WASHINGTON'S POSITIVE PR

Stanislav Tarasov

from WPS Monitoring Agency

THE US ADMINISTRATION HAS DECIDED TO IMPROVE RUSSIA'S IMAGE IN THE LEAD-UP TO PRESIDENT PUTIN'S US VISIT. SOME FAVORABLE MEDIA ITEMS ABOUT RUSSIA IN RECENT WEEKS INDICATE THE TREND. WASHINGTON DOES NOT PLAN TO SURRENDER THE INITIATIVE IN ITS RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA TO A UNITED EUROPE.

Graham Allison, director of the Belfair research center at Harvard University, recently stated that Russia has long deserved a better image than it currently has. He also reported that some members of the US administration are trying to improve the situation and to objectively inform US business leaders about Russia. Moreover, according to our information, a number of US public relations firms are working on improving Russia's image - on Washington's orders.

There's no such thing as a free lunch in politics. The conclusion many American analysts draw from the aforementioned statements is that during the recent Genoa summit, US President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached a breakthrough agreement on intensifying business and commercial relations between the two countries. As a result, Washington, which is preparing for an official visit by the Russian president this autumn, started forcing the pace of events in order to attach special importance to this fact. First of all, the US decided to "launder" Russia.

In late July the Washington Post published an article by US Commerce Secretary Don Evans. The article was titled "Time to Get Down to Business With Russia". It appeared on the eve of his official visit to Moscow, and praised Russia for achieving a certain level of macroeconomic stability and adopting a more responsible approach to its international debt obligations. Moreover, according to Evans, Moscow "has taken important steps in establishing institutions necessary for a market economy", although there remains much more to be done in this area.

It is curious that at present the US media are creating a new image of President Vladimir Putin. The New York Times now calls him a pragmatist who has started creating favorable conditions for attracting foreign investment.

Professor Marshall Goldman, a co-director of the Russian Studies Center at Harvard University, thinks Putin is trying to transform the personal dictatorships of the regional leaders into the rule of law. Thus, the US is gradually forgiving the previous widespread stereotype of the Russian president as a former KGB colonel who intends to bend Russia to his will. Now he is looking more like a progressive reformer, who is easier to deal with.

Americans do not often give such flattering estimates. Especially considering that they are presented by key figures in the US administration, who participate in making major strategic decisions. It is also rather curious that they conflict with the statements from most Russian media about impending dismissals in the Russian government. Why is this so? And why has the US business elite suddenly decided to do all the dirty work for Moscow in the US?

Apparently, there are several reasons for this. The aforementioned Graham Allison has spoken about one of them. According to him, the White House decided to advance the situation and at present is choosing the best time for increasing US investment in Russia. And the PR is Mocow's favor is a signal for the public that overall, Washington does not plan to surrender the initiative in its relations with Russia to a united Europe. Besides, the US evidently wants to diminish the role of Germany in resolving Russia's debt problems, since this is likely to tie in Russian debts with international security issues as a whole, and the US national missile defense in particular. Most likely, this is the main explanation for the recent US actions to improve Russia's image. At the same time, Europe is not losing time either. Positive articles about Russia have started appearing in the German and French media as well. In short, the new game is beginning...