REPORTING ON RUSSIA WITHOUT RUSSOPHOBIA
A panel discussion with
David Filipov: currently Executive Editor, Communications at Northeastern University, Boston; former Moscow Bureau chief of The Washington Post
Anna Nemtsova: Correspondent for Newsweek & The Daily Beast, Moscow
Andrew Roth: Correspondent for The Guardian, Moscow
Moderation: Nina Khrushcheva: Professor of International Affairs, the New School, New York; Senior Fellow of the World Policy Institute and the Bruno Kreisky Forum
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia slowly receded from the international headlines. The Cold War was over and this Western-defeated foe was relegated to the status of the dwindling regional power. With Vladimir Putin assuming presidency in 2000, his persona of the former KGB international spy, sparked interest and speculation about the country’s transitional trajectory towards democracy. Fast forward two decades during which Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, get militarily involved in Syria, interfered in the 2016 US presidential elections—at least according to the American security officials, and allegedly poisoned former Russian operative Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK. And these are just a few of the offences attributed to Putin’s country.
In recent years, the Russian president has been seen as an enfant terrible of global politics, as an anti-James-Bond villain. Not in the least due to the Kremlin’s own agressive actions, in the Western discourse Putin fulfills every cliché of the Cold War enemy familiar from days past. He is simultaneously devious and dumb, cunning and confused, and his bellicose nation deserves little benefit of the doubt or consideration of fairness. A lot of these simplifications and sensationalism can be attributed to the old Cold War stereotypes that never died down, especially in the Anglo-Saxon-American discourse about Russia. Today, once again the Russia-bashing is increasingly taken at face value, the country’s transgressions are often assumed before they are proven.
Our panel of journalists will attempt to answer a question: Without excusing or justifying the Kremlin’s at times obvious offences, can reporting on Russia remain free of bias and animosity?