5 comments

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  Lavochkin

  10 months ago

  Hello Tim, great blog. My thanks to BZM at Russophile for the link.
  Like many aspects of conservative policy, the intonement of religion is a cover for the advancement of corporate interests. When Yeltsin was playing ball, everything was fine as far as the Economist and the Wall Street Journal were concerned. Now that Russia has resisted the corporate takeover, right wing organizations such as Freedom House and the Center for Security policy are working overtime to vilify Russia. Most Americans do not hear the other side of the story so Mr. Kasparov can appear on Bill Maher with his outrageous anti-Putin act. Maher and his audience swallowed it whole and they are supposedly thoughtful liberals.
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  poemless

  10 months ago

  I really wish it were limited to the Christian Right, but, I'm pretty active in American politics on the left end of the spectrum, and I have to report, the situation is not much different over here among "godless" American liberals. Which is kind of interesting, since these used to be the people associated with Communism in America. But a significant percent of today's Democrats are "Russophobic." Here is how I understand it. They are deeply upset with Bush, and focused on issues which they feel have infringed upon their civil liberties and democratic values, such as the Patriot Act, election fraud, corruption, media doing the bidding of those in power and not serving the people, imperialist wars waged in the name of fighting terrorism, etc. They see obvious parallels in Russia, and pictures of Bush and Putin gallivanting about solidify the sentiment. They may intellectually differentiate between "Putin" and "all the rest of Russia," but like Bush's policies and anti-Americanism elsewhere, there is a strong tendency to substitute/conflate the leadership and the country.
  
  There also persists personal grievances among Americans whose families came to the country fleeing very real persecution by Russians/Soviets in the 20th century. I think that factors in. Especially as a lot of them have become career advisers and experts on Russia.
  
  You're right about the semantics, though. I mean, Hillary Clinton did not pause before proclaiming that Putin had no soul. There is a stunning lack of differentiation between the academic and the theocratic in US politics. We don't condemn the Russian gov't on the validity of its policies, but on its evilness. The metaphysical route is taken even by the secular, because it just requires less thinking. You don't actually have to do any work before passing judgement. And it's a great way side step the problem of implicating ourselves. How else could Bush have the gall to condemn Russia's use of violence? Because when we do it, we're acting with good intentions, regardless the outcome. When we do bad things, it's a mistake, it's not "really" who we are, an exception to the rule. Russia, on the other hand, is acting with nefarious intentions. If they do something good, it's in spite of their evil intentions, an exception to the rule.
  
  There are infinite "justifications" for our negative attitudes toward Russia. But I think - just speaking from my own experience - the overwhelming reason that it persists with such power, is ignorance. Lack of information. Absence of exposure. America's a relatively isolated country to begin with. Factor in the greater part of a whole century in a Cold war, in which what very little we could learn of Russia was filtered through propaganda on both sides. And the fact that - I assume this is a fact, actually I don't know, an educated guess - few Americans know Russian. Fewer than the Russians who know English, probably.
  
  It's a shame. I think Russia and America have far more in common than they ever admit. Actually, I think also explains some of the Russophobia...
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  Blackseabrew

  10 months ago

  I used to work for a small aviation company whose owner was rather closed-minded individual. After learning of my then recent visit to Moscow in 2005, he proceeded to tell me how Russians were cold and godless. He said he could see it in their eyes. He then proceeded to give a speech sprinkled with religious overtures and unfounded observations on Russia that made me want to puke. It is hard to believe that people like him exist in America but they do. I've seen it first hand.
  
  Thankfully most people I know can see the political manipulation that Bush(King George IV I like to call him) and his staff continue to carelessly exercise at the expense of the US taxpayer and ultimately the citizens of other countries- this time Russian and Georgia. The large majority of these people grew up during the cold war and are now retired. They represent what I would call good, honest, religious, and most important, wise American citizens. They are certainly a little hesitant (and curious) when it comes to the subject of Russia(I do speak to them about it) but there is one thing they agree on with certainty. The US political leaders need to quit playing politics around the world and address our own problems at home. Casting religious stones from a glass church is downright stupid.
  
  We can only hope our next round of political leaders will exhibit the genuine wisdom needed to lead the US after the disaster of eight years with George W. Bush.
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  Robert

  10 months ago

  Hi Tim -
  
  I'm just reading your blog for the first time. You're right that the mass media in the US paints a simplistic picture of the situation, i.e. Georgia - good, Russia - bad. I have found a couple of insightful and more even-handed articles over the past couple of days in the Washington Post. In case you haven't seen them yet:
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
  
  and
  
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
  
  Look forward to reading more.
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  Petar Matovic

  10 months ago

  Anti russian actions and propaganda come solely from an unmentioned subjects which is the jewish domination of American, British and European policies as well as international media . They basically hate Russia in a racial sense, they see them as inferior and want to take over their ressources and prevent them from stopping their dominating drive not just middle east but in other large portions of the world.
  
  I am serbian and I found it telling that one American official recently said that they have "defeated" Serbia and Russia with regards to the kosovo occupation even though they have never fought serbian let alone a russian army . Entire balkan blodshed and attack on Serbia was largely one proxy war against Russia in the minds of many of its instigators see here http://www.southeasteurope.org/documents/pr199.pdf
  
  Another thing I can't get over is so called "christian fundamentalists" in the US which is sometimes called Judeo Christians and their so called aversion to "secularism" . These people literally are made to warship the state of Israel and the jewish people in spite of Jesus Christ. Israel just happens to be overwhelmingly secular and blatantly anti christian so much so they have banned the plus sign (+) because it resembles the christian cross. How can so called "christian fundamentalists" literally warship and financially support a secular and militant anti christian state and even propagate wars against their supposedly fellow christians as many of them did against Serbia, Iraq, Palestinians, Lebanese and surely against Russia as well at behest of the jewish lobby
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