Journalist Nicholas Daniloff, a former Moscowcorrespondent for UPI (1961-65) and (1981-86),has written his memoirs, . Mr. Daniloff becamethe focus of world attention after he was jailed by the KGB for 13 days andfalsely charged with spying for the United States. He was later traded for an alleged Soviet spy picked up in NewYork.
In his book, Mr. Daniloff discusses the 1982 Cubanmissile crisis from a Russian perspective.Speaking with host Judith Latham of VOA News Now's and with VOA Uzbek editor and television host Navbahor Imamova,he says the public perception of the crisis in Moscow differed considerablyfrom the crisis as seen from Washington.At that time, he says, the Kremlin did not acknowledge that SovietPresident Nikita Khruschev had put missiles into Cuba, and thus Russia'stightly controlled state press "placed the blame entirely on the UnitedStates." In the 1960's, Mr. Daniloffsays getting information in Moscow was very difficult, and in the Stalin era ithad even been regarded as "criminal" to report anything that had not alreadybeen "publicly published" in the Soviet press.
Nicholas Daniloff says that, although both sidesknow more about each other today, there are still many misperceptions. He says, while America tends to view Russiaas a democracy and "probably a friend," for Russians, the "love-haterelationship seems to live on." He says Russians are quick to blame the UnitedStates for things that go wrong. According to Mr. Daniloff, it has becomealmost a "national pastime" for the U.S. press to criticize those in power,whereas in Russia those in power are suspicious of media criticism. In thepost-Soviet period, he says, the regimes in the successor states, especiallythose in Central Asia, see little benefit in "looking problems straight in theeye" and tend to suppress dissident views.In the 1960's, Nicholas Daniloff explains, censorship was quite strictwith hundreds of forbidden topics, and it was difficult for foreign journaliststo have "any kind of relationship" with Soviet citizens.
But by the early 1980's, Mr. Daniloff says,that attitude had begun to change.Nonetheless, he says, the typical government response to embarrassingincidents, such as the shooting down of Korean Airliner 007 and the nuclearaccident at Chernobyl, was to try to "cover up" the story. When he was arrested in 1986, NicholasDaniloff says what helped most was that his wife, contrary to the advice of theU.S. Embassy, gave "copious interviews" and mounted an "enormous publicitycampaign" for his release. And sixyears later, he adds, President Mikhail Gorbachev publicly admitted that thearrest was a "prime example of Cold War retaliation."
Nicholas Daniloff is now a professor of journalismat Northeastern University in Boston, and he has taught many journalismstudents in the successor countries of the former Soviet Union. To get around repressive laws in some ofthose nations, he says some journalists decide to write for "foreign outlets"or even for the "desk drawer," to be published at a "better date." Daniloff acknowledges that, "if you stepvery far out of line, you are likely to suffer, and your family as well." Sometimes, as in Uzbekistan, he saysjournalists who are critical of the government are viewed as "enemies of thenation" or as liars.
Mr. Daniloff observes that the major interest allpeoples and all nations share is to survive.During the Cold War, he says, the issue was: is the United States goingto destroy the Soviet Union, or is the Soviet Union going to try to attack anddestroy the American way of life?Although some analysts today argue that a "new cold war is upon us,"Nicholas Daniloff says he does not subscribe to that view. Nonetheless, he describes currentU.S.-Russian relations as "troubled."He blames two things: Russiancriticism of the war in Iraq and American criticism that Russia is not afunctioning democracy and has instead become more "authoritarian." However, he notes that the two nations havesome important common interests ? the struggle against terrorism, the effort tostop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the concern that Iran maydevelop a nuclear weapon.