10 February 2017
February 10th, the Swiss journalist, artist and political analyst Guy Mettan delivered a lecture to MGIMO students and faculty members and presented his recent book entitled «Russia and the West: a Thousand-year war».
Greeting the guest, MGIMO’s Vice-Rector for Graduate and International Programs, Andrey Baykov, noted that Guy Mettan required no introduction as the University welcomed the journalist once before in May last year. After reminding the audience of a few interesting aspects of the guest’s biography, he encouraged the students to make the most of this visit and ask all their questions.
Guy Mettan gave a brief overview of the prejudices and stereotypes about Russia in the West, which appeared in the time of Charlemagne and have survived to this day. The author also explained what had motivated him to write his book, giving both personal reasons (Guy Mettan adopted a Russian girl) and professional ones (the desire to understand both sides of the events in Ukraine in 2014).
The political analyst explained how he had selected and analyzed several events in which Russophobia was obvious, to try and determine the characteristics and causes of the phenomenon: the crash of the Russian plane in southern Germany in 2002, the taking of hostages in Beslan in 2004, the crisis with Georgia in 2008, the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi and the Ukrainian crisis of 2014. Guy Mettan explained the different manifestations of Russophobia in England, France, Germany and the USA. The speaker also presented ways of dealing with anti-Russian propaganda in the media and promoting better relations between Russia and the West.
— See the MGIMO web-site for more photos and russian version
