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Airports tend to be a hodge-podge of cultures, a cacophonous mishmash of screaming babies, and enraged travelers with lost baggage. But it’s also a crossroads between cultures, a birthplace of ideas and foreign relations. For some, it’s a limbo between countries—in the area before passport control you are no longer in your own country but you are not yet officially in another. People from all over the globe flow through these terminals, making airports the perfect place for advertisements. Companies have the opportunity to influence the opinions of the entire world. But imagine this: you are on the moving walkway towards customs when you see the face of your president on a poster with that of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The caption beneath reads: “Who poses the greatest nuclear threat?” This is what awaits Americans flying into the U.K. It’s just not quite the same thing as a welcome sign. But that’s the world of media these days.

Now clearly Americans are not the most popular of people in some countries. Many feel bullied by American political agendas, the presence of American military abroad, and corporate America’s insatiable appetite for foreign markets. In December, Russia Today (RT), a global network that focuses on Russian PR, released a series of ads supposedly meant to present another side of the accepted opinions on several current issues, including terrorism, nuclear warfare, and climate change. These ads are doubtlessly provocative, making a splash across the UK. Perhaps for some, the ads do provoke thoughtful conversation at the dinner table. However, when Russia Today tried to put the ads in American airports, they were rejected, probably for the anti-American sentiments expressed in them. It’s debatable whether it would really make a difference in the minds of U.S. citizens. Americans would more likely be offended and angered by the ads instead of experiencing any changes in worldview. After all, we may squabble among ourselves about everything from the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency to paying taxes, but American nationalism is a hard thing to shake, especially since the September 11th attacks.

Is this really an attempt to provoke an interesting discussion on the part of the Russian media, or is this blatant anti-American propaganda? One could argue that not all the ads focus on America and therefore Russia Today is attempting to make bring up thoughtful topics for discourse, but then one must consider the reason for doing so. Russia Today focuses on providing a picture of what Russia is like politically and culturally in everyday life. The network uses English-speaking journalists and the channel is available globally via cable. Critics claim the network tries to push a pro-Russian viewpoint, but the network makes no apologies for the bias, arguing that it’s no different than what other countries do. There is a difference, though, in media that promotes the views of a country, and media that promotes a hostile and negative view of others. The ads have no depictions of Russian life or Russian leaders, which distinctly removes it from a pro-Russian standpoint. But three of the five advertisements depict Americans.

An advertisement is a paid announcement that sells a good, or an idea. If these contentious pictures are advertisements, what are they really selling? Propaganda, on the other hand, is defined as information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. Where is the line between the two drawn? One argument is that an advertisement has a distinct product to sell or a particular purpose, and that an “advertisement” that simply offers a negative view of someone or something is propaganda. It gets a little harder to distinguish when the topic is political, because there is a type of sale going on: a subscription to a particular worldview.

Russia will not benefit from promoting anti-U.S. sentiments, at least not immediately or in any measureable form. It’s entirely possible that this propaganda has arisen out of residual feelings from the Cold War. Although it has supposedly been over for the last twenty years, with the destruction of the Berlin Wall, Obama felt the need to press the “reset button” with Russia, making it clear that there is still animosity and rivalry that has yet to be resolved. In June of 2009 Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev held negotiations at the Kremlin (the Russian equivalent to the White House) that seemed promising, complete with friendly banter about the weather. But twenty plus years of anti-American sentiment isn’t going to disappear overnight, and according to Time magazine, there are still many divisive issues damaging the two nations’ political relationship including arms control, human rights, and democratic rights. The government of Russia continues to lean on media, and the Russia Today network appears to be nothing more than a champion of the Kremlin’s political agenda. You won’t find too much criticism of the Kremlin on Russia Today, to say the least.

Some would argue that the American media isn’t much better. Americans tend to be somewhat closed-minded when it comes to politics that contradict U.S. goals, and is due in large part to how American media presents other countries. Remember when “French fries” became “Freedom fries” in opposition to France’s hesitation to support the war in Iraq? That was mature. Not to mention hypocritical, considering how divided the U.S. population has been on the war in Iraq since its inception. At the same time, many American news media outlets, such as networks like CNN or MSNBC, debate the choices and procedures our government uses to further its goals both internally and abroad. Our citizens clearly care about the way our country conducts itself and refuse to support agendas that we deem unsatisfactory, or else there would be much less division in our elections and political opinions.

Whether the Russia Today ads are really meant to be thought provoking discussion topics or whether they are simply blatant propaganda to enforce anti-American/pro-Kremlin sentiments is something that must be left to the interpretation of its audience. As one of them suggests, the camera can be more powerful than the gun. In which case, at least in Europe, these ads could potentially have a negative effect on already somewhat spotty opinions of the United States. If the Kremlin is behind the programming and advertisement campaigns of Russia Today, then it may be that the Cold War is even further from being over than we’d hoped. Edward Lucas, British author of the 2008 book The New Cold War: Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West, certainly seems to think so. The issues he points to includes Russia’s refusal to partake in Western democratic ideals despite having given up communism and attempted division between the U.S. and the European nations. Hopefully the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that is currently being negotiated between the two countries will prove Lucas wrong. In December, both Presidents claimed the negotiations are close to completion, though the New Year has yet to see the treaty signed. No matter how much Russia and the U.S. cooperate, the major world powers will always be in a competition of some sort, whether it be for nuclear arms, foreign markets, or the hearts and minds of the global population.