Andy Pryce

First Secretary Public Affairs Washington

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Wednesday 17 September, 2008

Does a (lack of) public debate influence priorities?

Joshua Keating has posted this on Russian warnings.

The Russians have become increasingly assertive over recent years on a number of fronts. 

Remember the Estonian cyber-attack? Tariffs on timber exports? Cold war style flights? We have had the Polish meat stand off, Ukranian gas supplies being off and naked aggression in Georgia. Now they are increasing military links with Venezuela.  
 
One can envisage individual goals for each of these Russian actions. But do readers see all of these activities as part of a larger pattern aimed at a wider objective or piecemeal short-term regional geo-politicing?

Russia has real challenges ahead: a declining population, HIV epidemic, low male life expectancy and falling investor confidence. But the siloviki seem focussed on Russia's borders and beyond. Would a free press and active civil society mean a greater focus on these priorities?

Posted at 19:55 17 September 2008 by Andy Pryce  |  Comments[2]

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I am going to answer the free press part of this question, which I realize is not completely fair, but I feel that "active civil society" is a bit too vague for my taste. While I do agree that free press is always a good idea, most Western European countries have free press and are faced with the issue of a declining population. I'm unsure whether any degree of press will encourage people to add another member to their family. I would also say these are countries with an active civil society, e.g. Spain and Italy. In regard to HIV and low male life expectancy, I'm sure these are two areas in which greater awareness would be bring about certain change, but the results would not be immediate, and it would take more than just free press to jumpstart a nation into better health and safer sex. I think that Russia has fallen too far from a national health standpoint. Lastly, falling investor confidence is not something, in my mind, that can be remedied by a free press. The past two weeks has made that clear.

Posted by Andy Skogrand on September 22, 2008 at 12:48 AM EDT #

Good points Andy. I should have defined civil society more carefully. Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_society - has a decent definition. I understand that the Russian population is declining at a greater rate than that of other OECD countries. Recent studies have shown that the UK population is set to increase.

Posted by Andy Pryce on September 25, 2008 at 03:57 PM EDT #

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