The Wall Street Journal: American Pundit Russians Love to Hate Is in Hot Demand
https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-pundit-russians-love-to-hate-is-in-hot-demand-1457452420
American Pundit Russians Love to Hate Is in Hot Demand Expat gets bashed for defending U.S. on Moscow TV shows, but he doesn’t mind
Michael Bohm, a former insurance executive from a St. Louis suburb, has become both the unlikely star and the punching bag of Russian political talk shows. Photo: Michael Bohm
By James Marson March 8, 2016 10:53 a.m. ET 38 COMMENTS
MOSCOW—When Russians want to see their country sock it to America, they tune in to a former insurance executive from a St. Louis suburb named Michael Bohm.
The Cold War-style confrontation between Russia and the U.S. has made Mr. Bohm, 50 years old, into a star on popular political talk shows here, such as “Time Will Tell” and “Special Correspondent,” which attract millions of viewers.
He speaks fluent, slightly accented Russian, has lived in the country for about 20 years and is a former opinion-page editor at the Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper.
Mr. Bohm’s biggest appeal, though, is his good-natured willingness to be bashed for the perceived wrongs that the U.S. visits upon Russia and the rest of the world.
“We’re tired of you ruling the whole world,” Pyotr Tolstoi, the host of “Politics” and “Time Will Tell,” jabbed at Mr. Bohm in one show. When Mr. Bohm questioned a comment by a Russian political analyst on another show, the man blared: “We’ll bomb you to hell!”
Mr. Bohm usually stands impassively, waits his turn to try to score a few points and tries not to be “an ugly American,” as he puts it.
“Michael, go for it!” said the host of top-ranked “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” with a fist pump three Sundays ago. “First of all, may I ask: Is it true that Russia is at fault for everything?”
[IMG] Michael Bohm
Mr. Bohm responded: “Well, not for everything, of course.”
Always outnumbered and outshouted, Mr. Bohm has appeared almost every day in recent months on Russian television channels brimming with propaganda that lauds the Kremlin and lashes the White House.
He says the punishment is worth it for the opportunity to respond to “one-sided coverage” that casts the U.S. as a relentlessly malevolent force. “Do we want to reach the 80% to 90% of Russians who don’t read or watch liberal media?” asks Mr. Bohm. “We can either refuse to participate in a farce or accept the challenge.”
Mr. Bohm first came to Russia in 1987 and returned a decade later to work for a large insurer. The job bored him, so he went to Columbia University in New York to study international relations and then wrote a book about the Russian character titled “The Russian Specific.” It sold few copies.
He worked at the Moscow Times from 2007 to 2014. His ex-wife and 2-year-old daughter live in Russia, and he says he loves living there and being able to indulge his fascination with Russian politics and international relations.
He won’t comment on whether he is paid for the TV appearances. He also contributes to a liberal radio station’s blog and taught a journalism course last year at Russia’s top diplomatic school.
In 2013, Mr. Bohm said in one of his first TV appearances that Russia was “at a primitive stage” on gay rights. A journalist on the program demanded that Mr. Bohm apologize to Russia. A nationalist lawmaker proposed to “kick his a—.”
The explosive exchange “is how I made my name as an enemy of the people,” says Mr. Bohm.
U.S.-Russia relations soured rapidly following Russia’s military interventions in Ukraine and Syria. Sharply lower prices for crude oil, the main export from Russia, have mired it in a deep economic slump.
A November survey by Levada-Center, an independent research organization in Moscow, found 70% of Russians have a negative attitude toward the U.S., up from less than 40% two years earlier.
Mr. Solovyov, who taught economics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in the early 1990s, says he welcomes different viewpoints on “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” but has trouble getting foreigners or liberals to come on the show. “We cherish him,” he says of Mr. Bohm.
Last month, six Kremlin-friendly commentators faced off against Mr. Bohm and a liberal Russian politician. Production assistants in the audience encouraged applause at the right moments, usually after Mr. Solovyov zinged a one-liner that maligned the U.S. or boosted the Kremlin.
Some of Mr. Bohm’s friends in Moscow’s liberal journalist community say the American is being used as a punching bag whose presence gives legitimacy to bombastic TV shows.
“It’s not a serious debate. It turns into an emotional bazaar,” says Yury Pronko, a national radio host who generally avoids going on the shows. “They distract people from the problems in their own country.”
Mr. Solovyov concedes that his show’s ratings decline when it turns its attention to domestic issues.
Mr. Bohm defends his appearances as a form of cultural diplomacy and says he pays little attention to the hate messages he gets on Facebook, ranging from “Yankee go home” to threats.
Most of his on-air rivals are good-natured once the cameras are off, says Mr. Bohm. On the streets and subway in Moscow, “people come and say thanks for telling your side of the story.”
Frequent TV sparring partner Igor Korotchenko, a hawkish, silver-haired defense analyst, regularly posts photos of Mr. Bohm online, adding captions. One says: “We’re making fun of Michael Bohm, but maybe he’s a colonel in U.S. military intelligence or a CIA officer in deep cover. I’d love to see his file!”
A book publisher tried to cash in on Mr. Bohm by printing a collection of his TV musings titled “President Putin’s Mistake.” Mr. Bohm says he found out about the book only when a friend congratulated him on its publication.
Mr. Bohm has filed a lawsuit against the publisher, who told a Moscow radio station last year that he hoped to reach an agreement.
The American has an especially devoted following among Russian babushkas. They send Mr. Bohm supportive messages on social media, praising his calm demeanor, effort to get across another point of view and knowledge of Russian.
“He is an intelligent, good-natured man who speaks the truth with humor,” says Ekaterina Devyatkova, a 69-year-old pensioner who tunes in regularly from a small town just outside Moscow. “I don’t like the loudmouths who yell at him.”
When Mr. Bohm is running to catch the last subway of the night, the elderly ladies who guard the ticket barriers usually let him dart through even when they’re closed. “They feel sorry for me,” he says.
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com Appeared in the Mar. 10, 2016, print edition as 'No Love From Russia.'
