Page 27 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL 12

and it can do the opposite,” he added.Varin Sachdev, TV news anchor and popularcommentator, said the negative image of Russia comes from various aspects, including the conservative stereotype of older Thais who still adhere to Cold War anti-communist views, the negative perception in the Thai media shaped by CNN and BBC, and imported entertainment.“You have Hollywood, English language. Our entertainment is dominated by the US and UK,” he said. And in Western entertainment, Russia is projected as an enemy of the free world, personified by the cold-blooded KGB spies in John Le Carré spy novels.But the major cause is an imbalance in international news content. “The Thai media use news about Russia which is not supplied by Russian news agencies,” said Mr Varin. “Information and knowledge about Russia comes from secondary sources produced by Western news agencies, for instance CNN, BBC and Reuters.”But there are potential solutions. Russia can learn from China, which uses state media arms such as CCTV and the English-language newspaper China Daily to project the country’s image to the world. Beijing offers this content for free to other countries in order to create its own information source and its own voice, instead of letting Western media monopolize content.Russia in this respect fails to capitalize on its long- established state-owned news agency. ITAR-TASS, a federal state-owned agency, is one of the four biggest international news agencies (with Reuters, AP and AFP), with the biggest photo archive of Russia. In Thailand, however, no news outlets use Russian-related content from ITAR-TASS.Varin says it is time for Russia to use more “soft power” and use art and culture to reshape the country’s image abroad.Apart from its turbulent political history and economy, Russia has always been culturally rich, with great artists, writers and musicians. The challenge of the ambassador might not only be to boost bilateral trade but also erase the image of the KGB and replace it with the Bolshoi Ballet or artists such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky.Read more on Russian Ambassador HE Kirill Barsky via this QR codeElite+ 25