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GUEST COLUMNIST: A new Russia emerges

Saturday, November 10 at 12:00 AM

By Greg Dobbs

It must be 20 years since I last came to Russia — back then, it was the drab and repressive Soviet Union. So on a trip this week to shoot a documentary for HDNet, I’ve been watching for what’s new and what’s not.

There obviously have been changes on major levels: capitalism has taken over, personal freedoms like speech, art and travel can be exercised — the other day I even saw a small public protest over property rights. And the politics of the nation have been like a ride on a roller coaster.

Both on the surface and deep down, this looks like a New Russia: you can spend $100 on a ribeye steak, Dior and Louis Vuitton advertise with bright lights on Red Square. But it would be a mistake to assume that the Russians now look just like us. Or more important, that they think like us.

In mid-October, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was here, and she said in unusually undiplomatic language that President Vladimir Putin has assaulted democracy in Russia. She was right. After the Soviet Union collapsed, democracy truly flourished. People freely elected leaders at local levels, at provincial levels, and for Russia’s congress, the Duma. Media flourished too; for the first time in the life of the country, critical questions were openly asked and debates were publicly aired.

But when Putin became president, he put Russia into a political U-turn to the point where, today, Putin appoints provincial governors, and they in turn appoint members of the upper house of the Duma; popular elections were unceremoniously abolished. Likewise the mayors of the two main cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, are now appointed, not elected. Political parties had grown to number something like 50; today, thanks to Putin’s rules about qualifying as a party (rules that favor his own supporters), there are 15. As for the media, enough of it has been shut down that what’s left is a lap dog. (A Russian analyst told me Putin hasn’t been asked an “unfriendly” question in several years.)

But for many Russians, that’s just fine because democracy doesn’t mean the same thing to them that it means to us. I interviewed the most outspoken minority member in the Duma’s lower house, a liberal who is brave enough to go public with his complaints. When I asked him, “How does President Putin get away with this stuff?” in barely broken English he answered: “Russians in the ’90s had problems: economy fell down, incomes fell down, corruption grew up, many things were terrible, and name for that was ‘democracy.’” Often our biggest mistake as Americans — and this goes for American foreign policy too — is to assume that everyone else sees the world as we do. This is a good example of that.

Our documentary focuses on a potentially insidious “youth group” called Nashi, which in Russian can mean “ours.” Some members are taking courses to be Russia’s next leaders; others are taking martial arts to be Russia’s next enforcers. By all accounts, the Kremlin arranges Nashi’s funding, which means it asks businesses to contribute; if someone wants to stay in business, he complies.

Some of Nashi’s tens of thousands of members seem earnestly interested in a more efficient, more moral society. But today’s young Russians are the first generation to come of age since the Soviet Union fell apart. They haven’t been told stories about the bad old days of communism so much as stories about the good old days of superpowerism — when the United States could not just have its way around the globe as it seems to today.

It chilled me when everyone I talked to in Nashi defined patriotism as uncritical support for Putin, whose foreign policy is founded on the nationalistic conviction that when Russia rattles a saber, the world should tremble.

There is nothing wrong with nationalism, unless it is misdirected. The fear of some, both inside and outside Russia right now, is that the idealism of the young in this long-strong, long-suffering, long-proud nation will be channeled the way it was channeled in Germany in the years before World War II, to support whoever leads them toward their days of glory, and trample those in opposition. Putin seems to speak their language.

What’s more, we’ve become the target. On a miserably wet and snowy day in a city called Vladimir, we videotaped the performance of a traveling street theater troupe brought in by Nashi. The actors pretended to carry oil from a Russian oil pump to a barrel labeled “For U.S.A.” And when Uncle Sam came into the picture, he came out ... of an outhouse. The lesson for Russians was, if we don’t support our leader, his enemies will steal our economic assets and make us slaves to the United States. We videotaped a second performance in Moscow; when it ended, some spectators started shouting, “Yankee Go Home.”

There isn’t a whole lot we can do about the direction Russia is turning because, economically and diplomatically, America needs Russia. Maybe more than Russia needs America. But we shouldn’t be surprised if we find ourselves fighting a new Cold War ... on top of the war on terrorism.

Greg Dobbs is a former Rocky Mountain News media critic.

READER COMMENTS

NOPE, SAME OLD RUSSIA.

Run by insane lunatics, madmen and bad guys for centuries, the 21st century is no different. This one just happens to be KGB.

Posted by Hank on November 13, 2007 08:18 AM

I obviously cant get a forum to deliver a message about wasted money and horrible sports. RMN good for you for playing cover to this BS. Kronke, where are you, unless you are "special" why is Karl still coaching, and why does everyone think he is better then Jeff B.? I think Sam Cassell has proven that it doesn't matter who coached him, he was a proven winner. All Karl has done is.......wait nothing!!!!

The sad thing is, he is a million times better then Jim Bates. When are the Broncos going to fire this POS? Does he have dirty pics on Bowlen, because his "Defense" wouldn't even confuse the blind and deaf school that Nebraska plays on opening day. Bates is the worst coach I have ever seen, go Wade Phillips, the Broncos havent had a good Defensive Coordinator since you.

I love the Broncos, but Marshall needs to shut up until he actually catches a pass!!!!! Shannehan needs to actually take his job seriously, and not still lean on the comfort of ELWAYS SUPER BOWLS. I hate complacency, and our teams are just going to put up with way overpriced individuals who know how to bitch, but have no idea how to play as a team (Marshall, you can kiss my ass, b/c you think your great, but have not done anything to prove it)

Sincerely,
Fan losing Faith

Posted by Denver Fan on November 10, 2007 06:07 PM