In this week’s Western media highlight, democracy experts Christopher Walker, Marc Plattner, and Larry Diamond discuss in the American Interest the global uprising of authoritarianism, focusing on Russia, China and Iran. And Foreign Policy highlighted this week Russia’s decision to boycott the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., thus raising concerns among Western security experts. Meanwhile, in the Russian media Mikhail Krutikhin writes that more troubles await the country’s energy industry in the light of low oil prices, while Denis Dragunsky explains how Russia’s vague and ambiguous political language plays in the hands of the Kremlin propaganda.
Vladimir Putin and China's President Xi Jinping celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War II. Photo: Alexei Druzhinin / TASS
From the West
Authoritarianism Goes Global
Christopher Walker, Marc Plattner, Larry Diamond, The American Interest
Democracy experts Christopher Walker, Marc Plattner, and Larry Diamond warn about authoritarianism’s recent gains in this piece for The American Interest. The three cite the repression of social media, weakening of international organizations, and development of international propaganda mouthpieces as examples of authoritarianism’s strengthening global influence. Democratic countries, they write, are not doing enough to combat the spread of illiberal governance. Ultimately, Walker, Plattner, and Diamond recommend engaging in efforts to broadcast the democratic perspective internationally, expressing greater “solidarity with nascent democracies,” undermining authoritarian efforts to censor the Internet, and improving political institutions and self-confidence in democratic governance at home.
U.S.-Russia Tensions Jeopardize Effort to Lock Down Loose Nukes
Dan de Luce, Reid Standish, Foreign Policy
In this piece for Foreign Policy, Dan de Luce and Reid Standish express concern that deteriorating U.S.-Russia relations threaten bilateral cooperation on nuclear security. Russia—the world’s largest atomic power—recently boycotted the Nuclear Security Summit, raising “the risk of a potential nuclear confrontation not seen since the Cold War.” This risk now includes the threat of nuclear terrorism from extremist groups such as the Islamic State. As long as U.S.-Russia relations are sour, de Luce and Standish believe that bilateral cooperation on nuclear security and other arms control issues will remain limited.
The Exit Solution?
Lilia Shevtsova, The American Interest
In the tenth installment of the series entitled “How the West Misjudged Russia,” Lilia Shevtsova criticizes pragmatists’ solutions to Russian aggression abroad, particularly in Ukraine. Many pragmatists have proposed giving in to Russian interests in the region, such as acquiescing Crimea to the Kremlin, and preventing Ukraine from joining NATO—effectively securing the country’s status as a weak, besieged buffer state between Russia and the West. Shevtsova argues that “We are dealing either with a misunderstanding of how the Russian System works or a new effort to pretend that one can neutralize Russia’s aggressiveness by recognizing its great power status.” In other words, she believes that Russia cannot be appeased into behaving appropriately on the world stage. Shevtsova is skeptical of proposals to build “channels of cooperation” between the EU (a bastion of Western, democratic values) and the Eurasian Economic Union (a proponent of authoritarian illiberalism); she believes “Moscow will be ready to start talks about cooperation in order to return from its isolation and in following with its old tradition of engaging in debates on peripheral issues while quietly pursuing its real agenda.” Ultimately, Shevtsova argues that the pragmatists offer too many concessions to the Kremlin, which are often proposed in exchange for merely “illusory or temporary gains.”
From Russia
In Russia, Cheap Oil Is Finished
Mikhail Krutikhin, Novaya Gazeta
Mikhail Kruitkhin, a partner at the consulting firm RusEnergy, writes about the state of the Russian oil industry. Falling oil prices, an unfavorable tax environment, and nationalization of private oil companies (e.g. Yukos and Bashneft, among others) have not boded well for Russia’s energy industry, traditionally the backbone of the country’s economy. Kruitkhin says it costs producers more money to supply oil than they are able to bring in. With the European Union striving to diversify its energy supply, and as oil supply outpaces demand, Kruitkhin believes that the public should expect a continuation of low energy prices.
Return of the Ghosts: Why Russia Fears Memories of the Gulag
Sergei Medvedev, Forbes Russia
In this opinion piece for Forbes Russia, Sergei Medvedev comments on Russians’ nostalgia for the Soviet Union, which has displaced the more painful memories of Stalinist repression. Why has Germany done so much to come to terms with its Nazi past, while Russia has done so little to reconcile itself with its own history of totalitarianism? Medvedev posits that the answer is structural: many institutions and political leaders in post-Soviet Russia are direct beneficiaries of Stalinist repression. As a result, Russia’s attempted reconciliation with the past has come not from official, state-sponsored narratives, but rather from alternative sources such as literature, film, and oral traditions. In this way, Medvedev believes that Russia’s post-Soviet grief has proven “culturally productive but politically destructive.”
Political Russian: Why Language Prevents Us from Seeing Reality
Denis Dragunsky, Slon.ru
In this piece for Slon.ru, Denis Dragunsky writes about language’s influence over public perceptions of reality. Russian political language—much like “Newspeak” in George Orwell’s novel, 1984—is often long-winded, unclear, and muddled by ambiguity, providing the Kremlin a huge advantage in its propaganda war against the West. The only solution to this lexical development, Dragunsky says, is to describe phenomena for what they truly are: the Soviet past—a crime; the present—a deception.
This week's roundup was compiled by Daniel Frey.
