The mainstream media in Russia feeds the country a steady diet of anti-U.S. rhetoric. It is always useful for any country to have a convenient scapegoat, and the U.S. generally serves that purpose in Russia. The specific objections these days mostly relate to the U.S. response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict with Ukraine (but the larger context always has to do with geopolitical power and influence). Economic sanctions have hit hard, despite the constant repetition by Putin et al. that the economy is strong and growing. It’s a clever strategy for Putin’s government to blame the U.S. and Europe for all Russia’s woes, thus deflecting criticism of their own policies.
It is absolutely true that anti-Americanism is quite intense in Russia these days. I have personally never seen it at this level. Obama is a frequent target of extreme (often overtly racist) vitriol, but he is merely a symbol of the larger picture.
I’m not an expert by any means, but I did recently watch a BBC documentary in which a political reporter with many years’ experience whose name escapes me traveled all around Russia. According to him, the attitude he encountered in the overwhelming majority of people all over was nostalgia for the good old days of the Soviet Union. People don’t seem terribly concerned about the corruption and infringement of democratic rights that they see all around them. They’d rather see Russia return to its “rightful” place as a world power.
Quite a lot of Russians disagree with the Kremlin line on any number of things. The problem (for us) is that when they do, they usually disagree in a nationalist or a communist direction, not in the direction of liberal-democratic capitalism. If Putin were to disappear from the scene tomorrow and Russia was to have a genuinely free election it’s likely they would become less liberal and pro-western, not more.
I’m not sure I agree with that, but anyway, it seems tangential to what I was saying.
I was saying that there is not much of a free press in Russia. What news Russians get on state media often includes scapegoating and conspiracy theories, and you can guess which country is often referenced.
Putin, basically. If I have time I’ll dig up the article and video on this I’ve used before, but if you look at US popularity in Russia, it suddenly collapsed around 2011, going from over 50% approval to in the 30% and then dropping steadily from there. Basically, Putin et al started a concerted anti-US propaganda push. Why? Well, that’s more speculative, but probably because he needs external enemies that the Russian people can identify with, and since they have been primed for half a century or more to see the US as the enemy, it gives Putin an easy scapegoat for all his fuckups. And, of course, there have been real tension points like the Crimea and Syria, as well as NATO allowing in countries that used to be under Russia’s thumb and Russia still feels they have a gods given right to have under their thumb.
It’s subtle, but if you watch carefully his lips are moving, which is always a good indication Putin is lying. But you can’t tell up_the_junction this…he loves the guy and thinks he’s a hero. Standing up to the bad old USA and all that.
I would imagine you count yourself among those careful observers, perhaps of both Putin and “them”. How would a careful observer describe the certain indications they noted?
Seems to me that a lot of it seems to be backlash against what they perceive as anti-Russian policies, and US interference/opposition.
The funny thing is, that most of it is really anti-“international asshole behavior” policies, and not enacted or envisioned with a particular axe to grind against Russia or its people.
But if you don’t have a terribly free press, it’s hard for that to actually come out very far into the open, and people will tend to believe what they repeatedly hear. So if they hear about how awesome Russia is, and how the US is dicking them around for no reason/because we can, they’re going to grow to disapprove of us, when in fact, we’re penalizing asshole shenanigans like annexing the Crimea, massive interference/intervention in the Ukrainian civil war, and doing their own unilateral bullshit in Syria instead of joining the international coalition.
Their economy is hurting in part from US led sanctions on their banks all because their government is protecting Russians living under Ukrainian domination. At least that’s how the general public sees it.
Putin wouldn’t see so bold if it wasn’t see easy to sell to the public.
“There are at the present time two great nations in the world—allude to the Russians and the Americans— All other nations seem to have nearly reached their national limits, and have only to maintain their power; these alone are proceeding—along a path to which no limit can be perceived.”
I used to work with a German-born carpenter who was in the German Army in World War II and was a POW in Russia. He told me that the U.S. exploited quite a few countries economically after the war.
In other words, from what he said, Russia isn’t the only country the U.S. has done wrong.
Perhaps it’s not so much about the fact that Russians lacks sufficient appreciation of America, but more about America’s insecurity and need to feel admired by Russia, and the rest of the world.
Why did they before 2011 (see second chart titled Negative Views of US in Russia)? Why did it change so radically after that?
[QUOTE=dougie_monty]
I used to work with a German-born carpenter who was in the German Army in World War II and was a POW in Russia. He told me that the U.S. exploited quite a few countries economically after the war.
In other words, from what he said, Russia isn’t the only country the U.S. has done wrong.
[/QUOTE]
Well, obviously. I mean, look at what an economic wasteland West Germany was, and what a utopia East Germany was. Hell, the East Germans practically had to rebuild West Germany from scratch to get them spun up to any sort of economic standard, and are still fighting tooth and nail to get them going decades after the reunification.
[QUOTE=QuickSilver]
Perhaps it’s not so much about the fact that Russians lacks sufficient appreciation of America, but more about America’s insecurity and need to feel admired by Russia, and the rest of the world.
[/QUOTE]
And Russian insecurity has nothing to do with any of this of course. It’s all the US simply wanting to feel loved by the Russian people that is the issue, obviously.
Russians are famously insecure nationalists. The poll numbers don’t surprise me in the least. I just wonder if Russian pollsters ask these questions about themselves.
