BAD TIMING

The tussle with the holdout “vulture” funds is at the top of the government’s foreign affairs agenda. And its diplomats have scored some important points in terms of rallying relevant international support for Argentina’s position even within the United States.

In many ways, it was a classical public diplomacy effort aimed not only at governments but also at qualified and influential players and opinion makers.

However, one of the president’s last moves might backfire in as much at it provided ammunition to the holdout “vulture” funds for their own lobbying effort targeted at discrediting the Argentine position and standing.

On October 9, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner shared a broadcast videoconference to announce that a Russian government television signal will now be available to the Argentine public. They exchanged niceties about the bilateral relation and criticisms to unfriendly media both local and international. A day later, the following two paragraphs were posted by ATFA on its website factcheckargentina.org.

“President Kirchner held a videoconference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, trumpeting the countries’ growing ties. The two leaders jointly announced the launch of a Spanish language version of Russian state-owned TV channel ‘Russia Today’ in Argentina. Radio Free Europe reported, State-run satellite channel ’Russia Today,’ a major platform for getting the Kremlin’s message to audiences abroad, has extended its reach with the inauguration of Spanish-language programming in Argentina.’”

Reminder: ATFA stands for American Task Force Argentina and is the very active lobby organization of the holdouts “vulture” funds headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, across the river from Washington, DC.

As for Radio Free Europe, it might ring some bells with readers born before 1970. It was one of the minor icons of the Cold War, based in West Germany, and broadcast to the then existing Soviet Union and its Eastern Europe satellites, financed by the US government. Nowadays, it is based in Prague and it describes its mission as reporting the news “in 21 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.” One of these 21 countries is Russia. The radio station explains that it “is funded by the US Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors” which is “a bipartisan federal agency overseeing all US international broadcasting services.”

It is easy to dismiss ATFA’s relevance if one looks at its lobbying efforts in Argentina. The actions included the publication — in several dailies — of two paid advertisements and a short visit to Buenos Aires in order to meet local journalists. It seems fair to say that they did not cut any ice.

Locally, there is an almost unanimous negative view of the “vulture” funds, even among those who think that the government should try to reach an agreement with them as soon as possible. But, unfortunately, Argentina is fighting this battle in the US. And ATFA can find there a significant sector of relevant players which is receptive to its lobbying. More so if it can associate it with values and views like those espoused by Radio Free Europe. These include a quite negative opinion about Putin.

Last week’s videoconference showed the president supporting the Russian president. A view which is reinforced by the fact that Argentina is exporting foodstuffs to Russia in direct opposition to the US and the EU’s sanctions on account of the Kremlin’s policy on Crimea. Nothing of this goes down well with many US movers and shakers and is being smartly used by ATFA to add more ammunition to its lobbying against Argentina. And it would be a mistake not to realize that Argentina already collects a number of negative points in the eyes of a sizeable portion of US public opinion. The presidential criticism of the US government are an obvious liability. The fact that some of them were voiced at the UN does not help. In addition, the non compliance with Judge Griesa’s rulings — however justified that might sound in Argentina — is not easily digestible for the US political culture. Not to mention the fact that the well-informed North American politicians, analysts and journalists are aware that Argentina is near the top of the list of countries where the people have anti-US feelings.

In addition, it was made quite clear by State Department spokespersons that Argentina is not the flavour of the month within the United States government.

True, it could be argued that the previous paragraph explains the public appearance with Putin. And that such a signal is aimed at underpinning the luring of more investments like that of Gazprom, the objective of increasing Argentine exports to Russia and even using Russia’s influence to tighten up relations with the coveted BRICS, the loose association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Unfortunately the issue of the holdouts “vultures”, and its impact on Argentina’s access to the international financial markets seems to be too urgent to be compensated in terms of both volume and timing with the — undoubtedly positive — developments of more exports to and investments from Russia. And the BRICS connection — if it ever happens — is far from immediate. So, however smart the Putin move is, it definitely seems badly timed.

@andresfederman

CREDITS: BUENOS AIRES HERALD