Article on Russia in The New Yorker
Tony Anemone
aaanem at WM.EDU
Wed Jan 31 17:46:36 UTC 2007
I agree wholeheartedly with Michael Denner's comments on the unfair
response to Russia's following its own economic interests. Imagine a
great power using its economic power to reward friends and punish
enemies. It's shocking and inexcusable! No civilized country would
behave in such a way!
The shameless hypocrisy on display in this article is, of course,
epidemic in US political life these days: otherwise, how could our
politicians keep a straight face while threatening Iran for meddling
in Iraq!
Tony Anemone
On Jan 31, 2007, at 12:21 PM, Michael Denner wrote:
> Why is that every time I read a New Yorker article on Russia (I
> recall a
> similar one in the spring of 2005), I end up feeling like a
> spokesperson
> for Russia? (I in fact lean somewhere closer to the Russophobe pole
> than
> the Russophile.)
>
> The article has some fine synthesis of the past ten years, and it
> seems
> fairly evenhanded when it comes to analyzing the government's
> control of
> mass-media; but it is terribly one-sided and anti-Russian, not to
> mention egregiously wrong on some basic facts when it tries to talk
> about Russia's oil and gas policies. Here's how the article reads:
>
>> The Russian government has become bolder and more assertive
>> throughout
> Putin's tenure. >On New Year's Day of 2006, Russia abruptly cut gas
> exports to Ukraine after the >government there objected to a sharp
> rise
> in the prices charged by Gazprom. Gas headed to >Europe from Russia
> passes through Ukraine, and the disruption-which was widely seen as
>> punishment for Ukraine's political intransigence-affected many
>> European
> countries. This >month, Belarus was treated in the same fashion:
> Russia
> doubled the price it charges for gas >and began to impose much higher
> export duties on oil. <<snip>> The Kremlin recently >provided a
> particularly audacious example of how it sees its role as an "energy
> superpower": >Royal Dutch Shell, which had invested billions of
> dollars
> to develop the world's largest oil->and-gas field, Sakhalin II, in the
> Russian Far East, was forced by the government to sell its
> >controlling
> stake in the project.
>
> Last month, at the NATO summit, Richard Lugar called Russia a "hostile
> regime" -- why? Because Russia balked at continuing to subsidize
> gas for
> Belarus and Ukraine by something like 80%. (Ukraine and Belarus have
> paid approximately $50/thousand cubic meters under Soviet-era
> contracts,
> while world prices are closer to $250.) Now that Ukraine and
> Belarus are
> no longer docile sycophants (bully for them!), Russia wants them to
> pay
> closer to (but still not full) market price for gas. How is this an
> unfair expectation? We in the US use our economic (and military!)
> strength to reward allies (Egypt, Israel) and punish those who
> cross us
> (most nations beginning with the letter "I").
>
> Why is Russia wrong to do the same?
>
> As for the RDS antics: Shell's contract with Gazprom was "first
> out" --
> it stated that Shell gets paid all its expenses BEFORE Russia can
> start
> receiving its share of the profits. But Shell suddenly, and with no
> real
> explanation, doubled its bill for expenses, from something like $25
> million to $50 million. Imagine! Russia reacted poorly to this!!
> (Think
> if your contractor suddenly doubled the estimated materials cost in a
> home renovation.)
>
> How is this unreasonable? Anyone who has taken a moment to acquaint
> himself with the facts surrounding the ongoing gas problems with
> Ukraine
> & Belarus, as well as R. D. Shell's "shell game" with the Russians
> will
> know that 1) Russia was not unreasonable in its reactions; 2) Russia
> must have the worst P-R team in the world. The New Yorker frames
> Russia
> as a bellicose tyrant, but in fact, Russia is simply pursuing its own
> economic interests. When they act like a capitalist country, they get
> accused of declaring war:
>
>> U.S. Senator Richard Lugar urged NATO to update its charter. "We are
> used to thinking in >terms of conventional warfare between nations,
> but
> energy could become the weapon of >choice for those who possess
> it," he
> said. (from RFE/RL, 12-5)
>
>
> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
> Dr. Michael A. Denner
> Editor, Tolstoy Studies Journal
> Director, University Honors Program
>
> Contact Information:
> Russian Studies Program
> Stetson University
> Campus Box 8361
> DeLand, FL 32720-3756
> 386.822.7381 (department)
> 386.822.7265 (direct line)
> 386.822.7380 (fax)
> www.stetson.edu/~mdenner
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of David Powelstock
> Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 8:20 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Article on Russia in The New Yorker
>
> There's an article by Michael Specter in the Jan 29 issue of The New
> Yorker. Nothing especially new in the article, but it distills many of
> the more distressing recent trends in the country down to a piquant
> attar of grimness. A must-read, I think, for anyone who hasn't been
> keeping track of developments under Stalinism Putinesca. Unlike the
> Kundera article, this one's available online, at
> http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070129fa_fact_specter.
>
> Cheers,
> David
>
> David Powelstock
> Asst. Prof. of Russian & East European Literatures
> Chair, Program in Russian & East European Studies
> Brandeis University
> GRALL, MS 024
> Waltham, MA 02454-9110
> 781.736.3347 (Office)
>
>
>
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"Многословие матъ бездарности."
Даниил Хармс
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Tony Anemone
Visiting Associate Professor of Humanities and Russian
University Humanities Program
The New School
anemonea at newschool.edu
757-870-8083
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