Geoscience Reference
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to elaborate on collaborative problems. After failing at first to understand
the question, they burst out in laughter at the idea that there should be any
problems at all.
We acknowledge that there are methodological challenges associated with
quotes such as these. Are Russian and Baltic project affiliates really happy
with the projects and in complete agreement with their Western partners, or
are they simply saying what they think was expected of them in the interview
setting? The Task Force projects are accompanied by substantial financial
input, which might inhibit the project participants' likelihood of expressing
dissatisfaction with them (for fear of jeopardizing funding). Also, the project
participants might wish to appear 'polite' to two interviewers from the main
Task Force donor country. On the other hand, we interpret the reported sat-
isfaction to the effect that at least dissatisfaction is not substantial enough to
make these people want to 'risk' further financing (to the extent that express-
ing dissatisfaction would incur a risk) or appear 'impolite' to the interviewers.
'Why are they so interested in us?': the 'Cold Peace'
perspective
A large gap separated the general satisfaction with Task Force projects
expressed by most of our interviewees and the fundamental distrust of the
West declared by other project participants. In one of the interviews, the
distrust in such collaboration projects was apparent as soon as the interviewee
started to explain the background to his project (a standard opening ques-
tion in our interviews). He explained how his first professional contacts with
foreigners had been quite disappointing: the Finns had not shown due respect
for Russian expertise, which he found 'rather humiliating', and little came
out of the plans. He seemed to think that international cooperation was a nui-
sance and was pleased to continue alone , 6 b ut soon thereafter 'along came the
Swedes'. Although they also had a 'degrading attitude' to the Russians, this
time around he 'accepted' the project proposed by the foreigners. 7 However,
he asked himself: 'Why are they so interested in us? What is their hidden
agenda?' He indicated the direction of his suspicions by saying: 'Every coun-
try's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a legal intelligence agency.' He refused to
elaborate on this, but we interpret him here - together with the general spirit
of the interview - to the effect that he regarded the Task Force in a 'Cold
Peace' perspective: the Western states were attempting to invade yet another
arena, in this case the health service, to exploit Russian (or Soviet) expertise
and press reforms on Russia. He also indicated that figures on communicable
diseases in Russia were boosted to attract money from the federal budget
or foreign sponsors: '[the high figures are] just a little lie for the politicians
( malenkaya lozh dlya politikov ) '. 8
Similar views were expressed by senior Task Force officials, although gen-
erally more discreetly. For instance, one high-ranking Russian official was
 
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