Joseph Sarandos
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Five years after "9/11": Russian attitudes toward America and Americans
First, please read and absorb this article in its entirety and implications:
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Five years after September 11. Russian attitude towards America
15:28 | 12/ 09/ 2006
Moscow. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kolesnikov) September 11, 2001 drastically changed our vision of the modern world order.
Civilization suddenly faced extraordinary challenges, its inability to guarantee security and the need to find a non-trivial response to intricate and evolving methods used by terrorists.
The attacks targeted the U.S. Five years ago we all felt a bit American, as the shock from the outbreak of WWIII reverberated around the world. The attack was broadcast live and online. Today, however, Russians no longer feel that they are fighting this war together with the U.S. The reason, they believe, is the Bush administration's desire to impose their values on the world. This position can be interpreted in different ways; we are not going to judge it here, we are just stating that this is a prevailing sentiment among Russian people. Most of them, however, feel positive about America itself.
A survey conducted by the VTsIOM public opinion research center shows that the correlation of positive and negative responses is 49% to 34%. This is a deterioration against 2002, when 63% of respondents felt positive about the United States against 21% who expressed negative feelings. These findings are confirmed by another poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, a prominent pollster: 15% of respondents said their attitudes toward America had been good a year or two before, but deteriorated since then. Moreover, as many as 18% said that the main reason for the September 11 attacks was "the U.S. (President Bush) foreign policy, its aspiration for global domination and interference in other countries' affairs." Only 6% described the tragedy as "actions of criminals and terrorists", unprovoked by the U.S. The VTsIOM poll respondents said that the goal of the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq was to reinforce America's stand in the world.
Remarkably, these views, which are more likely to be voiced by left European intellectuals than by ordinary Russians, are supported mainly by respondents with better education and income, who are better adjusted in society and are in the most active age group, i.e. 36-54, according to the Public Opinion Foundation. Apparently, this group knows why we should dislike America better than other groups that are less educated, but more composed in their attitudes. The VTsIOM survey, however, shows that America's foreign policy is better understood by young people and sometimes even supported: as many as 22% of Russians aged 18-24 said they supported the U.S. efforts, including in Iraq.
Negative attitudes towards the U.S. foreign policy doctrine on the part of better educated and more affluent people in active age groups are not necessarily related to their post-imperial "phantom-limb pains" and complexes but to their vision of civilized values and a multi-polar world. As many as 61% of affluent respondents in the VTsIOM poll were more aware of the increasing terrorism threat, and in this respect this is the most pessimistic group. Apparently, this group believes that the U.S. policy provokes terrorists' action and therefore diminishes global security. In other words, Russians view the United States as a powerful, but overly active geopolitical player that is trying to spread its influence to as many countries and regions as possible. A similar role traditionally belonged to the Soviet Union and was passed on to Russia. So Russian respondents are inclined to assess the U.S. with a view to competition for geopolitical influence. But it is still a competitor, not an adversary.
After all, 77% of Russians took the September 11 attacks "to heart", the Public Opinion Foundation's poll showed. Normal human emotions prevailed over rational analysis. The latter is not in favor of U.S. policy, but it is neutral and even well-wishing towards American people.
END of article.
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As shown by his writing, Andrei Kolesnikov is certainly not one of the “Cold War Commie left-overs,” such as those who had usurped the name and reputation of Pravda (previously one of the official organs of the Soviet Union) and turned it into a yellow tabloid more shameless than The National Enquirer, but as a digital internet publication only.
The owners and operators of “Pravda.ru” and its sponsored English-language forum are openly and blatantly anti-America and anti-Americans, and it is their transparent policy to attract, harbor, protect, and even empower as moderators in its forum, current examples of the “Ugly American” stereotypes that had been portrayed and exaggerated by the Soviet propaganda-machine during the Cold War, while the American propaganda-machine was portraying all Russians in a similarly “bad light”.
But, the Cold War was just that. In fact, America and Russia had never directly gone to war against each other, and were allies during World War Two. In the ensuing years, it became a matter of America and Russia taking opposite sides in the wars of 3rd parties, i.e.; North v South Korea, North v South Vietnam, Iraq v Iran.
More importantly, it was never a case of the American People against the Russian People, but always their respective Government Administrations at odds with each other, and even so, as competitors more than as adversaries.
Like America, Russia depends on “wars and the threat of wars” for the sake of its Domestic Economy, both nations having progressed (rather degenerated) into sellers of weapons and providers of mercenaries to 3rd parties. It was the same in the case of Ancient Greece, between the times of its resources-draining, internicene Peloponnesian War (actually a trade war) and its final overthrow.
The major differences between the (now-defunct thanks to the Zionists) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the still-operational (but moribund thanks to the Zionists) United States of America are that Russia itself has become a viable contender for rising to a world-dominating Empire, while the USA is falling from that long-held position, and that Russia has just begun to enjoy the admiration and respect of other nations, while the USA has already ceded the same because of its now-apparent servitude to Israel and the interests thereof.
And yet, there are no major differences (other than languages and places of birth) between the Peoples of Russia and the USA, any more than can be found within either of these nations.
Therefore, “Russia-bashing” by ordinary Americans, and “America-bashing” by ordinary Russians, are totally useless and unnecessary pastimes.
The only true and consistent enemies of peace and stability in the world are (and have been) those who have led and followed the Zionist Political Movement as it was hatched in Europe in the late 19th century.
For evidences, documentation, explanations and distinctions with regard to Zionism (vis-à-vis Semitism, anti-Semitism, Jewry, Judaism), please refer to the highly-viewed topics in the forum/section titled; “The Zionist Political Agenda” http://com3.runboard.com/btheowlsnest.fthezionistpoliticalagenda
Joseph Sarandos
3230 E. Westcott Avenue
Visalia, Tulare County, CA 93292
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9/15/2006, 12:40 pm
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Incog4
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Re: Five years after "9/11": Russian attitudes toward America and Americans
As Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the rest of the story”! The expressed feelings of the Russian politicians and propagandists vis-à-vis those of the Russian People toward America.
Aaron
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Criticize, but don't exclude
Eugene P. Trani International Herald Tribune
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2006
RICHMOND, Virginia The Moscow and St. Petersburg I traveled to this summer stand in stark contrast to the Russia depicted by the media and politicians in the United States.
The Russia I visited was one of growing prosperity and innovation, progressive education and an economic strength not based exclusively on oil and gas.
It was a Russia uniquely positioned to forge solid partnerships for the war on terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation and energy - all vital issues for America.
But Russia intends to achieve its economic goals, even if that means doing so without the United States. The Bank of Russia made several announcements in 2005 that heralded the increasing role of the euro in its exchange-rate strategy. I observed in many Russian hotels that currency markers were in rubles and euros, not in dollars.
This sidestepping of America is apparent in other pivotal arenas. Russia has taken an active interest in the expanding Chinese market, and in connecting its security strategy to China's expanding power.
Russia is in a unique position, geographically and politically, to meet China's rapidly growing demand for energy, natural resources and timber. And China provides Russia with a ripe market for high-tech weapons.
In a 2005 article in the Beijing Review, the Russian ambassador to China, Sergei Razov, wrote of bilateral relations with China as being "at the highest level in history," citing their first joint military maneuvers and rapidly growing trade, the volume of which exceeded $29 billion in 2005.
Razov also discussed the ten-fold increase in Chinese students in Russia over the past decade - that when the number of Chinese students applying to U.S. universities has drastically decreased.
Russia's deepening relations with China have already created alarming vulnerabilities.
In 2005, Russia and China attempted to restrict access by the United States and NATO to Central Asian air bases, despite the critical role of these bases for military and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan - an effort that Russia previously supported.
If the United States continues to criticize Russia, Russian-Chinese relations over the next 10 years could lead to a regrouping of world powers and possibly a new Cold War.
But if the United States moved to full engagement with Russia, it could realize considerable policy and economic gains. For a model, America need look no further than its foreign policy with China - like Russia, a nuclear-armed nation with a long history of authoritarian government.
China also does not always play by America's rules. But while the State Department recently announced sanctions against Russia for the alleged selling of restricted items to Iran, the Department of the Treasury gave China only a slap on the wrist in May over its currency manipulation in flagrant disregard of U.S. law.
Last April, President George W. Bush welcomed President Hu Jintao to the United States, saying, "The United States and China are two nations divided by a vast ocean yet connected through a global economy that has created opportunity for both our peoples."
America's failure to bestow the same recognition on Russia as it has on China could end up relegating the United States not only to the other side of the ocean, but to the other side of a new kind of iron curtain.
Yes, Russia is a less democratic nation than it was under Boris Yeltsin. Yet forcing a political reform agenda on Vladimir Putin not only runs the risk of failure, but of alienating Russia to such an extent that possibilities for positive engagement will be lost.
A more plausible policy toward Russia would be to take more of an "agree to disagree" stance on certain issues, such as Russia's relations with other post- Soviet states, and to remain unequivocal about the emerging authoritarianism, while embracing Russia's emerging economic liberalism.
Crafting a Russian relationship around areas that are mutually advantageous would give the United States a better chance of fostering political liberalism in Russia.
America's policy of isolating Russia may not only fail, but it may also force Russia to create its own world without the United States - a world that really would head in the wrong direction.
Eugene P. Trani is president of Virginia Commonwealth University.
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9/16/2006, 1:59 pm
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