This is the sort of thing that makes me want to eat my tie.
Had the exhortations for Russia to get media-savvy become lost in translation?
Having achieved its military objectives at the expense of widespread international condemnation for bullying its smaller neighbour and generally not giving a damn about public perceptions, Russia needed some serious damage control, especially considering that it could make a strong case against the original Georgian incursion into Ossetia.
Putin, the man in charge of the operation, is not known for thin skinned sensitivity to what the world thinks of his country, as long as it involves a healthy dose of fear and respect.
So the sight of ‘good cop’ Medvedev heading down to the Caucusus momentarily promised some much-needed mollification, perhaps a smooth, deftly handled press conference directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, featuring children singing in American accented English, a friendly robot (a Medvedev cameo?), Abkhaz and Georgian orphans frolicking with dolphins!
Instead, we got Ivan Drago.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/GWihWfdH4Zw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
According to a great piece by Anna Smolchenko at the Moscow Times,
Medvedev repeatedly resorted to the kind of abrasive language typical of Putin.
On Friday, he said, “It is necessary to restore and guarantee peace in the region so that no one gets any more idiotic ideas in their heads.” At a Kremlin news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week, Medvedev fired off epithets like “bastards” and “hoodlums.”
“If anyone thinks that they can kill our citizens, kill our soldiers and officers, who are peacekeepers, and escape unpunished, we will never allow this,” Medvedev said. “If anyone tries this again, we will deliver a crushing response.”
“Crushing response”??? Really????? I am just speechless. Have they learned NOTHING from all this?!! Because, the one thing most people in the world are all too aware of when it comes to Russia, from the endless Fox and CNN newsreels, is its capability of crushing things, like responses, or cars and civilian apartment buildings.
But wait, here's the kicker, folks:
Representatives of the foreign press, meanwhile, were barred from attending any events during Medvedev's trip. Members of the Russian press, however, were loaded onto a bus chartered by the Defense Ministry to meet the president at the airport. Access to the zone of conflict and to government officials has been sharply curtailed for the foreign press in recent weeks, making accurate coverage of what is going on inside South Ossetia extremely difficult.
Standing outside the Hotel Vladikavkaz as Russian reporters streamed into the press bus, a producer for NBC News in Moscow asked Defense Ministry spokesman Andrei Klyuchnikov if he knew how bad barring the Western press from such a significant news event looked.
Klyuchnikov simply shrugged.
“Yes,” he said, the door to the bus closing in front of him. “I know.”
You couldnt make it up.
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There are also wider issues raised in the piece, especially the question of who is really in charge, who planned the war, and whether a power-struggle is brewing between Putin and Medvedev.
There are additional questions of the Russian troop withdrawals, tentative and still ongoing.
