The independent Russian media is certainly not dead. That is the only conclusion one can draw of this editorial comparison of the leadership styles of President-elect Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, from the Russian newspaper, Gazeta.
The Gazeta editorial not only praises the stake that average Americans have in the political life of the U.S., it frontally attacks recent electoral reforms in Russia that are designed to have the completely opposite effect in their country.
Pointing out that the two young leaders gave major speeches on the same day – Obama his electoral victory speech and Medvedev his first ‘state of the union’ address, The Gazeta editorial says in part:
“Except that Obama addressed fifty million supporters who voted for him, while Medvedev spoke to a thousand legislators, governors, and bureaucrats.”
“When Obama repeated time and again, ‘we,’ ‘us,’ ‘our climb,’ ‘our goals,’ regardless of how sincere these words were, his listeners believed them: “we” – this is the people, the citizens of the United States. It is the citizens, the regular people that the new leader appeals to. They’re the ones who now have “the chance to make change.” And the words that “it can’t happen without you” seemed quite obvious to them.
“But Dmitriy Medvedev couldn’t have said in the Kremlin ‘It will not happen without you,’ even to his select audience. Because after all, even this narrow circle would have been too wide for such comments. Decisions here are made by a far smaller number of people. … The individual opinion of an ordinary person (unlike his abstract “rights and freedoms”) is definitely not about to be taken into account by those at the ‘top.'”
A truly extraordinary editorial from what many Westerners consider a completely tamed Russian press.
EDITORIAL
By Yekaterina Blinova
November 8, 2008
Russia – Gazeta – Original Article (Russia)
The new presidents of Russia and the United States addressed the public on the same day [videos below]. But despite any textual similarities, their show radically different views of the world and approaches to politics.It so happened that the first post-election speech by Barack Obama and the first presidential address of Dmitriy Medvedev were delivered on the same day. Comparisons readily emerged – at least among us. And our commentators didn’t hesitate to quip and compare.
And as far as the outside world goes, millions empathized with Obama’s winning rhetoric, while Medvedev’s speech was quoted, generally with disapproval, only with regard to the events surrounding the missile defense system in Europe.
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