Lilia Shevtsova has a new piece published in Foreign Policy, examining why Western policymakers and intellectuals have suddenly decided to go soft and play along with Russian authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin:Western intellectuals are even more prone to the Kremlin's enticements than the politicians. They battle for the honor of taking part in the Valdai Club -- a series of regularly arranged meetings with Russian leaders. At these meetings, prominent attendees have been known to put preapproved questions to the Russians, playing the latter part in the Kremlin-orchestrated show. "Mister prime minister ... you are a democrat!" exclaimed a leading French intellectual at the meeting with Putin when he was still president. "You are really a liberal!" declared a well-known German expert at the meeting with Medvedev.
Experts from the European Council on Foreign Relations recently transmitted the Kremlin's ideas to Western audiences in the essay collection, What Does Russia Think?, which included little in the way of critical assessment, instead simply rehashing justifications for authoritarianism and Moscow's geopolitical ambitions. Leading Kremlin spin doctor Gleb Pavlovsky argued in the afterword, "The consensus that Putin has created in Russia ... is a value-based reality. It is based on the possibility of a free life in a secure environment -- something that Americans take for granted." Regretfully, the European experts had no response to this assertion. Does that mean they agree?
Other intellectuals take part in Kremlin-organized forums to discuss new standards for democracy and Russia's contribution to their development. One such forum took place under Medvedev's aegis in Yaroslavl last autumn. The French and Spanish prime ministers, François Fillon and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, respectively, who attended the event, clearly had no real idea what was going on, but their presence raised the event's prestige. Among those taking part in the forum were Western intellectual gurus such as Alvin Toffler, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Fareed Zakaria -- who should certainly know better than to give their names to an event that suggests any positive link between "Russia" and "democracy."
One influential European leader, Robert Cooper, the E.U. director-general for external and politico-military affairs, does not shy from discussing democracy with the Russian political elite. In an interview with the pro-Kremlin Russian Institute he concluded, "Sometimes I think that the word 'democracy' becomes problematic. I would prefer to talk about responsible, open government that defends the rights of nations ... but has enough legitimacy to use tough administrative measures when there is a need for them." Such an understanding of democracy is exactly what the current Russian government is looking for.
"Experts from the European Council on Foreign Relations recently transmitted the Kremlin's ideas to Western audiences in the essay collection, What Does Russia Think?, which included little in the way of critical assessment,"
Why should it? That EU leaders be aware of the facts as they are would seem a useful thing, and a lot of whining that they aren't something else would not add much value.