Demonization of Putin

Stop the pointless demonization of Putin By Stephen F. Cohen

May 7, 2012 | reuters.com

American media coverage of Vladimir Putin, who today began his third term as Russia’s president and 13th year as its leader, has so demonized him that the result may be to endanger U.S. national security.

For nearly 10 years, mainstream press reporting, editorials and op-ed articles have increasingly portrayed Putin as a czar-like “autocrat,” or alternatively a “KGB thug,” who imposed a “rollback of democratic reforms” under way in Russia when he succeeded Boris Yeltsin as president in 2000. He installed instead a “venal regime” that has permitted “corruptionism,” encouraged the assassination of a “growing number” of journalists and carried out the “killing of political opponents.” Not infrequently, Putin is compared to Saddam Hussein and even Stalin.

Well-informed opinions, in the West and in Russia, differ considerably as to the pluses and minuses of Putin’s leadership over the years – my own evaluation is somewhere in the middle – but there is no evidence that any of these allegations against him are true, or at least entirely true. Most seem to have originated with Putin’s personal enemies, particularly Yeltsin-era oligarchs who found themselves in foreign exile as a result of his policies – or, in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in prison. Nonetheless, U.S. media, with little investigation of their own, have woven the allegations into a near-consensus narrative of “Putin’s Russia.”

Even the epithet commonly applied to Putin is incorrect. The dictionary and political science definition of “autocrat” is a ruler with absolute power, and Putin has hardly been that. There are many examples of his need to mediate, sometimes unsuccessfully, among powerful groups in the ruling political establishment and of his policies being thwarted by Moscow and regional bureaucracies. Moreover, if Putin really were a “cold-blooded, ruthless” autocrat, tens of thousands of protesters would not have appeared in Moscow streets, not far from the Kremlin, following the December presidential election. Nor would they have been officially sanctioned – as were the thousands who gathered yesterday before a small group breached the sanctioned lines and violence ensued – or shown on state television.

But consider the largest, and historically most damning, accusation against Putin. Russian democratization began in Soviet Russia, under Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1989-91. “De-democratization,” as it is often called, began not under Putin but under Yeltsin, in the period from 1993 to 1996, when the first Russian president used armed force to destroy a popularly elected parliament; enacted a super-presidential constitution; “privatized” the former Soviet state’s richest assets on behalf of a small group of rapacious insiders; turned the national media over to that emerging financial oligarchy; launched a murderous war in the breakaway province of Chechnya; and rigged his own re-election. (On February 20, outgoing president Dmitri Medvedev shocked a small group of visitors by finally admitting that Yeltsin had not actually won that election against the Communist leader Gennadi Zyuganov.) Putin may have only moderated those fateful policies, but he certainly did not initiate them.

The catastrophic Yeltsin 1990s, which have been largely deleted from the U.S. media narrative, also put other anti-Putin allegations in a different perspective. The corruption rampant in Russia today, from seizures of major private investments to bribes demanded by officials, is a direct outgrowth of the violent and other illicit measures that accompanied “privatization” under Yeltsin. It was then that the “swindlers and thieves” denounced by today’s opposition actually emerged.

The shadowy practices of that still-only-partially reformed economic system, not Kremlin politics, has led to the assassination of so many Russian journalists, most of them investigative reporters. The numbers, rarely cited by era, are indicative. According to the American Committee to Protect Journalists, 77 Russian journalists have been murdered since 1992 – 41 during Yeltsin’s 8 years in power, 36 during Putin’s 12 years.

The exceptionally vilifying charge that Putin has been behind the killing of political opponents focuses mainly on two victims – the investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot to death in Moscow in 2006; and a reputed KGB defector, Aleksandr Litvinenko, who died of radiation poisoning in London, also in 2006.

Not a shred of evidence or an element of logic points to Putin in either case. The editors of Politkovskaya’s newspaper, the devoutly anti-Putin Novaya Gazeta, believe her killing was ordered by Chechen leaders, whose human-rights abuses were one of her special subjects. And there is no conclusive proof even as to whether Litvinenko’s poisoning, despite the media frenzy and rupture in British-Russian relations it caused, was intentional or accidental. (Significantly, Scotland Yard still has not released the necessary autopsy report.)

In other circumstances, all of this ritualistic Putin-bashing would be merely a cautionary example of media malpractice, an anti-textbook for journalism schools. But it has made Putin’s Russia toxic in Washington, in both political parties and especially in Congress, at a time when U.S. national security requires long-term cooperation with Moscow on vital fronts: from countries and regions such as Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran and the entire Middle East to issues such as nuclear weapons reduction, stopping nuclear proliferation, and preventing terrorism.

In all of these regards, the relentless demonizing of Putin makes rational U.S. policymaking all the more difficult. Mitt Romney’s recent assertions that Russia is America’s “number one geopolitical foe” and that Moscow has made no “meaningful concessions” seem to reflect widespread ignorance or amnesia. Are U.S. policymakers aware of Putin’s extraordinary assistance to the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan after 9/11, his crucial help in supplying NATO troops now there or his support for harsher sanctions against Iran? Do they know that for these and other “pro-American” concessions he is viewed by many Russian national security officials as an “appeaser?”

Many years ago, Will Rogers quipped: “Russia is a country that no matter what you say about it, it’s true.” Evidently, it is still true, but it’s no longer funny.

Selected comments

KyuuAL

Right Wing media looks to create a “new enemy” to focus on, as Republicans look to the Cold War glory days as an excuse to continue heavy funding of the military.

TobyONottoby

Thanks – It sometimes seems as if American media have forgotten how poorly Yeltsin performed. Perhaps that’s because American media barely noticed his misdeeds, other than the chronic misdemeanor of being drunk and disorderly, in the first place. Funny that they notice nothing but in Putin’s case. (I consider Gorbachev to be the best Soviet/Russian leader in my lifetime, but politicians of his ilk clearly have little chance of staying in office there. Hence, Yeltsin and Putin.)

Am-Expat

For once, a reasonable assessment of Russia since the 1991 emergence of the new Russian Federation. Putin’s 2012 Russia is a model of exemplary government compared to the bad old days of the highly western adviser influenced Yeltsin years.

I am an American living now in Russia full time for over 8 years and what I know of Russia is so radically different than the “common knowledge” as pumped out by western press. It is a place of some contradictions but generally much more pleasant, safe, growth oriented and livable than any press account I have ever read in western news or opinion pieces in 20 years. I have a business and not once has a bribe been paid or asked for, street crime and violence is lower than any major city in the US, the population is very well educated and frankly a lot less depressing than the anger and division that permeates the US now. The young people, generally, are optimistic about their futures, and start out life with more going for them than kids of thee same age in the US unless they are very wealthy.

I ask westerner who claim all manner of evil deeds done by Putin where they got this inside information since very few western reporters are in Russia, fewer by far than in the Soviet period. Their reply is usually that “everyone knows it”. That is probably the most succinct indications of why the US can’t solve any of the pressing problems that are killing it. Pure ignorance that is reinforced at every turn. Russia and Putin are not your problem America, ignorance is.

xcanada2

Thank you for taking on the rather conventional main stream media.

It is not obvious where the Putin-demonization comes from. I always suspect those who stand to benefit the most. This means most Western businesses with interest in inveigling themselves into Russian assets: oil, timber, mineralization, market,…. They looked well on their way with Yeltsin-the-copout, until Putin showed up and started to regain his country for Russians.

OK, maybe Putin regained some Russian booty for himself and buddies, but they are mostly Russians, and the wealth is staying in the country, not joining the international booty owned by the world banks and their associates. For this, I think Russia has much to thank Putin for. Evidently they think so also.

Maybe the anti-Putin stuff starts with disaffected Russians, off-shore oligarchs, and the like, but the West gloms on to it and makes it a much worse thing.

Again, thank your very much for bringing some sanity and balance to this issue.

krimsonpage

American media is a lapdog. As for Putin, he has made himself the center of power in Russia. Whether he is a good man or bad is not as important

running

Henry Kissinger said in a letter “at no time were we trying to stop communism”, Viet Nam, Korea?? who is the good guy here ? the world has not changed, just different players wearing different masks

TheSkepticon

I thought this opinion piece was meaningful and thorough. Putin once mentioned to Larry King that he thought it amusing that the American media would attack Russia as not having a democratic election process when in America, Florida courts made an unjust decision in favor of denying a voter fraud recount which then allowed Bush to win the presidency despite Gore winning the popular vote.

You also mention Yeltsin-era oligarchs who found themselves in foreign exile as a result of Yeltsin policies. The choice of foreign exile for these oligarchs were two places, England and Israel. And it might be relevant to note that the Washington Times reported that Mikhail Khodorkovsky who is in jail in Russia diverted all his oil shares (prior to being jailed) to Jacob Rothschild of the Rothschild family, one of the oldest and most influential banking families in the world. Now why would a Russian citizen give all his shares to a foreign banker, and not just any foreign banker? If Mikhail was indeed a true Russian cultured citizen he wouldn’t accidently have such powerful loyalties outside of Russia.

Also one should note something important about Aleksander Litvinenko, autopsy data is key in determining what scenario fits the evidence. If this autopsy data is being withheld by the medical examiner then someone in the British high authority is behind this. It then isn’t a Russian conspiracy as the media plays out. It is then by default a British conspiracy.

UauS

Unless Mr. Cohen wrote this article on some “special” request, it is really strange to read so many logical and factual inaccuracies from such a distinguished pundit.
Here’s just one example:

“The corruption rampant in Russia today, from seizures of major private investments to bribes demanded by officials, is a direct outgrowth of the violent and other illicit measures that accompanied “privatization” under Yeltsin.”

Well, this would be a point well made if today were a year 2002, not 2012. However, Putin has been de facto ruler of Russia for the last 12 years, which would amount to three presidency terms in the USA… Besides, in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, don’t we essentially have a case of a “seizure of major private investment” initiated by Putin himself?..

johnhhaskell

In an interview on CNBC Warren Buffett said it would be “nirvana” if per capita GDP in the United States grew by 1% per annum over the next 20 years.

Per capita GDP, in USD terms, grew 700% from 2000 to 2008 in Russia. That’s why Putin runs the country.

Now some of you may object, “but if he were in the US he wouldn’t be popular,” and that’s fine. Because he’s not running for President of the US.

vshamanov

“The corruption rampant in Russia today, from seizures of major private investments to bribes demanded by officials, is a direct outgrowth of the violent and other illicit measures that accompanied “privatization” under Yeltsin” — It has been 12 years since Yeltsin resigned. To blame widespread corruption on Yeltsin is the same as arguing that Stalin’s repressions in 1930s was “a direct outgrowth” of Lenin’s policies.

Ocala123456789

i wish we have a president like him… if you combine Romney and Obama together they will not become one quarter of Putin… it is sad… we have more socialism then Putin’s Russia…

TheSkepticon

I would love to post a more in depth comment here but I know from experience that if I mention just the name of a certain person or country in relation to this article it will not see the light of day. In this regard I just wish to say that this was a well thought out opinion worthy of debate.

GA_Chris

I find it funny how the media were up in arms about the protesters being arrested in Moscow for protesting against Putin, but when all the Occupy protesters were being arrested, pepper sprayed for expressing their democratic right to protest, it was tolerated…

Duke40

Great article! Good or bad, Putin is the only leader capable of doing the job and doing it right.

Matthew_Saroff

You neglect to mention the main reason he is despised in the western media: because, whatever Yeltsin’s flaws, and they are legion, Yeltsin consciously decided to make sure that much of the larcenous proceeds of his privatization plans went to western investors.

Rossa_Irene

I'm a Russian. I'm young and politically active. Well, I can say, that the article is surprisingly thoughtful and meaningful.

It's been only 20 years after the USSR crash. Russia has been rebuilding itself. After political and economical collapse of the 90th it is hardly possible to have a blessed democracy in the 2000th. Anyway Russian Federation led by Putin is doing pretty good. We've survived the world economic crisis and the civil society is forming and developing.

I am studying and working, I have prospects. The only thing that bothers me is the anti-Putin campaign which is actually destructive. Believe me, the last thing we need now is a revolution.

All that is pretty obvious to the Russians. And that would be cool if the world accepted the new Russia just the way it is.

Thanks to the author for his impartial assessment and unbiased attitude. Since there are such journalists in America we can promote and cultivate brand new relations between our countries.

PS saw the comments about “Russian aggression against Georgia”. Saakashwilly was the one who attacked the sleeping Ossetian city. He unleashed violence against civilians. At night Georgian soldiers were killing and raping. Mostly the Ossetians are Russian citizens. And it was Russia`s duty to protect them.

ChupaChups88

Thank you for the truth! Unfortunately, Western journalists often do not simply “mistaken” when they talk about Russia false things, but quite deliberately manipulating the facts, and therefore pointless to urge them not to demonize Putin … This is especially true of those who work in Russia. They are all well aware, but the level of deception is so high that they can not stop, because it would mean that everything they said before is no-true. In addition, the “editorial policy” major Western media eliminates the appearance of any “positive” (truthful) articles about Russia. Something “positive” simply will not print. If read the Western press, in Russia, everything is always bad, and something “good” just does not happen be a priori. That is, all exclusively in the “black” color and with apocalyptic intonations (in the spirit, now all bad and will be even worse). By Western standards, perhaps, in Russia there is a problem, but do not forget that never (in its thousand-year history) the people in Russia did not live so free and relatively richly, as now, so this whole western “negative” in relation to Russia is perceived by many Russians with complete incomprehension and resentment. Because of this, there is great distrust towards of the Western media and towards the West in general.

falkone

Russia takes 67th place in the Human Development Index (for comparison: United States – 4, United Kingdom – 28). It is the result of the domestic policies of Putin and Medvedev. If someone thinks Putin is ok for Russia I wish him to live in Russia on Russian old-age pension!

Peace17

President Putin forced Western companies to re-negotiate their extremely unfair business contracts in Russia. The US establishment can’t forgive (and will never forgive) him this nonalignment with the US business interests.

This was the past. Now, the future tells us that without bringing Russia to its side within the next decade or so United States will enter the danger zone due to China’s rapid growth. This will become the biggest threat to the US security. The country has no long term policy and acts plain stupid with regard to Russia bashing. The US old (cold war time) leadership in Congress does serious damage to the countries future. The military industrial complex pays these folk’s bills and reaps the benefits. The rest of the country will face long term consequences.

Professor Cohen is right. Unfortunately.

xxx

At last a fair assessment of the situation in Russia. Irene Rossa writes that she is Russian and young, politically active and well educated, with good prospects for her future.
Well, I am from Russia, but I am rather old, and, as they say, have seen it all, including the horror of the sleepless nights when KGB was knocking at the doors, oh, so quietly…

During the years of first Putin, then Medvedev’s presidency Russia finally let its collective breath out…. We held it for more than decade, seeing the cronies of Yeltsin robbing our country blind, seeing our youth dying because the wrong choices they made, because there was no hope, because nobody cared.. Our middle class was put at its collective knees by joblessness, hopelessness and abject poverty. We, women, fared better – we bought knitting machines and knitted socks, then stood at the corners and sold them, we sold our libraries (no Russian apartment ever was without a library!), and we cooked dinners of powdered milk and “Bush’es legs”, as we called hated chicken legs. But our men, our husbands, our sons.. Yeltsin emasculated whole generation of Russian men. Some committed suicides by alcoholism, some – by a rope or a bullet.. Some simply gave up and died of a broken heart.

Now, today, we live well, we regained our trust in the future, and our men are looking much healthier and happier. Our incomes are so good that Russia has more international travelers than ever before, the car ownership is so common that even young people can afford them, and finding a good, well paid job is not a problem anymore.

At the same time in the United States millions of college degree holders are working as waiters, barmen, cashiers or receptionists. But America is so in love with itself that none of this is bothering its people! Recently I was present at the Graduation Ceremony at the UF, Florida. Out of the whole graduate engineering class 2012 there were just a dozen of “native Americans”. The rest were Chinese (majority) and Indian students.

America is losing its edge, and nobody raises an alarm. Media is telling the Sheeple that “everything is fine, just look at that awful Putin over there, in Russia, and be grateful we have such a fine democracy!” Democracy, my foot! Paid and bought wholesale.

Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.

Last modified: May, 13, 2013