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Excerpts from the JRL E-Mail Community :: Founded and Edited by David Johnson

#10 - JRL 8075
From: "Paul Starobin" <pstarobin@nationaljournal.com>
Subject: Russia debate
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004

Dear David,

Regarding the debate/tempest in JRL over media coverage of Russia, I first of all wanted to say thanks to you for making the List available for all of the assorted commentary. JRL at its best is an engaged discussion about a place that all of us care about. It doesn't particularly bother me when the discussion takes an occasional harsh turn--I think the harsh response is sometimes quite the appropriate one--but of course this style of argument can become counter-productive by generating 'more heat than light.' In any case, as I think you said yourself at one point, the intensity is generally a gauge of the passion. Everyone who follows Russia senses that (yet again) some sort of juncture is before the country, and feelings ought to be running high.

If we can leave the media role aside, I think the most interesting and difficult question is what if anything Western policymakers can/should do about the creeping, Putin-led authoritarianism. At a meeting in Washington of the Council on Foreign Relations on Feb. 11, Garry Kasparov, head of the new "2008: Free Choice" committee, said that the G-7 members should take Putin/Russia off the invitation list for their summits, at least for now. His argument is that Western states can effectively use such tools as the G-7 gatherings as "a bargaining chip" for "leverage" in forcing the Putin regime to retreat from its authoritarian project. I'm not so sure--I asked him whether such a move might not give further impetus to gathering forces of Russian nationalism/chauvinism. I'm curious what other JRL readers think.

Best, Paul Starobin
staff correspondent, National Journal
contributing editor, Atlantic Monthly