Washington Times: Russians’ hatred for Americans is now turning lethal
MOSCOW — Anti-Americanism is on the rise in Russia, and the consequences are sometimes lethal.
Late last week, a 45-year-old Russian beat an acquaintance to death with his fists after a drinking session in Yaroslavl, a city some 160 miles from Moscow. The motive? The victim revealed he often traveled abroad, and his vodka-frazzled assailant told police that he thought he was neutralizing “an American spy.”
This may be an extreme case, but attitudes toward the United States have never been worse in post-Soviet Russia. An opinion poll published by the independent, Moscow-based Levada Center this year indicated that just over 80 percent of Russians have negative views of the United States, a figure that has almost doubled in slightly over a year. Similar figures also were recorded for attitudes toward European countries.
WNU Editor: I would not use the word hatred to define U.S. - Russian public opinion .... the problem is trust .... or more to the point .... no trust at all.
5 comments:
This is not good. At best from the American perspective, the US is one of several major military powers on earth. According to one poll I'm aware of at least 40% of Americans recognize this. This might at least be a good start, if only we can get such people in positions of authority.
As stated previously, this is the best case scenario. More likely Russia is the most powerful military force on the planet when its nuclear weapons capabilities and its cyber warfare capabilities are taken into account. You've stated the obvious about the lack of trust and it is not good.
Trust needs to be restored. The question might be who would make the first move. If I were POTUS, I would. I think the best place to start would be to withdraw all support from the Ukrainian government. Such a move has no downside for America with huge upside potential. Even if the Ukrainian government somehow "wins" which seems about as likely as a warm balmy day at both the north and south polls on the same day at exactly the same time what does America "win/" Ukraine gets to join the EU and NATO gets a new member. The EU views America as a strategic competitor and honoring current NATO commitments is going to be problematic at best for America and such a move would almost certainly inflame Russia beyond the current situation. As such, if Ukraine wins America loses!!
Like I stated withdrawing of support for the position of the Ukrainian government carries no downside risks for America with enormous upside potential. As such, this would seem a good place to start. Other moves might be warranted later but this seems a good place to start.
Besides, while I don't believe the Ukrainian government is made up of "Nazis" as the Russian media sources would have us believe, there does seem to be significant problems with this group that would make a prudent person question whether supporting them is such a good idea. The prudent person when faced with a bad situation and he/she has the opportunity of a course change that carries no downside while offering the potential of huge upside potential or at least mitigating certain bad outcomes would choose to make such a course change. A great place to start in restoring "trust" would be to withdraw support from the Ukrainian government.
Why would Ukraine want to joint the EU? The EU is a doomed experiment anyway. It never had any real chance. Yet another reason to not to support these people. Why would Ukraine want to join NATO? To do so means a defense agreement with America. At this point, America would have a difficult enough time defending the American mainland much less being expected to assist in the defense of someone else. My these people have really, really bad judgment!!
Supporting these people is a bad idea. Oh wait, I already said that!!
It seems to me - though this would be impossible to check - that there is a lot more real hatred towards America and Americans among the population now than there was in Soviet times. There is just enough openness and democracy in the modern Russian Federation that people come around to this idea on their own (or think they do), as opposed to dismissing it as state propaganda.
Hate is too strong a word for me to describe U.S. - Russian opinions towards each other. But I do know one thing .... if given the chance to have an American passport, most Russians would jump at that opportunity .... even those who say they hate/despise/etc. America.
WNU,
I do find it interesting that many people around the world even those who claim to hate America seem to want an American passport!! Given these attitudes, the US government REALLY needs to be more careful about who it lets in here and the American people should insist on this.
I've long known the US immigration system is a giant cluster f*cked up mess. I've suggested a 10 year moratorium on all immigration into the US to allow us breathing space to fix the problem. As for immigration from countries known to hate us such as Middle Eastern Arab countries, a moratorium on immigration from those countries should be indefinite as it makes little sense to invite people into your house who wish to harm you.
We may need people from other countries who possess certain skills we need. Perhaps some type of guest worker program where these people are closely monitored while they are here might work. I think some other countries have things such as this but as far as immigration to the US in general a 10 year moratorium on this is likely needed to allow us the breathing space to fix the messed up system we currently have.
Judging by what comes out of Russian propagandistic media the US is at fault for anything bad happening in Russia. Look closely at the spikes in the graph. They are closely related to the presidential campaigns years. To get mother Russia of her knees and destroy America could be heard during those presidential campaigns. And population is fed constant hate about Ukraine, Armenia, Europe USA etc. No wonder why Canada is willing to finance Ukrainians campaign to fight Russian propaganda networks: Zvezda, KP, RT, Lifenews, Tass, RIA... many many more
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