RUSSIA'S LATEST CULTURE WAR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 005365 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/13/2017 TAGS: PGOV KCUL KDEM SOCI RS SUBJECT: RUSSIA'S LATEST CULTURE WAR REF: MOSCOW 3971 Classified By: Ambassador William J. Burns. Reason: 1.4 (d). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) A paean to President Putin on his 55th birthday by one of culture's grand old men, film director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov, has revealed fault lines in the cultural community similar to those that are all too apparent among the country's political classes. Mikhalkov's film hagiography of the President, shown on Putin's October 7 birthday, and a subsequent complimentary letter written by Mikhalkov, purportedly on behalf of the country's cultural figures, triggered an angry response from those who said Mikhalkov did not speak for them. On November 11, Mikhalkov struck back with an emotional television interview on Russian government television. The exchanges have captured the pride that some cultural figures feel in Russia's recent ascent, and the discomfort that others in that community experience when cultural values are too closely linked to a national ideology that they see as increasingly undemocratic. Underlying the exchanges are the standard collection of unsettled scores, opportunism, and memories, still fresh for some, of times when the government and artists close to it used their power to squash those they disagreed with. End summary. Happy Birthday, Mr. President -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The current controversy began on October 7, Putin's 55 birthday, when well-known film director and actor Nikita Mikhalkov offered a film paean to the President. In the film,"55," Mikhalkov's velvety voice extols Putin for the stability and hope he has brought to Russia. Putin is shown in a fighter jet and as a confident leader on the international stage. Also on display is his deft touch with the common folk as Mikhalkov intones "a great many people in our country entrusted their lives to him, and he has repaid that trust." Later, Mikhalkov summarizes: "We live at a time when Russia is on the mend. Recent positive changes are the result of the work of our President." In what has become a staple of virtually every such effort to glorify the present, the stability of the Putin years is contrasted with the chaos of "perestroika," the wild '90s, the first Chechen war, and random terrorist attacks. The catalytic moment, for Mikhalkov, was Putin's Munich speech, when the President "declared our national interests and pointed out what prevents us from realizing them." ¶3. (SBU) Mikhalkov followed "55" with an open letter to the President, published on October 16 in the government national daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta. The letter was signed by Mikhalkov, Academy of Arts President and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, Academy Vice President Teymur Salakhov, and St. SIPDIS Petersburg Arts University Rector Albert Charkin "on behalf of 65 thousand cultural workers." The four tell Putin that they have been besieged with requests from all parts of Russia that he "continue your important work as President," and "persist in your carefully thought out plan, that will guarantee stability, the flourishing of Russian national culture, and the continuation of the best traditions of Russian art." Cultural Empire Strikes Back -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Shortly after the publication of the letter, Mikhalkov appeared on a popular evening political debate program "To the Barrier," where he argued that the film was a private matter and that he had every right to express his opinions. Mikhalkov's opponent, writer Viktor Yerofeev described "55" as mortar for the shrine being built to Putin, and an unwise gesture by such a well-known cultural figure. "If it were a private matter," Yerofeev continued, "you should have made a cassette, put it in an envelope, and sent it to Putin." Pressed by Yerofeev, Mikhalkov downplayed the letter, saying that it had been written three months earlier and that, while he had supported the idea, he had not read the text carefully. ¶5. (SBU) Further reaction to Mikhalkov's film and letter was not long in coming. Author Irina Petrovskaya in the national daily Izvestiya compared "55" to "Tale of a Communist," a 1976 kitsch tribute to CPSU General Secretary Brezhnev on his 70 birthday. Petrovskaya examined the texts of both films and found uncanny similarities in the language and in the delivery of narrator Mikhailkov and "Tale of a Communist" narrator, actor Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy. (In an interesting sidebar to the article, Izvestiya Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Mamontov, according to Petrovskaya, delayed publication of MOSCOW 00005365 002 OF 003 the article for several days in order not to spoil Putin's fifty-fifth.) In a subsequent article, Izvestiya Cultural Division Editor Yelena Yampolskaya defended Mikhalkov, who had "known (Putin) for eight years," and described the tone as "appropriate for a birthday greeting to a head of state." ¶6. (SBU) Other cultural figures were quick to join battle. Actors Oleg Basilashvili, Sergey Yurskiy, artist Yuriy Avvakumov, scholar and SPS federal troika member Marietta Chudakova, and playwright Aleksandr Gelman wrote an "anti-letter" to Putin accusing Mikhalkov and company of servility and hypocrisy. They appealed to Putin to leave when his second term ends, and to refuse the temptation to resort to "tricks" in order to remain in power. Essayist and PEN Club member Lev Rubinshteyn for his part asked Rossiisskaya Gazeta Editor Vladislav Fokin to publish his letter disassociating him from Mikhalkov and company. Mikhalkov Objects -------------- ¶7. (SBU) On November 11, a seemingly unfazed Mikhalkov appeared at the end of the Russian government television program "News of the Week." He expressed astonishment that "democrats" would attempt to prevent him from congratulating the President on his birthday, and offered a spirited advertisement for Putin, who had "raised his voice against this international chaos to defend Russia's interests." Mikhalkov asserted that there would be no order in Russia without a "vertical of power," and argued for a continuation of the course charted by Putin. Culture and State -------------- ¶8. (C) In addition to the sheer chutzpah of speaking for 65 thousand cultural workers without first asking their opinion, the swift and vocal reaction of some to Mikhalkov's letter may have been triggered by the biography and personality of its author. Mikhalkov comes from a family whose members have been loyal, and loyally rewarded, servants of the Russian - Soviet - Russian state. (His father authored the Soviet and Russian national anthems.) Mikhalkov is a member of the Ministry of Defense's Public Chamber and he recently received much media attention when he set sail on a promotional cruise with the Russian navy. ¶9. (C) Although Mikhalkov insisted in his November 11 interview that his films have never been designed to curry favor with the regime du jour, he has always chosen his subjects carefully. His most recent effort, "12," tells the story of a Russian special forces soldier who adopts a Chechen orphan whose parents have been murdered by Chechen bandits. The soldier is in turn murdered and the Chechen boy tried as the perpetrator. The film makes a powerful statement on the virtues of a jury trial, accompanied by a message for support for Putin's Russia. Director Mikhalkov chose actor Mikhalkov to play the role of jury foreman who, at the critical moment in the jury's deliberations, offers his word "as an artist" to cast his vote with the others. When the rest of the jury find that insufficient, Mikhalkov offers his word as "an (FSB or military) officer" and all immediately sign on. In the epilogue, officer Mikhalkov is shown taking the boy under his wing, and preparing to dispatch justice to those who killed the boy's adoptive father. The jury member who initially voiced doubts about the boy's guilt is shown in the epilogue to be devoutly Russian Orthodox; allowing the film to make the point that Orthodoxy and the State are the twin pillars of justice, while officer Mikhalkov's protection of the Chechen boy re-states the traditional colonial relationship between Russia and its little brothers on the southern flank. Mikhalkov during the week of November 5 staged a much-publicized private screening of "12" for Putin and Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov. Putin publicly praised the film. ¶10. (C) For others, a too cozy relationship between culture and the state is a source of anxiety. They point to Minister of Culture Sokolov's October 8 decision to prevent 17 works of art from traveling to Paris for the "Sots-art" retrospective. In comments that reminded many of Khrushchev at the famous bulldozer exhibition, Sokolov in stopping their shipment said: "This art disgraces Russia." The October 8 ban was preceded by a decision to block the travel of nine works intended for the "Learning from Moscow" exhibition at the Dresden State Gallery. The Sakharov Center's provocative exhibitions have brought it legal and financial trouble, some of it instigated by a Russian Orthodox Church unhappy with the Center's "blasphemy." Director Yuriy Samodurov describes the Center as on the verge of bankruptcy, although it is not clear how much of its current problems are a by-product of his reportedly inept management. Other figures who have MOSCOW 00005365 003 OF 003 tangled with the Russian state include writer Vladimir Sorokin, whose novel "Blue Lard," triggered an obscenity trial that dogged him for more than one year. Comment -------------- ¶11. (C) The public argument over culture and the state reprises in a different vein a late-summer argument about religion and the state (reftel). In both cases, the participants attempted to unsystematically define through the media where the state ends and where culture or religion should rightfully begin. The most recent argument has been muddied by the ongoing election campaign and by the personalities of some of its participants. Mikhalkov is a sincere advocate of a great Russian state, but his decision to link his aspirations for Russia to the personality of President Putin in the middle of an unsettling succession process has made a calm conversation at this time impossible. BURNS