New Cold War

On the plane over, I was reading The Economist, which ran a number of articles on Russia last week. Here are a couple of the tag lines: "How bad is Russia's oil industry?" and "Enter, pursued by a new bear." I didn't notice or take issue with the reportage at all - this is, after all, the general tone of most articles on Russia in the Western press. Quasi-totalitarianistic government, corrupt business, hostility towards the west, and bear metaphors: this is about the extent of the nuance afforded to 95% of Russia reporting.

When we were sitting around the apartment a couple days ago, Katya starting reading the magazine and looked over at me: "Why do you guys hate us so much?" Her question made me sit up and take notice to the general journalistic approach taken in regard to Russia in much of the press I read every day. Despite communism being buried close to 20 years now, there is still a lot of fear in the media about this newly-revived global power. Whether it's shady assassinations, government control of media, unrest in Chechnya, problematic political friendships in Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, or other post-bloc regions, the average American media consumer would be led to believe that Russia is a really scary, threatening place that is out to thwart good old Euro-North American liberalism. Even though the official line is that the leaders of Russia have "good souls" (Bush's often-mocked comment after meeting Putin), they are probably our most feared and reviled "friend" (although lately China might win this distinction). Journalists have never quite gotten over their old Cold War habits, it seems, complete with the same frosty metaphorical language.

I don't want to take too long discussing this, but a few things need to be said. I don't claim to support Putin's policies; I certainly don't want to justify the murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko, which indeed appear to be politically inspired. However, we need to acknowledge that an accepted Western media coverage that is knee-jerk and fear-filled is not just influencing the positions and emotions of Western readers - Russians notice it too, and feel like the West is trying to keep them out of the rich-and-powerful club of nations. From my understanding of the situation, Russia is poised at a critical juncture right now: they supply much of Europe with its energy, their wealth is increasing at a brisk pace, and they have emerged fully formed from the fits, starts, and chaos that defined the era immediately following the collapse of the USSR. But this success is precarious. The oil profits that are fueling this blitzkrieg of growth may start to taper off soon (see current Economist issue); relations with the West are turning chilly. On top of this, a new president just took over, even if he is a puppet of Putin (which is itself a fact that has yet to be seen, despite bellicose proclamations from the Western press).

If people here perceive that the West welcomes them in to the prosperous modern world with open arms, warts and all, I imagine that people will want in all the more; if the media keeps taunting with fear-mongering assessments about interminable problems with the mighty bear, we will have a different geopolitical reality on our hands, or at least a huge PR problem. All of this is to say that Western powers run the distinct risk of alienating an important, fledging nation right during the time of transition to a more Western-friendly system of doing things. This would be a bear-sized pity, indeed.