Vladimir Putin has carefully built up a large cadre of Russian youth - called Nashi (official Web site) - who worship their leader an intimidate all opponents of the Russian authoritarian state. Nashi has been particularly energized by Russia's glorious victory over Georgia in the recent Five Day War.
Now some German leftist bloggers and journalists have become de facto branches of Nashi. Take for example the absurd claim by Putin that the US initiated the conflict in order to influence the outcome of US presidential election. Putin's propaganda organ Pravda published the story. The left-wing daily Junge Welt pounced on Putin's statement and offered proof that the US has given Georgia a "Green Light" to commence bombardment in South Ossetia. Furthermore, according to Junge Welt, "only idiots and cynics" would be concerned about the territorial integrity of Georgia. The left-leaning blogger Jens Berger - Der Spiegelfechter - has attracted a wide following with his carefully-written blog posts that "prove" that the west is engaged in a massive cover-up - presumably coordinated by the United States - of the US/Georgia military aggression in the region. Berger has become almost a German edition of Pravda with his pro-Putin / anti-American commentary and analysis.
Der Spiegelfechter has moved into George Orwell's realm in its most recent post, where he charges the German television network with censorship of an interview with Vladimir Putin it broadcast the other night. Accusing the western media of censoring Putin is rich, considering Putin's massive crackdown on freedom of expression in Russia, which apparently also involves the mysterious deaths of respected journalists such as Anna Politkovskaya, and - as reported just today in the New York Times - Magomed Yevloyev, a noted critic of Vladimir Putin. Of particular interest in Der Spiegelfechter post are the admiring photos of Putin and fawning statements of the commenters. Die Nachdenkseiten has now picked up the theme of German media censorship of Putin.
To be fair, some left-leaning sites like Telepolis have balanced their articles on the Georgia conflict with reports from Human Rights Watch on the ethnic cleansing taking place there. But it is instructive to read the numerous comments to the piece: many readers believe that the claims are false and the Georgian victims were really just paid actors.
What's behind this cult of Putin on the German left? Are these authoritarian remnants of the Stalinist past? Thomas Schmid, managing editor of Die Welt, looks for historical explanations in his piece: Why Russia Attracts the Left Even Today:
Die Deutschen neigten spätestens seit Herder dazu, Russland und den Osten zu verklären und ihnen gewisse Rohheiten nachzusehen – oder sie gar insgeheim zu bewundern. Eingeklemmt zwischen dem vermeintlich überzivilisierten Frankreich und dem erdverbundenen Osten, neigte man in Deutschland dazu, über den zivilisatorischen Zwang zu stöhnen – und ostwärts zu blicken. Die Sympathie für Russland hat die Abneigung fast immer überwogen. (Since Herder the Germans have tended to idealize Russia and the East and overlook - or secretly admire - the certain brutality. Stuck between the overcivilized France and the earthy East, Germans have tended to groan under the weight of civilization and look to the East. Sympathy for Russia has always outweighed any aversion.)
See a word or phrase in German, and try to guess the English. http://www.univision.co.za/
Posted by: Television Network | September 01, 2008 at 12:22 PM
I can´t remember in which article I wrote something about any kind of “US-Coordination”. Maybe you can give me a hint ;-)
No one wants to compare the German Media with the Russian Media. “We” are proud of our freedom of press, which doesn´t exist in Russia. If you want to discredit my critics on the German Media with the argument, in Russia everything is even worse, you are missing the point. The Russian Media can´t be the benchmark. We are (fortunately) in Germany and not in Russia.
Posted by: Spiegelfechter | September 01, 2008 at 02:20 PM
@Jens,
Even if it's true that ARD cut some of Putin's interview, do you believe Putin's account of the events in South Ossetia and condone his actions?
Posted by: David | September 01, 2008 at 04:35 PM
@David
If you publish or broadcast an interview with a politican or statesman, you will get subjective answers. You can make an interview with Bush, Merkel, Putin or Mr. Saakashvili - it doesn´t matter. Off course i don´t belive in every word, Mr. Putin says. But most of the shortend content in this interview is not particulary wrong but the Russian position. And if you broadcast an interview with a foreign statesman, it does make sense, at least to communicate his position. Otherwise the reader or viewer can´t form his opinion about the conflict. If you look at the German Media and Mr. Saakashvili, you will notice, that he got serveral oportunities to communicate his position in interviews on German TV. That has nothing to do with left or right, wrong or right - it´s all about preoccupation in the minds of some journalists.
Posted by: Spiegelfechter | September 01, 2008 at 05:01 PM
Spiegelfechter,
when in July Russia cut his oil supplies to the Czech Republic by half (!) just days after the United States signed the missile shield agreement in Prague, German media were nearly unanimously silent about this issue. (Thanks to the IKL pipeline which connects the country with the European pipeline system in Germany, the Russian oil shortfall has been fully offset - another fact not mentioned by German media.)
So according to your logic, I guess German media "were pro-Putin" and therefore the media coverage was "censored". Doesn't sound very convincing to me.
You wrote that Saakashvili got serveral oportunities to communicate his position in interviews on German TV. Sure, but the same goes for Medwedjew and Putin. Let the nitpicking begin! True, Saakashvili was a video guest in the last "Berlin Mitte" program, but there was also former Soviet top diplomat Igor Maximytschew (and, of course, notorious Peter Scholl-Latour and Klaus Mangold who both took a pro-Russian stance). Is the ZDF pro-Russian? David, to get your own picture of the style of the debate in Germany, you can see the whole program until thursday, try
http://maybritillner.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/19/0,1872,1021235,00.html?dr=1
Thomas Roth is an outstanding journalist with profound backround knowledge about Russia and the former Soviet republics and the hysterical reactions and verbal slanders of some wannabe "Russlandversteher" on the Tagesschau blog - "Interview mit Putin im Ersten", http://blog.tagesschau.de/?p=1380 - are rather symptomatic. See also his comment "Von Zensur kann keine Rede sein".
Posted by: Axel | September 02, 2008 at 07:57 AM
I am new here and I was wondering if you could tell me why my account keeps logging out? Is this normal?
Posted by: CHirqui | August 26, 2010 at 11:14 PM