Lost Illusions: Whom Do Information Wars Hurt?

Of course, having arrived in Europe for a meeting with its leaders, Barack Obama was obliged to make an announcement about Russia’s “punishment.” It was important to show who the high man on the European totem pole is, but his real concern lies elsewhere: to hightail it out of Afghanistan, lick the wounds of America’s image from the scandalous operations in Iraq and Libya, not lose the upcoming election to Republicans, and mend his own falling approval rating.

As far as economic assistance is concerned, Western leaders have found themselves in a very delicate situation. To pour money into Kiev and deprive poverty-stricken Greece and Spain, not to mention mendicant Bulgaria and Romania, would be sowing the seeds of jealousy and strife in the greater European family. Moreover, there is no guarantee that Ukraine, which is mired in debt, will pay its bills. In Kiev, the word “default” is being heard more and more, and for the time being, one detects a whiff of little more than virtual currency there.

War of Words

In no hurry to dip into its purse, the West has been throwing its resources at the front line of an information war. The expenditures are scant, but there is plenty of uproar. Yet, even in the information war, there are as yet more paradoxes than results. They wanted to frighten the Russians, but they frightened themselves more. For several weeks now, the European and American media have been literally writhing in anti-Russian hysterics. Television stations and newspapers have been competing to see who can spit further at the Kremlin, who can more viciously caricature Putin.

Russians, who in Soviet times listened to the BBC and Voice of America as if to prayer for the soul’s salvation, are at a loss: Even Soviet propaganda did not know of such factual distortion, bias, and unwillingness to objectively analyze events. The origins and motives of Russian policy in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s fear that the balance of power in Europe will be disturbed, Vladimir Putin’s aspiration to defend the traditional parameters of Russia’s influence, all of this is blatantly suppressed and distorted. All the talk is solely about Moscow’s aggression, Putin’s imperial ambitions, and the Kremlin’s desire to return the countries of Eastern Europe to its sphere of influence. The West “did not notice” that the Maidan, which began as an anti-oligarch and anti-corruption protest, and which even elicited sympathies in Russia, quickly turned into a nationalist, anti-Russian fit of hysterics. For the Western press, the Maidan is a triumph of democracy.

Back to Scythia?

For many decades and until recently, Russians had perceived European press freedom, the deliberateness of European policy, European values, and human rights as a kind of standard of democracy. I am afraid that from now on, all of this will be perceived by Russians with considerable skepticism, at least by a significant part of the population. And talk about how Asian blood flows through the veins of Russian politics will grow louder and louder. And more and more often, Alexander Blok’s famous words will be quoted:

“There are millions of you. There are hordes, and hordes, and hordes of us.

“Try and take us on!

“Yes, we are Scythians! Yes, we are Asians —

“With slanted and greedy eyes!”

There is yet another aspect: Russia’s political class had perceived European policy, the postwar foundations of which were put in place by General de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of West Germany, as quite independent and originating first and foremost from the interests of Europe itself. The one-sided and biased assessment of the events surrounding Ukraine has shown that in actuality, it is very heavily under Washington’s influence. The “bright image of an independent Europe” has been dealt a severe blow in the eyes of Russians.

“The Rape of Europa”

Still, other consequences of Europe’s row with Russia can be seen. That part of the Russian political class that is heir to Stalinism, a supporter of isolationism, and extremely ill-disposed toward Russia’s movement toward Europe has been handed further arguments. Russia’s “Prohanovs” and “Kurginyans” are literally rejoicing, and this rejoicing pours forth at us in abundance from our television screens: Look, they clamor, at how the Europeans hate us, how they parrot the “Washington Obkom!”* In the West, enemies are everywhere! Let’s also seek out and punish the traitors within.

Unfortunately, such diatribes, which sound as if taken from audio archives of Stalin-era history, find support among a significant portion of the population and as a consequence, among a number of politicians. One ought to expect that in the near future, Russia’s liberal community will have to fight drawn-out defensive battles — and most likely, unsuccessful battles. Western politicians, having succumbed to American pressure, did not fully anticipate, it seems, such a turn of events, or the damage that has been inflicted upon the best-educated and most Europe-oriented part of Russian society, and more broadly, upon the common interests of Russia and Europe.

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Russians love Europe. And they have good mentors and teachers in this love: Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and even Pushkin, who, having never visited any of the European capitals, was shot through with the spirit of European poetry and culture. Our protagonists — Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin, Bezukhov, Bolkonsky, Tatyana Larina — are Russians who have read French novels and the French philosophers. Scratch any one of our favorite protagonists, and you are bound to find traces of characters by Rousseau, Byron, Goethe, Schiller or Balzac. The millions of Russians who flock to Western Europe every year are even today discovering again and again the overt and covert ties between Russian and European culture, between the Russian and European mentality.

In the course of the political and information war over Ukraine and Crimea, we have unfortunately also seen another Europe — one that is hypocritical, two-faced, trying to “have its cake and ….” We have seen a Europe bandying about words and threats that are offensive to us, a Europe giving in to pressure from the swaggering cowboy. It’s a shame that it so thoughtlessly bargains away our love.

*Translator’s note: Obkom is a portmanteau word from oblastnoy komitet, or regional committee, a Soviet body tasked with advising Communist Party officials of a particular province in accordance with the party line. The pejorative phrase “Washington Obkom” refers to the notion of the existence of an analogous committee in the U.S. capital that supposedly provides pro-American ideological guidance to leaders throughout the world.