Russian Stereotypes And My Pet Peeves On Russian Reporting

Jim Kovpak, The Guardian: Stalin, vodka and nuclear weapons: how not to write about Russia

From an abundance of War and Peace references to claims of extremism, Russia! debunks the most persistent stereotypes.

When I started blogging about Russia a decade ago it was an attempt, as an American living in the country, to debunk both the positive and negative stereotypes perpetuated by the western media.

I was not the only one to be riled. Journalist Michael Idov has also listed his five major bugbears in western reporting about the country: from exclamations that on “grimy and deserted” streets stood Pizza Huts and Versace boutiques, to a tendency to start every headline with the words “From Russia with ... ”

Today, as the “cold war 2.0” narrative is bandied about in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis and president Vladimir Putin’s involvement in Syria, many of these cliches still exist – and new ones have emerged. Here are some of the worst offenders:

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WNU Editor: My pet peeves and stereotypes on how Russia is reported. Hmmmm .... where can I start .... Stalin, every Russian is a Communist, vodka, drunks everywhere on the street, Russian women look like babushkas, prostitution, 12 months of winter, bad fashion sense, lousy food, Borscht, Lada cars, old crumbling apartment blocks, no sense of humour, Tolstoy and his book War and peace, Bolshoi Ballet, nuclear weapons, Putin, corruption, gulags, matryoshkas, Red Square and the Kremlin, military parades on Red Square, KGB, World War II, chess, Olympics, doping athletes, collapsing economy, oil, Afghanistan, shoe banging at the UN, invading countries, bears, gloom and doom, etc. etc. etc..