It was Big Bird diplomacy. In his days as a US senator, Joe Biden led congressional support for international versions of Sesame Street, the educational show with muppets that had transformed children’s television in America.
From Mexico to India, from South Africa to Northern Ireland, there have been co-productions of Sesame Street specifically tailored to a local audience. So when the cold war ended in the early 1990s, Russia and other former Soviet republicans beckoned like cookies to Cookie Monster. What could possibly go wrong?
