As for RT itself, we should take it as another chance to poke the U.S. (even more). But what use of it for public diplomacy? Many Americans already take RT for a joke, that is, if they know about or watch it (which many don't). Is it how Russia is trying to get its message out to the English-speaking world?

Hillary Clinton, rests on the profound fallacy that the current Russian leadership and the United States share common values. From the Kremlin’s perspective, anti-Americanism is a strategic tool for pursuing domestic and foreign policy goals. It has remained this way for almost the past 100 years.

The effective use of soft power in all its forms is another important resource in our work. We intend to cooperate with civil society institutions, the expert community, business circles and mass media. We will actively use the potential of organizations established last year and other opportunities that we have with civil society in addition to traditional diplomatic instruments.

Russian speakers/readers of the language might be struck by the number of negative comments to the Ambassador's YouTube performance, which suggests that Russian anti-Americanism is indeed a factor to consider in the two countries' relations -- and that, on a more mundane level, Russians use the Internet as a way of "letting off steam."

The centre’s work to show Russia as it is in real life will bring forward an era of unfettered humanitarian cooperation between my country and the United States. This work will be promoting public diplomacy, in which ordinary people on the two sides build Russian-American ties. There will be exchanges and Russian language courses for beginners and teachers.

Cultural diplomacy encompasses everything from training in modern dance to training in modern politics. At first glance, it seems a relatively non-threatening way to project identity and influence, but its impact can be profound. China’s President Hu Jintao recently warned that “international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China,” and added that “the international culture of the West is strong while we are weak.”

This isn’t an accident. Forget the non-existent “Twitter revolution”: information simply spreads faster than it used to do, in myriad ways. Around the world, the poor own mobile telephones. The middle class has internet access...Countries and cultures do change...

In addition, and in his “lame duck” year, Lee Myung-bak isn’t well positioned to pursue multilateral diplomacy beneficial to Japanese-Russian relations, especially given the hardening of South Korean opinion against Japan over historical themes.