Screaming Fire in an Empty Theater

On July 19^th, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released an official statement charging that the international journal Foreign Affairs (FA) had “censored” an article submitted by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov.

“An article of Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov was offered to the editors of Foreign Affairs in May for publication. The Russian minister had wanted to directly address the audience of this prestigious magazine to explain Russian foreign policy and our vision of contemporary international relations and of ways to ensure a positive direction in the evolution of bilateral Russian-American relations, including interaction in international affairs.

>>snip

Editors at the magazine, citing their own requirements, subjected the article to heavy editing if not to say censorship.

Subsequently the Minster withdrew the article and then bizarrely posted the Foreign Affairs edited article entitled "Containing Russia: Back to the Future?" on the MFA website implying that Foreign Affairs was restricting the publication of this article, which in fact Lavrov had refused to allow to be published.

“To show the Russian and American publics that there is nothing in the article of Sergey Lavrov that would be harmful for adult Americans to read, below is published its “sanitized” text in the English language . . .

Foreign Affairs magazine promptly responded with their own editorial response in which they flatly denied the allegations and claimed that the MFA had agreed to all of the changes through the process.

“The unfortunate assertions emanating from the Russian foreign minister's office regarding Foreign Affairs are utterly erroneous. The foreign minister's essay on Russian foreign policy was accepted for publication and then put through the magazine's normal editing process to clarify points, eliminate redundancies, and not in any way to change its political content. The edited draft was sent back to the foreign minister with instructions to make whatever changes he felt necessary to convey his intentions — the same instructions given to all contributors. The text was returned with a number of changes, all of which were incorporated into the final draft.

And just when you though the story was already strange enough, the Russian MFA statement concludes:

“The original, “pre-censorship” text of the article will come out in the July-August issue of the journal Russia in Global Politics.

Ok, so let’s check out the Russia in Global Politics website . . . drum roll, first, James Hoge, Jr., the venerable editor of Foreign Affairs is on the editorial board.

Second, Foreign Affairs participates in the publication of the Russian-language edition.

“The journal’s widely distributed Russian-language bimonthly version is published with the participation of Foreign Affairs.

So let’s see if I can get this straight, the article that Lavrov wrote, FA edited, and Lavrov agreed to, Lavrov then withdrawals from publication accusing FA of censorship and then to prove his point allows the publication of the “censored” article that in fact he has prevented from being published. Then Lavrov declares that he will publish the “uncensored” article in a journal that the FA editor sits on the editorial board of! HUH?

If Lavrov was so upset about the editing why would they release that “censored” version? Why release the “unedited” version in a magazine that the original editor who they claim censored the piece sits on the editorial board? Confused? Doesn’t make a whit of sense? Great, now we are beginning to understand Russian foreign policy.

Sooooo, does this minor diplomatic/journalistic spat actually mean anything, or is it just another speed bump on the already bomb-cratered road of U.S.-Russian relations? Without trying to read too deeply into the burned tea leaves of this lone event of Russian foreign policy machinations it appears to this peripatetic pundit to be a small, minor event that captures the fundamental randomness, capricious, and often just bizarre behavior that represents much of current Russian foreign policy attitude toward the West.

Like someone who screams fire in an empty theater, it's a completely meaningless act under the pretense of responding to a real situation.