Is the press getting Russia right?
November 24, 2008
Russia today is a "speeding train" with no clear destination.
That's how an important young voice in Russian journalism, Newsweek chief editor Mikhail Fishman, described his country at the 2008 Paul Klebnikov Fund annual benefit. A panel discussion, entitled "What is Russia Thinking? The Word from the Last of the Independent Media," drew overflow crowds to the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University on November 4, 2008. The event featuring an unusually diverse panel, offered a probing discussion about current events and future prognoses for Russia and America.
The evening's speakers included Fishman, the winner of the 2008 Paul Klebnikov Excellence in Journalism Prize, Sarah Mendelson, Senior Fellow with CSIS, Andrew Meier, author of The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin's Secret Service (2008), and a former Moscow correspondent for Time Magazine, and Sean Guillory, author of Sean's Russia Blog.
The panel quickly focused on what President Barack Obama can do to heal the rift between the United States and Russia, and how to improve the disturbing state of freedom of expression in Russia. With relations between the two countries remaining troubled, the establishment media in Russia and the U.S. are doing an inadequate job of covering the issue. Too often, old stereotypes are allowed to predominate. New media, including the internet and blogs, provides an important, if limited, channel of communication. The panelists also highlighted emerging contrasts between President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin and discussed the serious challenge to the state of the economic crisis.
All the speakers agreed that this is an unprecedented time for Russia. The economic crisis and falling oil prices are creating increasing pressures on the country's leadership. As institutions in the country are very weak, and all means of expression for citizen dissatisfaction have been effectively closed, it is unclear by what means and with how much vigor citizens will demand change.
Mikhail Fishman characterized the Putin era as a time when citizens were pacified by rising income levels, consumer goods, and growing purchasing power. Unfortunately, this era has seen the demise of free and fair elections. Russia today has a multiparty system in name only, the panelists agreed. While some in the US administration have hoped that a rising middle class in Russia would lead to more democratization, this has not happened. The lack of a true democracy will remain a challenge for the new administration, particularly as economic events put pressures on the Russian state. Nonetheless, the panelists noted that this is a time of opportunity for Russia and its Western partners. The mosaic of challenges faced by G8 nations is a powerful force for cohesion.
