FALSE CHOICES FOR RUSSIA

ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Response to Washington Post "False Choices for Russia" by Lev Gudkov, Igor Klyamkin, Georgy Satarov and Lilia Shevtsova, June 9, 2009 

by Gordon Hahn

The article reviewed below is yet another in the Washington Post’s persistently one-sided coverage of Russia. It was written by Lev Gudkov (director of Levada Center, an independent polling and research organization), Igor Klyamkin (vice president of the Liberal Mission Foundation), Georgy Satarov (president of the Russian nongovernmental organization Indem Foundation and former advisor to late Russian president Boris Yeltsin), and Lilia Shevtsova (senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Moscow Center).  The article may be part of a perhaps orchestrated campaign marshaled by U.S. hawks on Russia deploying Russian liberals against those in the U.S. arguing for a more balanced approach towards Russia than that pursued by two successive American presidents.  The goal of the neo-realists is to establish a U.S.-Russian relationship that will facilitate Russian support of key American foreign policy goals.  In particular, a less aggressive Western policy in the former USSR should be exchanged for Russian assistance on non-proliferation issues, most notably the Koran and Iranian nuclear programs, and the war against jihadism, especially in Afghanistan.  Their liberal (and conservative) opponents in the U.S. propose continuation of past policies: NATO expansion into the former USSR region and an emphasis on Russia’s lack of democracy. The reader will note that the Russian liberals’ article below only mentions NATO expansion in passing and focuses instead on the Kremlin’s soft authoritarianism.

The article reviewed below is part of a global debate among Russians and Russia observers that began apparently with a March 31st article in the Russian daily Kommersant by Boris Sidorov.  The campaign was carried forth in nearly identical pieces by Andrei Pitontivsky in a June 4^th Moscow Times article and the piece reviewed below.  A liberal-realist response came on June 10 from Anatol Lieven on www.nationalinterest.com.  Lieven’s response was rebutted by Paul Goble using a June 15 Grani.ru article by Russian commentator Irina Pavlova.

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