The Myths About Russia

Our good friends at Rossiyskaya Gazeta have paid for another insert in the Washington Post. Some awesome highlights:

--Medvedev thinks its time to protect journalists in Russia (right after he transforms the country into a nation of laws, we assume).

--Putin wants “Solutions and Ideas, not the Blame Game” over the economic collapse. And yes, before you ask, this is the very same crisis which Putin insists on calling the “American economic crisis” everytime he speaks in public.

--Finally, the editors offer a lovely interview with Vladimir Medinsky who just authored a new book dispelling the "Myths About Russia." In his book, Medinsky argues that Westerners falsely believe:

"Everything in Russia is either bad or wrong – dreadful roads, endemic alcoholism, and idleness, corruption and pilfering, mud and poor sanitation, and an inherent lack of democratic culture…”

Instead, Medinsky argues that everything which I, and many of the contributors to ER have seen, lived and experienced first hand in Russia are all myths created to perpetuate “the Russian threat.” Medinsky is especially concerned by the myths of a “savage Russia” which emerged around the time that Stalin murdered 40 million people and imprisoned one eighth of the country's population.

To be fair, I have always suspected that Russia’s poor roads, heartbreaking alcoholism, open corruption, poor sanitation, disregard for the law (ever seen a person murdered by placing their head in the door jam of a Mercedes M class?), and the inherent lack of democratic culture were all part of a vast international conspiracy to discredit Russia.

But thanks to Medinsky, it is all perfectly clear.