Dmitriy Medvedev, along with his partner Barack Obama, handled the spy scandal that threatened the reset so quickly, that he — having once already turned to the quote from the American film classic, «I’ll be back,» — could easily have appeared before the cameras (in the sense of movie cameras) with the words: «Medvedev. Dmitriy Medvedev.» Even at a meeting in the MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs) with ambassadors and permanent envoys, he cited the present-day level of relations with the United States as an example to Russian diplomats: In all other directions, they must act in exactly the same way.
It is hard to say whether he was understood by the grey-haired veterans of the foreign policy front.
The Stalinist grandeur of the
As a rule, in the fiery statements of the MFA, like secret code on paper, there is always the trace of the USSR heraldic seal that shows through, which is resplendent on the facade of the multi-story building. And ever since the end of those accursed 1990’s, the ambassadors themselves are always taking pride in their country. In presenting awards to the diplomatic workers, Medvedev himself told them about this returned «sense of pride.» (He also noted as a quality of the inherited dignity of Russian foreign policy its ability to repeat the twists and turns of domestic policy, and this sounded rather effective in the context of the rich history of Stalinist diplomacy, including the repressions in the diplomatic corps and the Cold War.) In general, the time of outstanding ambassadors has now passed, and the ball is now ruled by the so-called career diplomats. I would say that their slogan is the outstanding phrase uttered by one of the ambassadors in one of the important CIS countries, addressed to a prominent television commentator who was appealing to him, a favorite of the Kremlin: «Don’t drag me into it.» But now, the president himself is dragging the diplomatic corps into some kind of modernization and «special modernization alliances» with Europe, America and Asia.
In this sense, the preservation of the reset in untouched form is sooner an achievement of the presidents themselves, than of their special and diplomatic services.
There is an optimistic conspiratorial version, according to which Obama staged this whole incident on purpose, in order to separate the flies from the cutlets: That is, «Putin’s spies» from «Medvedev’s technocrats.» But, most likely, the sophistication of the American President in this story is being somewhat exaggerated: It was simply necessary to convert the undelicate work of the special services — whose heads are on backwards not only in Russia, but also in the US — to the benefit of the reset, and to pass off the failures in relations as advantages. The naive fairy-tale statement of Joe Biden about the four «fighters for freedom» — three of whom simply violated their oaths, and one generally fell under the wheel of history thanks to the idiocy of the chekists (secret service agents) — gave the exchange a flair of high politics, which, judging by all, was not at all present in this hapless case. But what there was an abundance of was some unthinkable reciprocal services.
Here is only one example: It would seem that an act of amnesty on the part of the president in regard to the four spies, in quotes and without, certainly did not predetermine any further exchange: The amnestied person could easily have gone free and continued living in his own historic homeland. But he (they) for some reason were also exchanged not so much for fighters on the invisible front, as for unskilled children of chekists. The level is entirely different: If Igor Sutyagin was in some sense reminiscent of a «hooligan» from the well-known poem, Anna Chapman was certainly no Luis Corvalan. The Foreign Intel ligence Service has run very shallow. In about the same way as the FSB (Federal Security Service), which was happy in recognition of the fact that now, according to the new tragicomic law, it can protect the population...
In short, as a result, the reset did not suffer, and Medvedev could tell the elderly MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of International Relations) members with pride in himself: «The results of that goal-oriented work in the American direction prove that, even in a short interval, it is possible to change the situation... Such a rhytm really can be applied also in regard to a number of our other partners.» Obviously, there was not a word about the spy scandal. Everything there is already clear to everyone.
What is this — a change of the foreign policy vector, the foreign policy doctrine, with all of the words of consolation about pride for one’s country and the inadmissibility of imposing standards of democracy? Most likely, there is something else here. On the cloak-and-dagger background of the skillfully extinguished spy scandal, which left its own savory bit of truth and even — thanks to lady Kushchenko-Chapman, an erotic subtext — Medvedev continues to build his coalition for modernization. And he is seeking allies in the face of the diplomatic community. Giving unto Caesar what is Caesar’s — that is, to Putin the chekists. While not hindering the promotion of laws expanding the powers and authorities of the FSB, the president is concentrating on those spheres where he is accompanied by success and where he can theoretically get support.
Despite the traditional flexibility of the backbones and cynicism of the post-Soviet diplomats, Medvedev, judging by all, numbers them in this coalition, and not in Putin’s. The prominent American diplomat and scientist, George Kennan, noted that a «gross and effective tactical realism» is characteristic of Soviet diplomacy. Evidently, it is specifically on these qualities of the domestic diplomatic corps that the head of state in relying, increasing wages of MFA workers, showering them with a rain of medals and awarding them the heraldic seal of the ministry, with depiction of two palm leaves on them, which are in fact more reminiscent of a raven’s feathers...
