[Deb Palmieri on Russia Table of Contents] The following article was published in the Russian Commerce News, June-Juny-August 2001. The Russian Commerce News is the official publication of The Russian-American Chamber of Commerce®. |
The year 2000 will be a benchmark event for the Russians in the span of history. The new millennium will finally bring a turn-around century to atone for all of the suffering and failed attempts to sustain a viable Russian nation for the last three hundred years. By year's end, perceptions and realities of political instability will hopefully subside and Russians will be hard at work with a new sense of optimism and feeling of stability.
Part of the cause for ongoing Russian instability has been rampant speculation on scenarios for Yeltsin's succession. And in his final years, Russia's president became more erratic, and with his ailing health combined with his proclivity to effect constant changes in his cabinet and government line-up, people looked on in amazement as a non-ending spectacle of musical chairs unfolded in the top echelons of the government, and wondered when it would all stop.
Well, the end is finally near. Once a new president is elected, with a new cabinet in place, anxieties will dissipate, and people once and for all can get down to the business of a concentrated effort to rebuild the economy, strengthen necessary state institutions and normalize relations with the West. The musical chairs should stop.
That's why in the West, and especially in the U.S. we need to focus on the future and stop living in the past when it comes to Russia. We need to look forward with hope and optimism that the Russians in their own way will build a sustainable economic model and political and social institutions that are compatible with notions of market and democracy. Not structures and institutions that will look exactly like our own, but ones with a distinctly Russian flavor and character, as it should be.
Our job is to let go of negativism, suspicion and the remnants of Cold War thinking. Russia has become a convenient target for the politically-driven motives of some politicians of all shades and hues. Some need a convenient "enemy" to rally American patriotism against a perceived threat. Who else but Russia? Some are still stuck in the "good guy" vs. "bad guy" paradigm of international politics - so who better that those "bad guy" Russians - they're mostly criminals, thieves and corrupt moneylaunderers, anyway, according to this outlook. So naturally, we "good guy" Americans have to be against them. That reflects the perception we get in the American press, oftentime. Others have interest groups to satisfy, or friends in prominent industries such as defense or intelligence who serve as primary advisors - and if we don't have an enemy, they don't have a job, simple as that. Only the largest country in the world can conveniently be targeted as our adversary.
I am still wondering, by the way, why, with all of the sensational coverage around alleged Bank of New York backhand dealings, nowhere was the major media present when PricewaterhouseCoopers released its audit that was instigated amidst cries that Russians stole IMF loans. This prestigious and squeaky clean auditing firm determined that no IMF loans were siphoned or stolen and that nothing criminal was found in the operation of Central Bank subsidiaries in France, Germany, Britain, Luxemburg and Austria. But we didn't hear The New York Times or The Washington Post reporting that on the front page, if at all.
Americans need to restore openmindedness and evenhandedness when it comes to things Russian. Let's enter the new century determined to make the U.S.-Russian relationship work. For the future, let's turn a new page, begin a fresh start, with a clean slate. It's the smart thing to do. And it's the right thing to do for present and future generations.
Deborah Anne Palmieri
Russian Commerce News, June-July-August 2001
Copyright 2001 The Russian-American Chamber of Commerce®