The winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE, ended last week. After attending the session, I am convinced more than ever that the West's general attitude toward Russia hasn't changed.
Russia and most former Soviet republics are regularly criticized and subjected to monitoring on human rights violations and are a favorite target for PACE reports. Meanwhile, Western countries, along with the Baltic states, love to play the role of judges and protectors of human rights. They love to play the missionary role of torchbearers of true democracy who bring "civilization" to most former Soviet republics. And we are fed up with it.
That attitude was perfectly illustrated in the PACE report titled "On Freedom of the Media in Europe," which was presented during the latest session. As the title indicates, the report should have been devoted to all of Europe, yet for some unknown reason, the author focused for the most part on problems in Turkey. Of course, the report would not have been complete without mention of Russia and other former Soviet republics, but it somehow finished up without a reference to a single country in "old" Europe. The attitude of the speaker toward "developing countries" was made clear in a regular meeting held to make corrections and amendments to the report.
After hearing the report, the representatives of the "enlightened powers" thanked the speaker for his thorough and objective work. I am sure their bias is not based in malice. It is simply that these reports fit comfortably into their self-serving worldview, which holds that they live in civilized, advanced countries and that somewhere, far away in the East, live primitive people who must be educated in the modern concepts of democracy, rule of law and freedom.
The problem is that the world has changed dramatically in recent years, and a model of behavior that might have been tolerated in the 1990s now elicits nothing but laughter and irritation. I am certain that if the politicians of Western democracies do not find a new, respectful attitude toward Russia and do not change their patronizing tone and language, there will be a complete breakdown in communications and rising tension and irritation between the former Soviet republics and the West. Moreover, there will be a loss of global leadership that will be difficult to restore.
Read more: The West's Flawed 'Civilization Burden' | Opinion | The Moscow Times
No comments:
Post a Comment