Public relations isn't something that the Putins of this world have much of an instinctive feel for. But times change: read this silly, throw-away little Observer editorial - and then have a look at the instantaneous deluge of pithy rejoinders from Russian sources. Russia has clearly built a rebuttal network on the Israeli model: mildly impressive. Don't anyone imagine there's indifference as to how they are perceived.To be read as a sort of coda to Medvedev's 'Global Policy Forum' The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency, held earlier this month. And for more on that, go to the series of excellent posts (starting 8th Sept) from special correspondent Hatfield Girl.
Russia may not have the clout of China, nor an an entirely coherent strategy. But it is tooling up for the 21st C, and is a player: how could it be otherwise ?
ND
PS: gotta love the list of languages of the Global Policy Forum: "Russian, English, Chinese, Korean, Italian, German, Portuguese, French and Japanese". Go France ! (Go Spain !!)
4 comments:
No link to the Editorial Nick..
Here it is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/19/russia-putin-trade-human-rights
thanks James - fixed
The Russians and Chinese have been flooding comment boxes for years. The Russians, not the Israelis, are probably the originators while the Chinese just seem like unplanned kneejerk nationalism.
While the Chinese always bring in the highest quantity, they always have the hilariously lowest quality. The Russians are better but you can usually tell them by their grammar.
The Koreans can put on a good show too if you hit the right subject.
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