In my view the strongest force of all . . . was that unmistakable sense of unanimity among the peoples of the world that war must somehow be averted. The peoples of the British Empire were at one with those of Germany, of France and of Italy, and their anxiety, their intense desire for peace, pervaded the whole atmosphere of the conference, and I believe that that, and not threats, made possible the concessions that were made. I know the House will want to hear what I am sure it does not doubt, that throughout these discussions the Dominions, the Governments of the Dominions, have been kept in the closest touch with the march of events by telegraph and by personal contact, and I would like to say how greatly I was encouraged on each of the journeys I made to Germany by the knowledge that I went with the good wishes of the Governments of the Dominions. They shared all our anxieties and all our hopes. They rejoiced with us that peace was preserved, and with us they look forward to further efforts to consolidate what has been done.

– Neville Chamberlain, Speech given in Defense of the Munich Agreement, 1938

For some time now, we????????ve been providing Publius readers with various insights into the critical problems of survival facing modern Russia. We????????ve documented epidemic racism, widespread economic crisis and a brutal authoritarian crackdown (including the recent annexation of the nation????????s most important newspaper). We????????ve documented rampant militarism: Russia has been provided weapons to Venezuela, nuclear technology to Iran, financial support to Hamas and Hezbollah and U.S. military secrets to the regime of Sadaam Hussein. There????????s even been talk of an attempted coup by Russia in Georgia, together with various energy blackmail attacks on Ukraine. That????????s to say nothing of Russia????????s critical population loss, the depopulation of Siberia and its potential annexation by China.

Despite all this, though, there are those in the wide world who take a different view of Russia, and U.S. President George Bush isn????????t the only one to have looked into the eyes of KGB spymaster Vladimir Putin and seen something warm and cuddly. Every year about this time, just after dinner, a wide variety of ???????Russia experts??????? have a similar viewpoint, just before their cigars. When we reflect on such ???????analysis??????? and combine it with our memory of incidents like the New York Times???????? Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter Walter Duranty being such a sycophant of the USSR that he simply failed to mention the famine in Ukraine that killed millions in his reporting, then we realize how vital a source of information is the blogosphere, and we realize how important it is to be ever on our guard as to misleading statements in the traditional press.

As Putin was embarking upon his second term in Russia, he hit upon an interesting idea (recall the image of the face of the Grinch just as he got the idea to steal Christmas — you know, that devilish toothy smile that extended from ear to ear): ???????What if,??????? he wondered, ???????I were to invite a bunch of journalists and ???????Russia scholars,???????? flying them in at Kremlin expense, ply them with expensive food and wine, and let them hobnob with the Kremlin bigwigs, including Putin himself. Perhaps they????????d meet first in a luxury hotel, then a cruise ship, then maybe at the posh country estate of Vladimir Vladimirovich himself. Might such an encounter help these foreigners see what a wonderful thing totalitarian dictatorship really is????????

It worked like a charm, and came to be known by the participants as The Valdai Discussion Club. Here????????s what David Johnson, publisher of the Johnson????????s Russia List e-mail, wrote after his second trip to Camp Putin (you can see a picture of the beaming white male faces in attendance arrayed proudly next to Putin above): ???????It was a very positive and useful experience. I think just about everyone who was there found that to be true. It was very good to meet and re-meet some prominent Russians of a variety of political points of view: Vladimir Ryzhkov and Irina Khakamada, who are probably among the most well-known liberal critics of Putin, were there.??????? Of Putin himself Johnson gushed: ???????Putin is an impressive person with enormous energy. He knows a lot about many subjects. I think in some way he is sensitive to the points of view of these foreigners, who he thanked for their long-term interest in Russia.??????? What did the participants learn about Putin? Johnson wrote: ???????My impression is that the Westerners were quite impressed with Putin. The big story that seemed to come out of the meeting was Putin????????s very explicit statement that he would not be running for president again and that they would not be changing the constitution.??????? This was in the immediate aftermath of the Beslan outrage, where dozens of children met a horrifying fate as the Kremlin stood idly by.

Does Putin, who spent his entire life learning how to do so, ever lie? Johnson assured us he does not: ???????I think he communicates with a great deal of sincerity. Of course, one can be skeptical of any politician. Politicians are often very good at talking to people and telling them what they want to hear. And some people think that Putin????????s background in the KGB, where, if you????????re recruiting agents, you have a certain kind of facility in gaining confidence, may have helped him in his current career. But, in general, I think that those of us who had at least this modest chance to observe him and interact with him see him as basically sincere. And that????????s my personal view. In general, even people you disagree with usually say what they believe. That????????s the impression Putin gave.???????

It????????s much more comfortable, of course, to think that Putin is merely misunderstood and badly handled, than it is to think he????????s an evil force bent on our destruction. If he????????s the former, then we????????re in control; we need only adjust our attitudes a bit, and everything will be just fine. We can sleep soundly in our beds. If he????????s the latter, then he????????s in control, and we have to spend sleepless nights worrying how to combat him. Psychologically speaking, it????????s a no brainer. Cuddly Putin it is!

Last week, the third round of the Valdai Experience was convened. As The Washington Post????????s Jim Hoagland reported, the sojourn took place at Putin????????s ???????sprawling dacha in suburban Moscow yesterday. He took questions between servings of octopus carpaccio, baked sea bass and figs with yogurt sorbet, all prepared by his Italian chef and washed down by an unassuming pinot grigio 2005.??????? Foreign wine might have disappeared off the shelves of the common man in Russia due to a bureaucratic fiasco, but just as in Soviet times the ruling elite is unaffected (nor is it belumbered by the need to eat Russian food or even to have a Russian cook).

And the results were just as jolly. Writing in the Moscow Times, Lynn Berry (the paper????????s former editor and another lucky winner of a golden ticket to the affair) quoted one (unnamed) Kremlin official gushing: ???????For us young reformers, Putin is our hope.??????? As for America????????s efforts to block the admission of Russia to the WTO, the official implored ominously: ???????The WTO game is directly related to the siloviki. These people who are playing the game don’t understand what’s going to happen if we don’t get a deal at this time.” We have to get the message across to Bush: ???????Boys, stop drinking Russian blood.??????????????? In essence, in this article the reporter served as the mouthpiece of the Kremlin. The use of the term ???????we??????? is particularly chilling, to say nothing of the image of the U.S. President as a vampire. What more could Putin have hoped for?

A Moscow Times reporter wrote: ???????President Vladmir Putin, speaking at a dinner Saturday, impressed Valdai Discussion Club members as sincere and knowledgeable but left them unsatisfied with his answers to questions about democracy and energy markets. ???????Putin confirmed his image as a competent leader,???????? said Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. ???????He said the right words and created a good impression.??????????????? There were certain things Putin didn????????t want to talk about, and the plumped guests didn????????t press their gracious host. The Moscow Times stated: ???????Paul Saunders, the executive director of the Nixon Center, said he regretted not being able to ask Putin a question about Russia’s arms sales in the Middle East. Cohen said it was unclear how the country would improve relations with Arab leaders in the Middle East, as it has sought to do, while fighting terrorism. Cohen said he would have liked to ask the president about Russian-Georgian relations, strained by conflicts in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.???????

In fact, the visitors were floating so high on the intoxicating Putin aura of absolute power that he could let fly with invective against their countries unabashed. Kommersant reported: ???????Putin spent the rest of the time criticizing the West. In particular, he made new accusations of double standards. According to Alexander Rahr of the German Foreign Policy Council, the Russian President said that the Kremlin would reconsider its policy toward former Soviet states if Kosovo was given the status of an independent state. ???????Only fools would refuse to see that the situations in Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia have the same basis. Everyone understands that we are right,???????? Rahr quoted Putin as saying. In an interview with Kommersant before the G8 summit, official representatives of the U.S. State Department strongly denied any link between Kosovo and the situation in Georgia. In response to a question about the anti-American campaign on Russian television, Putin commented on the sharp criticism of Russia in the American press.??????? The Times of London sighed: ???????Disguised as informal seminars on Russia and the world, they have become bravura performances by a leader whose undisputed power and enduring popularity Tony Blair must envy.??????? Russia Profile observed: ???????In contrast to harsh international criticism of Russia ahead of the G8 summit in July, and unlike similar meetings in the previous years, the usually sharp-tongued experts were put so much at ease by the delicious dinner of octopus carpaccio, langoustine and zucchini lasagna, the choice of baked sea bass with artichoke soup or veal with chanterelle and black truffle fricassee, all followed by warm figs with yogurt sorbet and a selection of deserts, that they hardly asked any hardball questions.???????

Quite a similar thing happened when one Neville Chamberlain visited with one Adolph Hitler in September 1938 (although Hitler may have served gooseberry gelato rather than yogurt sorbet). Chamberlain was convinced that Germany had been ill-treated in the settlement of World War I, and that its aggressive posturing was simply due to a lack of love and understanding, the addition of which would secure ???????peace in our time.??????? Hitler responded, well, we don????????t know what his face looked like exactly, but imagine the image of the face of the Grinch just as he got the idea to steal Christmas, — you know, that devilish toothy smile that extended from ear to ear.

Kim Zigfeld is the publisher of the Russia Blog La Russophobe.