Sir, – The coverage of President Vladimir Putin’s interview with the Financial Times by Irish media, including The Irish Times, has been plentiful. The main theme was that president of Russia “pronounced liberalism dead” and, consequently, liberal values must be defended at all cost against such an atrocity. The Irish Times joined in, denouncing “crude and clichéd portrayal of Europe”, but at least stopped short of a characterisation of Russia as “Upper Volta with rockets” used elsewhere.
All that gives a strong impression that nobody really read the interview (the FT syndicated story by Lionel Barber and Henry Foy, published in The Irish Times of June 29th does not count since it is essentially more their viewpoint on what Putin thinks rather than the president’s own views). If one looks at what the president really said, it will be obvious that he has been reflecting on the political, social and economic transformation of modern times, as well as problems that it creates, including in Russia. It might be interesting to discover that on the “hot issue of liberalism” Putin actually defended this ideology, speaking of the need for diversity:
“It seems to me that purely liberal or purely traditional ideas have never existed. Probably, they did once exist in the history of humankind, but everything very quickly ends in a deadlock if there is no diversity. Everything starts to become extreme one way or another. Various ideas and various opinions should have a chance to exist and manifest themselves, but at the same time interests of the general public, those millions of people and their lives, should never be forgotten. This is something that should not be overlooked.
“Then, it seems to me, we would be able to avoid major political upheavals and troubles. This applies to the liberal idea as well. It does not mean (I think, this is ceasing to be a dominating factor) that it must be immediately destroyed. This point of view, this position should also be treated with respect. They cannot simply dictate anything to anyone just like they have been attempting to do over the recent decades. Diktat can be seen everywhere: both in the media and in real life. It is deemed unbecoming even to mention some topics. But why?
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“For this reason, I am not a fan of quickly shutting, tying, closing, disbanding everything, arresting everybody or dispersing everybody. Of course, not. The liberal idea cannot be destroyed either; it has the right to exist and it should even be supported in some things. But you should not think that it has the right to be the absolute dominating factor. That is the point”.
Against this background, the barrage of editorials criticising the president’s views does really look like a perfect example of “diktat” of liberalism, doesn’t it?
At the very least it would seem natural to expect more tolerance from the people who zealously defend it, objectivity with the facts and willingness to respect opinions of others. – Yours, etc,
YURIY FILATOV,
Ambassador of the Russian
Federation in Ireland,
Rathgar,
Dublin 14.