For the paranoia industry, the spectre of Vladimir Putin is the gift that keeps on giving. There’s rarely a situation these days in which many media elements won’t invoke the Russian president’s name.
Shakespeare wasn’t exactly a horror writer, but the bard was
rather fond of using ghosts as plot devices. Arguably the most
famous is ‘King Hamlet,’ the eponymous hero’s late father. The
17th century Poet Laureate, Nicholas Rowe, alleged that
Shakespeare himself had played the ghost in the Danish fable. If
the Royal Shakespeare Company are currently planning a revival,
they could do worse than employ a Vladimir Putin lookalike in the
role. Stratford’s Dirty Duck pub would empty faster than Richard
Burton’s bladder with that kind of attraction nearby.
The Kinks were thinking about a ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’
when they sang: “They seek him here, they seek him
there.” These days, the lyric could be applied to the
Russian president. For much of the Western press, Putin is a
phantom who stalks almost every situation. Indeed, his name is
even invoked in Sports reports about Manchester United.
Overall, the paranoia has reached levels unseen since some
American eccentrics warned of the dangers of a “communist
moon” in the 1960’s, the heyday of both The Kinks and
cranks.
As soon as David Cameron visited Buckingham Palace to inform
Queen Elizabeth that parliament had been dissolved, I just knew
Putin would, unwittingly, play a central role in the current UK
election campaign. However, if it all seems somewhat screwy, just
wait until the US primaries kick off next year. By the time the,
increasingly inevitable, battle begins between the Bush-Clinton
monarchies, the crackpots will most probably have burst the basin
altogether.
Putin - bigger than the Beatles
When I first moved to Russia in 2010, I was immediately struck by
how often then President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin were
on television. In fact, they were so frequently on the Rossiya 24
channel that I dubbed it ‘Putmed TV.’ It turns out that I didn’t
need to travel all the way to Russia for wall-to-wall Putin. He’s
now on BBC, Sky News and CNN as often.
Last autumn, I happened to have an hour to kill at Berlin’s
gigantic Hauptbahnhof (main rail station). On an upper floor,
there’s a huge newsagent with a well-stocked international press
section. Amid a collection of magazines from Argentina to Norway
and Japan to Spain, Putin stared out from, what seemed like,
every second cover. I wasn’t around for Beatlemania but I’ve now
got a fair idea of what it felt like. They used to say that sex
sells, the modern media mantra seems to be that Putin sells
better.
Anyway, it took approximately a week and a half for the UK press
to find a way to knit a Putin-centred narrative into UK election
2015. A UKIP MEP described the Russian president as a “very
nationalist leader” who is “standing up for his
country.” Upon hearing this, many British hacks were
probably like hungry Labradors who’d just seen a particularly
juicy steak hanging from a window. Their two current bête noire
together. The ‘kippers’ and ‘big bad Vlad.’
Putin and Farage – neither went to Oxbridge
The UK media establishment don’t detest UKIP because of its
slightly racist policies. Rather they resent that the party dares
to have leaders who didn’t attend Oxbridge. For some time now,
they’ve been trying to link President Putin to UKIP, hoping that
it might generate mud that would then stick. The policy hasn’t
worked. The entitled types that run the UK press might abhor
Putin but there’s no evidence that the general public do. In
fact, I’ve found that the Russian president is rather popular
amongst many normal British folk.
As my op-eds on Ukraine attest, I dislike hyper-nationalism in
all forms, whether it be British, Russian, Irish or any other
stripe. For that reason, I’m not too keen on UKIP. Nevertheless,
their rise proves that the traditional UK parties have lost touch
with a significant segment of the UK electorate. Also, regardless
of personal discomfort, Nigel Farage’s party has opened a debate
in British politics that was long overdue and for that they must
be applauded.
The MEP in question, Diane James, went on to comment that “I
do admire him (Putin). He’s a very strong leader,” before
adding that she respected him “from the point of view that
he’s standing up for his country.” Ms James then invoked the
spectre of Ukraine, explaining that “he is putting Russia
first and has issues with how the EU encouraged a change of
government in the (sic) Ukraine.”
It’s certainly true that Putin puts Russia first, as all
presidents and prime ministers ought to do worldwide with their
respective countries. After all, it was Russian people who
elected Vladimir Putin, not American neocons or Eurocrats, so why
should he do their bidding? Ms James is also correct in that the
EU helped provoke the “change of government” in Ukraine.
That said, why not call a spade a spade? It was a coup, and a
very obvious one at that. If you dispute my form of words here,
why not ask the “shadow CIA” Stratfor? Their head
honcho, George Friedman called it the “most blatant coup in
history” in an interview with Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
To be honest here, while some UKIP’ers might kind of hero-worship
Vladimir Putin, I doubt the feelings are reciprocated. There’s a
tendency among both the European far-right and far-left
to project Putin as an
image of everything their own leaders aren’t. Strong, decisive
and patriotic are terms that frequently spring forth.
Multicultural Russia
However, in reality Putin is a political centrist. He leads a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country, which is the world’s second largest (after the USA) destination for immigrants. To keep power in his vast nation, he walks a tightrope between copious ideologies and faiths and winds up largely representing ‘middle Russia.’ His own cabinet is far from exclusively Orthodox Christian or Slavic. Indeed, the defence minster - a very powerful job in Russia - Sergey Shoigu is half Tuvan. Shoigu is joined by a smorgasbord of Jews, Tatars, Koreans, central Asians, Armenians and Kavkaz folk in the upper echelons of government, business and society.
Unlike many of the European rightists who express admiration for
him, the Russian president makes a conscious effort to be
inclusive. He attends synagogues, mosques and churches. Also,
Putin isn’t in the habit of slating immigrants to Russia.
Conversely, he’s never suggested that he holds communist
sympathies either. I’m sure this is much to the chagrin of his
left-wing European devotees.
Nevertheless, this matters not a jot to the neo-liberal European
establishment and their media puppets. For these guys, Putin is
the best bogeyman they’ve got now that bin Laden, Saddam and
Gaddafi have exited, stage left, pursued by an eagle rather than
a bear. Never mind, that there’s no actual comparison between the
Russian president and those three, when your system requires a DC
Comics-style bad guy, proportion is a mere hindrance.
Like King Hamlet, the ‘ghost’ of Putin isn’t going to vanish
anytime soon. Rosencrantz and Guidenstern might be dead but
Western paranoia about the Russian ‘threat’ is very much alive.
If you think it’s a little overdone now, just wait until the US
election cycle begins. On that long and winding road,
‘Putinmania’ will hit new heights, no matter what the man himself
does or doesn’t do.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.