The degradation of Western elites
One of the leitmotivs of Russian state television news and analysis programs over the past year has been the degradation of American and other Western elites.
Who are these critics? I often quote Vladimir Solovyov, dean of Russian journalism and host to the most widely watched talk show, or Yevgeny Popov, Duma member and co-host of Sixty Minutes, a program that is essential viewing for all Russia watchers, including advisers to the Biden administration, as we know from recent quotes by Biden’s spokesmen denouncing remarks by Popov’s wife and co-host Olga Skabeyeva.
I got to know both Popov and Solovyov personally back in 2016 when I appeared on their shows several times. I saw then that both have personal knowledge of the subject that they now present under the scalpel. Both spent time in the United States in the 90s. Solovyov had business interests there, Popov was the New York bureau chief of Russian state television for some time. They are fluent English speakers and their knowledge of the language preceded their time abroad. They necessarily had what I would call an idealized attachment to the USA. This is not a small detail: one has to appreciate that educated Russians of all stripes who had not lost their jobs due to the ‘shock therapy’ economic policies of their government under the counsel of Western advisers were believers in the democratic values and seemingly unlimited economic opportunities offered in the West.
The harshness of Solovyov, Popov and many others in Russian media today in what they say and present about the United States or Europe reflects bitterness over lost illusions. And, in the case of Solovyov, over lost property: he owned a villa in Italy, now confiscated, and it was not a speculation or a hedge against change in Russia; it was a manifestation of his love for the land and culture. Now, as the Germans say, vorbei, long gone.
Russian media occasionally remind their audiences of Soviet cartoons from the distant past which denounced the arms manufacturing profiteers in the West for the outbreaks of war here and there around the world. These same sophisticated journalists who in that past among themselves would have likely discounted such accusations as empty propaganda find that today the commentary is all too true. And in support of this validation of Soviet era analysis they put up on the screen what Jeffrey Sachs at the high end and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene at the low end have been saying on U.S. media about the influence of military lobbyists in Congress.
Russian media do not tire of showing videos of Joe Biden struggling to find his way off stage, misreading his teleprompter texts and otherwise revealing for all with eyes to see that he is mentally deficient and unfit for office. As for Europe, the blatant ignorance and stupidity of German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock provides grist for Russian news commentary on the degradation of political elites on the Old Continent.
The problem for us all is that Russian contempt for our political classes in the USA and Europe is entirely justified.
To be sure, going back to the 1960s Camelot days of the Kennedy administration when the ‘best and the brightest’ were recruited to the highest posts in government on one side of the Atlantic and when top intellects from the social elites vied for office in France, Britain and Germany, our governments nonetheless committed obscenities such as the Vietnam war. What we have now is obscene foreign and military policy formulated and implemented by mental pygmies.
This brings to mind the unforgettable line in Verdi’s opera Tosca. The villain of villains, Scarpia, head of the Rome secret police, womanizer or, in today’s terms serial rapist, lies on the floor bleeding to death from a stabbing by Tosca. His last words are “And to think, I, Scarpia should be killed by a woman!”
This is what gets under the skin of the Russian elites today: to think that they may die in a nuclear exchange initiated by that doddering fool in the White House and his sophomoric advisers like Blinken and Sullivan.
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I close with some remarks on the present media scene in Russia.
As is the case every year, from 31 December to about 13 January, the media bosses on Russian television are all on vacation. Old movies, glitzy performances of the established singers whom we see every year and other vapid entertainment fill the broadcast channels.
However, this year that filler can be forgiven, because tightened war censorship has become palpable in recent weeks and news on Russian state broadcasting has become quite boring for the most part. Indeed, what I said a couple of months ago about how television is more informative than print media in Russia no longer holds true. The liveliest current information appears to be in social media, some of which is picked up by the news tickers.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024