aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Slavic vs. Eurasian: another view

[Jurij Dobczansky <jdob@loc.gov>]

Dear colleagues: 
      Thanks to Myroslava Znayenko and Larissa Onyshkevych for alerting
us to the issue of renaming the AAASS and the possible non-scholarly
motivations behind this movement. In this morning's Washington Post Anne
Applebaum "What Are The Russians Buying?"raises the spectre of Russian oil
money entering American think tanks and scholarly centers. Among those
mentioned in her essay: my own institution --the Library of Congress,
Woodrow Wilson Center, Richard Nixon Center...
    Is the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
next in this list? Or is it already "under the influence" of the Eurasian
(read Russian) oil tycoon/government conglomerate?  

What Are the Russians Buying?

By Anne Applebaum
THE WASHINGTON POST, Wednesday, December 14, 2005; A29

Even here in Washington -- a city populated by lobbyists who once held
political office and government officials who once worked as lobbyists --
it's hard to top the story of Gerhard Schroeder. Last week the former
German chancellor announced that he'd accepted a job offer from Gazprom,
the state-controlled Russian energy mega-company. As one of his last acts
in office, Schroeder signed an agreement to build a diplomatically and
environmentally controversial Baltic Sea gas pipeline from Russia to
Germany. Now he's working for the company that will build it. It's as if
Jimmy Carter had negotiated the return of the Panama Canal to Panama --
and then signed a lucrative contract to manage the shipping lanes.

But there's more here than just the former German chancellor's quest for
personal enrichment -- or funds to pay alimony to his three ex-wives. The
story also reflects the growing international power of Russian money. Much
like the Saudis, who spent the 1970s buying up London real estate, the
Russian tycoons spent their first decade of billionaire-hood sunning
themselves in southern France and crowding the slopes at Gstaad. And just
as the Saudis eventually learned to make more fruitful use of their money
-- putting prominent Americans on lucrative boards, donating money to
their favorite causes, even befriending their wives -- the Russians, too,
have now realized that petrodollars go a long way.

What they've been seeking so far is respectability of the sort that will
help Americans overlook their murky origins and will win Russian companies
coveted listings on Western stock exchanges. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil
tycoon in prison in part because he got too good at this sort of thing,
gave big chunks of money to the Library of Congress. In return, the
librarian of Congress hosted a party for his foundation. A similar desire
for respectability compelled Vladimir Potanin, another Russian magnate, to
become a patron of the arts. In return, the Guggenheim Museum in New York
put him on its board.

This year the Woodrow Wilson Center -- a federal institution that raises
some funds privately and that encompasses the Kennan Institute for
advanced Russian studies -- even gave a "Corporate Citizenship" award to
Vagit Alekperov, chairman of Lukoil, another energy mega-company. At the
award dinner, James Langdon of the D.C. law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer &
Feld lauded Alekperov as "an innovator and leader," which suited all
concerned. Alekperov, a man who with amazing speed acquired 10 percent
ownership of a company whose reserves may match those of Exxon Mobil, got
his credibility. The Wilson Center raised some $400,000, mostly from
U.S. oil companies, at that dinner. Fred Bush, chief fundraiser for the
center, says of the new Russian billionaires that he's "happy to have
their money" and wishes they'd give more.

Others point out that it's better for Russian moguls to support Russian
scholars than to fritter their money away buying lift tickets. The
suggestion of influence does cause some discomfort, particularly since
many Russian companies aren't exactly independent of the Russian
state. Last week Paul Saunders, executive director of the Nixon Center,
furiously denied a Russian newspaper report of Kremlin plans to set up a
think tank, funded by the Russian government and Russian oligarchs, in
conjunction with the center, which is affiliated with the Richard Nixon
Library and Birthplace. Saunders admits that the Nixon Center accepts
"small" amounts of money from Russia, but he issued a statement calling
the Russian journalist who wrote the story a "specialist in black
PR." Blair Ruble, director of the Kennan Institute, also worries that some
might think his scholars are influenced by Russian money, and he admits to
having questions about donations from Lukoil and other Russian
companies. He says he doesn't allow donors to have any influence over
research. Besides, when someone such as Schroeder goes to work for
Gazprom, Ruble says, the argument against accepting Russian money "becomes
harder and harder to make" to fundraisers and boards of directors.

Generalized paranoia -- and in particular the assumption that anyone
expressing an opinion about anything is being paid to do so -- is probably
the least attractive attribute of Russian political culture, and I'm not
going to indulge in it here. But Schroeder's new job should raise
awareness that there may be some mixed motives out there: If nothing else,
Russian companies, like their Saudi and indeed American counterparts, have
now made it known that they'll reward their friends.

applebaumanne@yahoo.com

 2005 The Washington Post Company

  
===============================================================                
Jurij Dobczansky, M.L.S.                                                    
Senior Cataloging Specialist & Recommending Officer for Ukraine
Social Sciences Cataloging Division                                         
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E-mail: jdob@loc.gov                                                        
========================== OPINIONS ARE MY OWN ================