Recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia
Sundered Unity of the Russian Media
Author: Tatiana Frolovskaya
Source: RBK Daily, No 162, August 29, 2008, p. 2
A whole generation of the Russian intellectual and ruling elite has no notion of patriotism. 55% of media outlets in Russia welcome recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Public.ru conducted a study for RBK Daily and discovered that only 55% of Russian media outlets hail President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia. All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) meanwhile reported 71% respondents to be in favor of recognition.
Conducting its study, Public.ru scanned publications in nearly 3,000 media outlets. "Their evaluations of what happened being understandably polar, Russia and Western media agree on one thing: neither South Ossetia with Abkhazia nor Georgia with Russia will ever be the same," authors concluded. The intellectual and ruling elite media outlets referred to split into three groups between August 22 and 25, i.e. before the day Medvedev declared recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. About 70% were convinced that Russia should firmly support independence of the republics in question. Less than 10% claimed that it had to be avoided at all costs because recognition would "dramatically boost the Russians' level of self-assessment but damage Russia's image in the eyes of the international community." Approximately 20% were in favor of a course of action that would table the whole matter.
Inertia of Russia's weakness and lack of resolve demonstrated for years on end proved so huge that few believed in recognition even after the plea to do so the parliament addressed to the president. Enemies of recognition were passive on August 25.
Presidential decree appeared twenty-four hours later. "The haste with which the decision was made raised some eyebrows in the expert community," Public.ru reported. Number of publications where experts criticized the decision to recognize the self- proclaimed republics as reckless and hasty rose from 30% to 45%.
The remaining 55% backed the decision.
"Reaction of the elite was predictable," Stanislav Belkovsky of the National Strategy Institute said. "Political responsibility for the outcome of the South Ossetian war was Medvedev's and his decision took the elite unprepared. The elite was convinced that the president would only use the appeal from the upper house of the parliament in bargaining with the West." It is common knowledge that Russia, practically immune as it is to the Western sanctions, has its own Achilles' heel - its ruling class whose financial and other interests are in the West.
Some American executives suggest a revision of the deals the Russian establishment is making in the West and arrest of bank accounts as the most efficient way to hurt Russia.
"Reaction of the media plainly shows that we have a whole generation of the intellectual and ruling elite in Russia these days whose representatives are not patriots at all," Andrei Fursov of the Center for Russian Studies of the Moscow Humanitarian University. "Ordinary Russians are much more patriotic."
