The following letters to the editor, one published and one unpublished,
reflect concerns I have had about reporting on Russia in the English
language press, especially on Russiagate. The Russophobic hysteria
which has gripped the liberal establishment and media after the 2016
election reminds me a lot of the McCarthyism which I witnessed as a
child. That is a concern I would carry into office if elected as the next
Michigan US Senator.
Financial Times Tuesday August 21, 2010
Pussy Riot carping is full of hypocrisy
From Dr John Howard Wilhelm
Sir, Though I am no fan of the neo-Soviet regime
now ruling in Russia, your statement that the
Pussy Riot case “is one of the worst perversions
of justice in 12 years of Putinism” is outlandish
(“Putin’s fear of the punk iconoclasts”, editorial,
August 18).
Were a group similarly to disrupt a service in
St. Paul’s Cathedral in London or St. Patrick’s
in New York, both of our societies would certainly
recognize that this crossed the line of free
speech rights at the expense of the free exercise
of religion, with appropriate legal redress. Given
that there is free public space outside both of
these venues as well as outside Christ The
Savior Cathedral in Moscow, the carping in this
case by human rights groups and the western
media is simply dripping with hypocrisy, if not
outright Russophobia.
John Howard Wilhelm,
Ann Arbor, MI, US
4 West Eden Court
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
December 14, 2016
letters@nytimes.com
To the Editor:
The clamor over Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential
election (article Dec. 14, 2016) is simply dripping with bipartisan self-
righteous hypocrisy on the part of our political elites and media. It
surely ignores the involvement of our politicians and NGOs in the
1996 Russian presidential election between Boris Yeltsin and Gennady
Zyuganov. It stretches credulity to believe that Russia might not have
a similar incentive against a candidate it may have considered to be
Russophobic. And it ignores the involvement of our officials and NGOs
in the Rose, Orange and Maidan Revolutions that have had such bad
outcomes.
Given Victoria Nuland’s infamous telephone exchange with our
ambassador in Kiev, it is no surprise that Putin would strongly react
to our Maidan Revolution involvement in the Ukraine, especially given
the fact that he no longer believes in the Soviet myths about 1917
and now understands the role of the Germans in it.
Rather than a mythical desire on the part of Putin to restore the
USSR, our involvement in the Ukraine with rightist forces like
Svoboda and the Right Sector was surely a strong factor in Putin’s
response not only in the Crimea but Syria as well.
The new President could do a great service to the country and our
relations with Russia by telling the American people what really
happened on the Maidan on February 20, 2014 as oppose to the
skewed accounts our media, including the Times, have given us.
Sincerely yours,
John Howard Wilhelm, Ph.D.,
Economics