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الدمى الروسية أم الدمى الأمريكية؟

Jan 3, 2023 Nina L. Khrushcheva

موسكو – لقد أمضى الغربيون عقدين من الزمان يتساءلون عن سبب وقوع الشعب الروسي تحت تأثير فلاديمير بوتين. فقد فشل الدبلوماسيون والمؤرخون والاقتصاديون والنقاد في تقديم تفسير مُقنع ومنطقي. ولكن حيث فشل الأكاديميون والإستراتيجيون، ربما تنجح شخصيات برنامج شارع سمسم، من كيرميت الضفدع إلى إلمو.

كان ذلك عام 1996. كانت بلادي في خضم "العلاج بالصدمة" - التحرير السريع للاقتصاد وخصخصة بمرسوم، بعد سقوط الاتحاد السوفيتي - وكنت آنذاك في برينستون أعمل للحصول على شهادة الدكتوراه. ذات يوم، لفت انتباهي تقرير عن روسيا على شبكة سي إن إن. وعلى غير العادة، لم يكن الأمر متعلقًا بالقتل أو الاستيلاء على الشركات أو صعود أو سقوط حكومة الأقلية - حيث تم تقديم تغطية سلبية بنبرة متعالية نجحت دائمًا في إثارة غضب شديد. وبدلاً من ذلك، تبدو قصة إيجابية: كانت الدمى المتحركة متجهة إلى موسكو.

لكن عندما استمعتُ إلى التعليق المتعالي والمتعجرف لمقدم برنامج على شبكة سي إن إن، سرعان ما تحول شعوري بالارتياح إلى شعور بالإحباط. لم يكن صنع برنامج "شارع سمسم" في روسيا، على ما يبدو، مثالًا على التلقيح الثقافي المتبادل، الذي تم تمكينه من خلال انفتاح البلاد. بدلاً من ذلك، ستؤمن الشخصيات الكرتونية المعروفة مثل ميس بيجي وبيج بيرد ترسيخ المشاعر الديمقراطية الأمريكية في قلوب وعقول الأطفال عبر الحيز الواسع من مرحلة ما بعد الاتحاد السوفيتي - ليس فقط في روسيا، ولكن أيضًا في استونيا وأوكرانيا وجورجيا وغيرها من الجمهوريات السوفيتية السابقة. بعدها قمت بتغيير القناة.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 6 Comments on this article

Hans Van Mameren Jan 9, 2023

When Putin stated that “Who does not consider the Fall of SU as the greatest disaster of the 20th century has no heart. And who wants to re-instate it has no brain.” This is fully misunderstood in the West.

I was in St Petersburg many times in the nineties and have seen the despair of Russian people. Old woman laying on the stairs of the underpass at Nevsky, selling their last belongings to get some vodka so that they could forget. Seeing how gangs were present on the streets. Stretch limos with the De vory bosses ignoring any law nor rule. To see such a Great Culture in such state is heartbreaking. The economic shock therapy Harvard MBA’s and looting bureaucrats committed to Russia is the same as Electro-shock therapy once common in psychiatry. It doesn’t cure, it destroys.

Putin is the creation of what the West has done to Russia in the Nineties. For Russia he was part good. America still not understands. The same despair you now see on many streets in US with all its junks and homeless will also be solved the same way as Putin had to do. The “Hard Way”. But the impact on the Global system will be much bigger.

US is much deeper and further intertwined in the Global Economy. We will be walking along the edge of the Abyss.
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Hans Van Oosterhout Jan 4, 2023

Moving piece. The more I think of the ending of the cold war and the demise of the USSR, the more I become convinced that the shock therapy that Russia was subject to was an important contributing factor to the present autocratic and nationalist Russia.
The great wisdom of the allied forces that won WW2 was that it was critical not to humiliate the countries defeated by them and to help them develop economically and democratically, while respecting endogenous cultural foundations. If something like that would have happened instead of the declaration of the end of history and the concurrent looting of the Russian economy during its process of privatization, I am confident that we would have seen a different Russia today, similar to how Germany and Japan have developed as economically successful and peaceful democracies. In that case, a Russified version of Sesame Street could have coevolved with a reforming society building on a mix of endogenous cultural foundations and carefully developed institutions promoting democracy, the rule of law and prosperity.
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Paul Friesen Jan 3, 2023

With more wisdom at the collapse of the USSR, things could have been so different. The "West" made an enemy of Russia through a thousand insults, big and small, just as it made an enemy of Germany after WWI. That things can be done differently is shown by the aftermath of WWII, when the defeated countries were helped to recover and accepted into the world economic system.

We are making the same mistake with China today. We escalate crises instead of trying to de-escalate. We make unnecessary threats and insults. China is liable to become an enemy that will make Russia look like a small paper tiger.
- Rajiv Chopra Jan 9, 2023
  
  I agree with you
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
- Hans Van Oosterhout Jan 4, 2023
  
  We had the same brainwave reading this article🤓
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
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الدمى الروسية أم الدمى الأمريكية؟

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