Russia not USSR

Being a part of the considerable audience of the Philippine STAR I wish to refer to two of your articles - Separation and Incoherent, published in your esteemed newspaper on Oct. 21 and 24, respectively. The subject of the two writings is in no way related to Russia; however, they do contain a number of groundless and biased accusations towards our country.

You say, Russia is “no champion of [human rights and civil liberties] values.” So what kind of “sport” is this, and who are those recognized “champions” then? Who managed to achieve those ideal scores? I am afraid, even those nations, who tend to portray themselves as model democracies, are just professional enough in concealing the true scales of various violations. We are starting to learn more of them thanks to the development of independent media.

You are accusing Russia of censorship. What makes you believe so? I hope this is not just another case of confusing our country with USSR. There is no such a governmental body designed to pursue censorship any longer, those times are gone with the wind. There are enough opposition newspapers, radio- and TV -channels nowadays. Even state-owned TV networks hold regular live talk shows engaging opposition activists, where they have every possibility to express their own views: rest assured, Russia’s top leaders – President Putin and Prime Minister Medvedev regularly receive their portion of criticism. During the latest parliamentary electoral campaign, all political forces including opposition leaders were granted equal representation at key state TV channels. Neither there is a restriction on the use of satellite “dish” antennas, anyone may freely subscribe to any world media, should one wish to watch BBC, Fox News, or Al-Arabia.

Finally, there is a lot of room for discussion within social media, and there is no limitation on the Internet use as well.

Saying surveillance, you probably might have confused it with the monitoring, aimed at prevention of hatred, terrorism propaganda and spread of child porn. For your information, the number of Internet users nationwide in the year 2015 according to the data provided by the CIA has exceeded 104 million users, which is over 70 percent of the country’s population.

When you speak with no proper reason about “cronyism, inefficient state capitalism and gangsters,” which have allegedly plagued the country, your impression seems to be overwhelmed with outdated Hollywood-movie-style clichés. Indeed, criminality used to be a major challenge for us back in 1990s, and we managed to take effective measures to fight it, mostly due to Russia’s current leader. The economy is probably not in its best shape as of the moment.

However, it is a hard, but necessary transition on the way from a resource dependent to a diversified model. This is a natural process; anyone can face it, especially in the modern and dynamic global context. No pain – no gain, there should be no illusion about it, and we have already started recovering from the recess. We can already witness Russia’s first economic success: machinery exports have surpassed raw materials exports. The sectors of agriculture, information technologies, space, and defense industry are also demonstrating growth. Our country has become world leader in wheat exports.

At the same time, contrary to your skepticism over Russia’s state of economy, you mention a “massive” military buildup, which is likewise massively exaggerated. Let us compare Moscow’s defense expenditures with the ones of NATO for the year 2015. According to the statistics of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and NATO’s official data, the Organization’s spending amounted to $871 billion, with the US defense budget of $598 billion (or 68.7% of the whole NATO budget), whereas Russia spent only $66 billion.

Further, speaking about “Vladimir Putin’s wars overseas” it is unclear, which exactly you were meaning. There is a number of ongoing armed conflicts – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen; as you can see, all of them have been set by one particular country and/or its closest satellites (Yemen) violating the international law in most cases. Russia has no relation to them, except for Syria, where in September 2015 Moscow had to engage its Aerospace Forces to fight the ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra Front, and other militant movements, designated by the UN Security Council as terrorist organizations, to which the US led coalition had lost vast territories of Iraq and Syria by that time; and defend the only legitimate government under its elected President Bashar al-Assad, likewise recognized by the Philippine government (both former and incumbent ones).

Meanwhile, Russian presence in Syria is limited to the Aerospace Forces mission, carried out with the use of hi-tech and least expensive methods and equipment. It does not involve extreme expenditures, which anyway are approved and entirely backed by Russian taxpayers. This broad popular support to the ruling United Russia party, and the current national leadership was manifested at the recent parliamentary elections on September 18, 2016.

On the other hand, if you are trying to refer to a possible Russian engagement into hostilities in Ukraine, so kindly be reminded that that is a civil war, waged by Kiev government against its own people. After the unconstitutional coup d’etat in Kiev in February 2014 Donbas region started to seek legalizing the status of their native Russian language (predominantly spoken in the whole Ukraine), right to elect their regional and municipal authorities (as it is practiced in the Philippines), and fair allocation of budget funds. The Kyiv regime instead sent its armed forces to oppress its people’s claims, which actually fully complied with the international humanitarian law. As the result, thousands of Donbas residents were killed. Russia never sent its regular troops to Ukraine. Those Russian nationals, who volunteered to join the Donetsk and Lugansk forces, did it on their own will defending their relatives and family members in the Eastern Ukraine. According to the Minsk Agreements Russia is not a side of the conflict. Accusing our country of an armed invasion the Ukrainian government did not even bother to declare a war or cut diplomatic relations with Russia. Instead, the Kiev authorities continued bargaining for a better discount for Russian gas supplies.

Your newspaper has a reputation of a reliable and respectable source. The subject of the both writings is in no way related to our country. It is completely unclear why Russia became an object of such libel and gossips as described above. I will even refrain from commenting on the way you called Russia one of “BFFs of Du30”, this just sounds like low profile tabloid-style language, rather disappointing for a press of your level.

The time has come to get rid of incoherent views and prejudice and to separate seeds from weeds, to distinguish analysis (a case followed by a thorough fact based study) from propaganda (a fiction interpretation supported by carefully selected “comfortable” facts). We hope that your press will choose the proper track.

My country does not need anyone’s applauds or praise. The important is to ensure impartial coverage based on objective sources. We would like to urge you to stay away from irresponsible journalism based on rumors and speculations.

I hope this letter to be published by the Philippine STAR. The embassy of the Russian Federation is open to contacts and partnership with you and will be ready to assist in any matters concerning objective and truthful coverage of the events related to Russia. – Ilya Perenkov, Press Attache, Russian Embassy