But is it too late to change the established narrative?

The BBC reports that “that Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on its breakaway region of South Ossetia in August”.

Yet the old line about one-sided Russian aggression persists in strength, and spreads to Eastern Europe.

Yet another casualty of the credit crisis: prices for Western European politicians have plummeted.

What is the world coming to when a nouveau riche Russian aluminium baron can be suspected of buying an old-schooler-than-thou UK shadow chancellor, member of Oxford's elite Bullingdon club and heir to the third Osborne Baronetcy, all for a bargain $80000?

Naturally, Gideon George Oliver Osborne denies any impropriety occured on Oleg Deripaska's yacht off the coast of Corfu, and that the whole incident was but an innocent mistake precipitated by the poor judgement of his old Oxford and Bullingdon pal Nat Roschild.

Despite all the pious if eloquent incantations by Edward Lucas (and a little ironic coming from a writer for the supposedly cold-headedly & rational Economist), it must be heartening for Russian oligarchs to know that money still talks, or is at least capable of making the second most senior opposition politician in the UK so hurry to meet his appointment with Deripaska as to very un-Britishly trample over a beach full of swimmers with his motor boat.

(courtesy Martin Rowson)
And for those inclined to dismiss these sorts of plutocrat romances as traditionally Conservative indiscretions, consider the case of Peter Mandelson.

Indeed, our poor Deripaska has been caught in an improbable menage a trois with both Labour and the Conservatives: a moving case of love (of money) superceding ideology.

It must be said that, for all his superiour breeding, Osborne did the roguish thing and tried to publicly wash his hands of the affair, while Mandelson remained admirably tight lipped, no doubt to preserve Deripaska's maiden honour.

Nothing to do with preserving the quickly evaporating semblance of legitimacy surrounding Mandelson's recent decision, as EU trade commissioner, to slash aluminium tariffs by half from 6% to 3%, after a party aboard Deripaska's luxury yacht.

So legendary has Russian generosity to Western politicians become that even the Americans wanted in on the deal, with none other than John McCain asking the Russians for a donation, albeit apparently by mistake.

Dig a little deeper, however, and it turns out that McCain's campaign strategist Rick Davis has had close dealings with, you guessed it, Mr Deripaska.
For all the sleazy visuals of MPs begging at the table of a foreign businessman, it's impossible not to see the huge firestorm that has erupted in English politics over their politicians’ sordid dealings with Russian business interests as rather quaint.

The Deripaska affair has been Britain's ‘Jeremiah Wright moment‘: after a decade of Western captains of industry wining and dining Russian politicians into sweetheart deals and reforms that benefited Western investors,  the chickens have come home to roost.

 

This weekend, the liberal think tank INDEM issued a new warning that the country was headed towards a ‘developmental dictatorship’.

But Russia wasn't in the mood: it was mourning Muslim Magomayev.

Magomayev was the original Soviet mega-star. Throughout the 1970s, he routinely filled stadiums and garnered scores of hysterical groupies, not an easy feat in Brezhnev's USSR. He was a uniquely Soviet product: an Azerbaijani Muslim rising to fame in Christian Russia.

Understanding the huge outpouring of grief for Magomayev is key to understanding Russia's national psychology. What my parents’ generation is mourning provides vital clues to who they are and what they want - their values, and by extension, Russia's values.

Magomayev was many things: a quintessential dandy who also happened to be a People's Artist of the USSR; a trained opera singer with a Sinatra's showman touch; a brilliant scion of an family of artists and musicians in an ardently ‘class-less’ society; a globe trotting cosmopolitan performing at La Scala and to sell out crowds at the Paris Olympia whilst remaining a steadfast Soviet patriot who always came back; a consumate gentleman and a sex symbol in the officially sex-less Soviet Union; a ‘national treasure’ moving in the poshest echelons of Moscow society, without giving up his deep ties to his native Baku.

Lev Leschenko called Magomayev “the one and only, he gave people new hopes, and all of our country sang his songs — he was a great singer, a great artist”.

Magomayev was clearly a patriotic figure, but not the boring hamfisted sort of patriot so lionised by the puritanical and hypocritical Brezhnev times. He was mischievous, conscious of his own magnetism, impeccably dressed, and faintly resembled Mastroianni. He sang popular songs in Italian, French and English to an audience thirsty for a hint of glamour and a glimpse of the West - but without being a dissident.

Far from the insular and suspicious inward-looking and anti-Western power it is portrayed as being, the USSR of the 1960s and 70s was a society that saw itself firmly as a cultural, intellectual and social part of continental Europe. Indeed, in many respects, the USSR was more integrated into the socio-cultural framework of Europe than was the US.  How many in  America have heard of the French singer Joe Dassin, yet he was a massive star in the Soviet Union. At the same time, despite all the official bluster, Soviet people were acutely aware of their relative backwardness vis a vis Western Europe in terms of fashion and popular culture, and most importantly, glamour; as well as their lack of access to this world.

Magomayev's acclaim in France and Italy made the Soviet public very proud; it seemed to show not only that the USSR was a part of the European cultural universe, but also that it could hold its head high there.  They may not have been allowed to travel to Paris or Milan themselves but they could see Magomayev, dressed in a foreign made suit, singing Tu Mi Piace or “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg”. They were proud both that he had been begged to stay on by western venues and that chose not to sell out, and came home. After the collapse of the USSR, they were proud that unlike many of his contemporaries (most notably, Kobzon and even Leschenko), Magomayev refused to prostitute his talents, and gracefully faded into retirement.

 

With Russian and American top brass talking again, it looks like the two countries have kissed and made up following the whole Georgia thing.

Or, if you’re US ambassador Beylre, kissed and made out: not only did he recently deny any US intention to punish Russia, but also put a nice gloss on the affair: “There is always an inclination to look at the dark side of things during these periods of strain. I think that sometimes obscures some of the very positive aspects of the joint work that we are doing together in a very positive way”.

Even the New York Times, that pre-eminent peddler of the ‘Evil-Russia-Crushes-Tiny-Democratic-Georgia’ narrative at the time of the conflict, has pulled off a spectacular 180 with a recent article questioning Georgia's democratic credentials. (ESSENTIAL READING ALERT: Mark Ames wrote a typically thoughtful and spot on think piece on this in The Nation).

So, apart from a friendly / passive aggressive nuclear showdown in Europe and two new countries in the Caucasus, it's back to normal, right?

Nearly. The most important rejigging has been very subtle. As this article in the NYT points out, on the fence countries like Azerbaijan have begun to move closer to Russia to avoid Georgia's fate. Moreover, Georgia now maintains a somewhat toxic status, in that neighbouring countries are loath to get too close to it and incur Russian wrath.

So two months on, it seems Georgia is the only loser. America has moved on, Russia has increased its influence, and its neighbours have ostracised it.

This is the price, in the words of an Azeri commentator Rasim Musabayov, of having “a foreign policy that goes against your geography”.

 

Whenever my girlfriend goes home to her native Milan, it does wonders for her Russian.

Wading through the swarm of Slav fashion slaves on Via Montenapoleone packs more listening comprehension than did her entire grad school course.

Last week, she went shopping with her older sister, who wanted to celebrate a recent promotion by treating herself to a nice pair of shoes. Her sister normally dreads buying shoes because, due to her height, she can never find any trendy ones in her size - a 9.5.

Yet, miraculously, the first designer pair that caught her eye ended up unexpectedly fitting!

Over the Russian din, the sales assistant explained to her that despite the pushiness and frequently garish attire of the posh Eastern European clientele, she had them to thank for her shoes' availability. Decades of catering to the diminutive yet voracious Japanese had finally been crushed by the Euro-proportioned Russians.

Say what you will of that country's authoritarianism and international muscle-flexing, Russia has given Italians back their fashion.

—-

OK, if this is looking like yet another puff piece, fear not: there's a deeper economic message.

You wouldn't know it judging by the anecdote above, or by the Ferragamo suits and Porsches that continue to fly out of Moscow's showrooms, but Russia's economy has taken a huge hit from the credit crisis.

For example, "Russia's stock markets are off their May highs by some 65 percent. Troika Dialog now estimates that Petrobras, the Brazilian oil major, can be bought for more than the entire Russian oil industry ‚ a staggering thought for the world's second-largest producer of crude".

But, though it is hugely affected, Russia has been weathering the crisis better than many.

No Houses to Lose

The country's lack of subprime mortgages or for that matter a credit-based consumer economy (cash and debit still being the main forms of payment for individuals) meant that at least no one is being thrown out of their homes. Yet. Indeed, as Vladimir Krendel, an analyst from the Institute of Financial Research in Moscow, was quoted by the Moscow Times as saying, “In Russia, we are comparatively pretty stable. We have not been involved in subprime banking. It used to be a drawback, but now it's our advantage".

Another way that Russia managed to avert the scale of crisis facing the US or neighbouring Ukraine, which has asked the IMF for a bailout, is the key regulatory role played by the state in the economy, and the effective use of Putin's controversial stabilisation fund.

This has allowed it to remain healthy and stable enough to not only avoid the embarrassing IMF loans sought in the wake of the 98 rouble crash, but even bail out Iceland!

In fact, so successful has Putin style economic dirigisme proved, that the West has finally started adopting some of the strategies itself, by partially nationalising the banks.

Nice to Iceland

In a diplomatic coup that has enraged the UK, Russia has pledged a €4billion to help prop up the Nordic country's collapsed economy.

“We have been calling for aid from neighboring countries and have been turned down,” [Iceland's Prime Minister] Thorisson said. “This is looking like the beginning of relations between Russia and Iceland.”

Ouch!! Not only was that a smart propaganda move from Iceland's "new friend', demonstrating its willingness to productively engage with the West , but it could also help Russia's own economic recovery:

"Moscow has unveiled a rescue package for the Russian market worth more than $210billion (£120billion), but analysts say that capital flight may not stop until global financial markets stabilise. Assisting Iceland could help to ensure that happens".

 Not Seen or Heard: The Invisible Majority

Here's something you haven't been reading much of in the Western press: amidst all the column inches devoted to the personal tragedies of oligarchs sliding off the Forbes listings, there's been nary a whisper about, well, EVERYONE ELSE, a.k.a 99.99% of the population.

Such elite economic focus is nothing new, of course,  but it's a sad state of affairs nonetheless. The truth is that despite all the overwhelming dominance of the “wealthy emergent Russia”narrative, living standards have begun to stagnate and costs of living to rise for the majority of the population.

However, type “Russia poverty” or “poverty in Russia” into Google News and the only poverty you’ll find is in the search results.

Yet, the front page of Russia's largest tabloid led (just below the shocking news of the death of ice hockey legend Cherepanov) not with a feature on oligarch finances, the price of stocks, the global financial crisis, or even Medvedev's bailout plan, but the soaring price of bread.

Too bad there's no Porsche in that story, or the LA Times might have picked up on it!

 ”Every blog has the commentariat it deserves”, observed sad young literary man and post-Soviet film critic Konstantin Gessen.

For a long time, this axiom was clearly borne out by many cryptic, subtly menacing, and downright bizarre comments on this blog (eg. “Wasn't easier (sic) to get rid of Saakashvili by buying him a stove made in Iran?” etc).

However, I can now humbly declare Gessen's Law debunked: two recent commenters had demonstrated themselves to be made of better stuff than this organ, determined to shame/goad it to a higher level of discourse.

William Thomson, writes:

While I appreciate the tongue in cheek nature of some of these blog posts I would love to see some serious post about some of the serious issues occurring in Russia these days. The economy of Russia is struggling; the Russians are making overtures to the Cubans and the Venezuelans. The Ukrainian government just dissolved and is likely to shift towards a more pro Russian stance. Germany has made its voice heard in NATO and will more likely then not refuse to push forward on NATO membership for both the Ukraine and Georgia (which may or may not be a good thing). The Russians are attempting to project power with there navy by sending of their most powerful Nuclear Powered Destroyer (which I believe is called Peter the Great) on a tour of the Mediterranean and South America. Putin continues to consolidate the banking industry and economy as a whole in fewer and fewer hands. Russia is becoming a lender of last resort for at least one EU member (Iceland) as the EU proves yet again that it is little more then a useless bureaucratic mess. These are all events and issues currently unfolding, I would love to see some more serious discussion.

Another commenter, Chris Blask, linked to a provocative article by an influential Bulgarian political scientist who suggested that "If The Kremlin Could Vote, It Would Vote For McCain”, and asked an intriguing question: What do you and your readers think about Putin's choice for US president?

My thanks to William and Chris for raising the bar. Let me try to be equal to their demands.

Apart from Medvedev's weblog (only joking), the most momentous topics facing Russia are:

1) International financial crisis
2) Domestic problems
3) Conflict with Georgia
4) US Relations
5) Expanding international role

Over the next few posts, I'll be tackling this list. Unless I get sidetracked by Medvedev's wardrobe…

 

From his love of Deep Purple to his penchant for Savile Row suits, Medvedev's a bit of a Brit at heart.

And today, our Personable Putinist boldly followed his Cuddly Conservative soul-mate into the final frontier….the cyber-frontier!

History was made as President Medvedev became the first head of state to have a Video Blog, or Vlog.

OK, so if you were expecting  Julia Allison, you might have been disappointed, but in many respects, it was a fine effort.

The brief clip, which appeared on Medvedev's official site, features an outline of some of the topics he hopes to address at an upcoming meeting in France.

Despite not being set in Medvedev's kitchen, and the protagonist's rather stiff demeanour, it does aim, like David Cameron's WebCameron, for a direct communication with the audience.
One gripe is that, as the Moscow Times's Francesca Mereu reports, as yet, the Vlog has not enabled comments.

Which is definitely nowhere as macho as David Cameron's vlog, which allowed people openly call him Dodgy Dave and crack jokes about his lack of policies.

Although, in light of what Medvedev's mentor has been known to do to defenceless animals, let alone offensive posters, that ban might have been designed for the commenters’ own protection.