Pravda's Strange New Interest in American Women

Under the old Soviet system, Pravda was the voice of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Today Pravda is still a propaganda voice for the Russian government, but with some strange choices in news coverage that would not be seen in the puritanical U.S.

Besides the news slanted towards a favorable view of the Russian government, today's Pravda website features a photo spread on American porn star, Jenna Jameson, photo spreads of old 1950's Playboy Playmates, sexy photos of American actresses and other layouts totally unexpected in a daily newspaper's website. In the morally uptight U.S., such sexy photo layouts would never become daily items in THE WASHINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, or other papers.

While the U.S. and Russian political relations continue to grow chilly, it seems that beautiful American women seem to be the greatest cultural bridge to Russia, or at least to Pravda. Equally, it seems that Britney Spears and other sexy young American women are popular photo essay subjects in the normally morally conservative China, at least in Xinhua, their main daily newspaper and website.

Pravda on one hand seems to provoke fear of new U.S. weapons, even if they are merely experimental, on one hand. On the other hand, the interest in beautiful American women as reflected in Pravda is one area where Cold War politics is strangely set aside. A strange world isn't it?