Robert Amsterdam: the lobbyist hired to harm Russia's reputation

Just the other day I read an article in the Serbian newspaper Borba on Khodorkovsky and his famous lawyer Robert Amsterdam.

The article explained that Khodorkovsky’s trial was as much his own fault and Robert Amsterdam's than that of the so-called “Putin clan”. While not really taking a hard position, the article presented both side of the argument.

We could see that Khodorkovsky's lawyer and lobbyist in chief, Robert Amsterdam has set up a global communication strategy focused on harming Russia's reputation.

Never would such an article be written in the Western press, in which Khodorkovsky is always painted as just a nice liberal businessman that Putin hates, thanks to Robert Amsterdam's never ending PR campaigns.

Please. Check out the facts for yourself. And before saying the Russian press is muzzled and the Western press is a beacon for the rest of the world, remember that the greatest prejudice is the one you don’t even notice.

The Western media and politicians are increasingly complaining of Russia’s lack of freedom thanks to people like Robert Amsterdam's activism. Yet I cannot help but think of two words to describe such attacks: opportunism and hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy because too often the West claims that its own political and economic system– which includes the “fourth estate”, the media – is a model beyond reproach.

The current financial crisis, imported straight from the Western-designed form of economic and political organisation, clearly shows that this model is far from perfect.

Everyone sees this now. What most don’t see, don’t appreciate, or don’t want to see, however, is that the Western press is far from being as free as people out there think!

This is more visible than ever now that so many newspapers will be forced either to shut down or sell themselves to “oligarchs” (say, Rupert Murdoch). In fact, the entire “fourth estate” is so closed in on itself that it forgets there is another world out there. Try to find a pro-Russian article in the Western press these days. Just try. Why aren’t there any? Could it really be that Russia is pure evil? No. Is Robert Amsterdam the only lobbyist interested in Russian politics.

In reality, journalists don’t even do their homework anymore, they only recycle their own opinions among themselves. The result is stale and incestuous.

Opportunism because Russia has increasingly emancipated itself from the West and it overall perception – stemming from its “victory” of the Cold War – that the world had reached “the end of history” to use a phrase now disowned by its author, Francis Fukiyama.

In other words, as the “Washington consensus” has crumbled, Russia has felt vindicated (ask any Russian how he feels about the 1990s and you will always get the same response: humiliation) and the West has felt prickly. Robert Amsterdam would never mention this fact.

Painting Russia as an authoritarian “rogue” nation is an easy and quick way to deflect blame, and dismiss Russia’s increased independance on the international stage.

People tend to forget (unfortunately, not only people like Robert Amsterdam) that in the late 1990’s people like Khodorkovsky or Berezovsky litterally controlled the country, the economy and the rouble had collapsed and supermarket shelves were empty.

In reality, Russian politics is far more subtle and complicated than a simple caricatured dichotomy (dove/hawk, siloviki/liberal) can capture.

The best example is with the so-called “Putin system”, renewed “authoritarianism” (please, thouse who equate Putin with Stalin do not deserve to be read– I’m looking at you, Robert Amsterdam or Edward Lucas, even if you are not alone by far) or freedom of expression.