Article on Russia in The New Yorker
Mark Yoffe
yoffe at GWU.EDU
Wed Jan 31 18:36:17 UTC 2007
Thank you, Michael, for these very important points you make. Indeed, it seems necessary to keep things in some kind of a perspective, and hopefully within historical perspective most of all. Putin might be the Devil, and his regime is horrific, brutal, oppressive, and worse than GULAG, and he is the biggest tyrant since Ivan the Terrible. But since when Russia has become Denmark or Holland (though after the cartoons controversy we learned that Denmark is populated by a bunch of bigots, and so is Holland), a perfect and enlightened democracy? It seems that not even 20 years have passed since it was one of the most oppressive regimes ever. And should one remind that Russians do not live today behind the Iron Curtain and enjoy travel and education abroad? Was that not one of the harshest restrictions of the Soviet era? And, seriously, for all the Putin’s non-democratic dealings with the press and media can we compare contemporary situation to the one that existed in Russia for
the last 1000 years? Things are indeed less anarchic and free-for-all the way it was say in 1993, but was it not in 1993 that more “liberal” in comparison to Putin Yeltsyn shelled his own parliament? When were things perfect in Russia? And when will they be? And what is perfect if enlightened Europeans turn out to be bigots, and Americans warmongers? And who is to throw a rock at Russia? If every people deserves its own government, then take a look at what is happening outside of our very windows: the recent anti-war march in Washington was practically a flop the way these things go. Where were the passionate angry millions demanding change and accountability? Russians off course are dumb and primitive and coarse to like their president, but how about us here? Are we not letting someone get away with murder and the one on slightly bigger scale than what hideous and monstrous Putin has achieved?
Mark Yoffe
Curator, International Counterculture Archive, GWU
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Denner <mdenner at STETSON.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:24 pm
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Article on Russia in The New Yorker
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> 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
> [ 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
>
>
> 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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