article suggests:

"Russia Seeks Better Image Abroad," by Steve Rosenberg - BBC News (World Edition), 12 July 2004

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has called on Russian diplomats to improve the country's image abroad.

He told Russian ambassadors better public relations was needed to counter what he described as deliberate campaigns to discredit Russia.

Some of Mr Putin's domestic policies have met with criticism in the West.

These include his handling of the Chechen conflict, the crackdown on independent media and, most recently, the attack on the oil company Yukos....

And it is - to say the least - interesting to see how the recent ABC interview with Shamil Basayev looks through the lens of Russian nationalism (further colored, perhaps, by Soviet-era assumptions about how news media operate):

"TV Interview with Terrorist Heralds 'New Cold War' with US" - Kommersant (Moscow), 5 Aug 2005 (as translated and posted by www.watchingamerica.com)

The scandal [following the Basayev interview] is not because the Russian Foreign Ministry is making an example of ABC, but is rather a reflection of the relationship between the Kremlin and White House. In fact, the conflict between the foreign ministry and ABC has become an announcement of a new Cold War between Moscow and Washington....

The fact is that ABC’s Basayev interview was just the most recent in a series of such interviews over recent months. For example, in February Britain’s Channel 4 showed interviewed Basaev [sic] and The Times published excerpts from it. The Russian Foreign Ministry protested, but went no further than that. Channel 4 doesn’t have a Moscow correspondent, so there was nobody to deny accreditation to. Neither did the The Times suffer from the publication....

It is not surprising that Washington defended ABC. The reason is that the Nightline interview with Basaev occurred at the sensitive time, just as Russian-American relations had reached the maximum freezing point....

For background on the interview, see Russian FoMin Pulls ABC's Accreditation and Russians Protest ABC Interview with Chechen Terrorist.

Also, compare to And Now, Russian Orthodox TV.

Added 8/12:

"Propaganda and Power on Russian TV," by Jonathan Charles - BBC News (World Edition), 4 Aug 2005

Almost every station [in Ekaterinburg] is owned by someone who wants to make sure that their personal message is heard....

It was only when I went to the offices of the regional governor, Edward Rossel, that I realised how far some of the main players are prepared to go.

He has his own state-of-the-art TV studio. Every night, it produces a half-hour programme called The Governor's Day. It is broadcast on Channel 10....

But Mr Rossel's opponents are also trying to manipulate opinion.

At the studios of another Ekaterinburg TV station - one which backs the town's mayor - I was given an insight into the black arts which are deployed.

Yevgeny, one of the journalists, told me: "We do lots of stories about the mayor, all of them supportive. When we cover the governor, we don't criticise him but we also make sure that we don't do any stories which praise him...."