Recent Russians opinion polls reveal that the American frantic efforts to appease Russia failed miserably. Not only does Putin do his best to sabotage US foreign policy goals but more and more Russians dislike and dismiss the West in general and Obama’s America. So much for reset buttons and “smart” diplomacy. The ever useful Johnson’s Russia List includes this eye opening article from the March 26, issue of Vremya Novostei by Natalia Rozhkova:
MORE AND MORE RUSSIANS DISTRUST THE WEST AND PARTICULARLY THE UNITED STATESOpinion polls conducted by the Levada-Center show that the Russians become increasingly less susceptible to criticism from the West. Instead, most respondents believe that Russia has to defend itself from NATO. Figures compiled over the years and finally published by sociologists indicate that Russians’ trust in Western partners is ebbing.
Number of the respondents confident that Russia should heed Western criticism of its foreign and domestic policy dropped from 46% in February 2007 to 42% in February this year. On the contrary, the respondents claiming that this criticism ought to be ignored numbered 38% then and 45% this year. Considering that the respondents who did not know what to say to the question numbered 16% then and 13% earlier this year, it stands to reason to assume that some of them opted to join the “ignore’em” group.
The Russians capable of substantiating their answers became fewer over the years. Sociologists offered respondents four answers to the question why opinion of the West ought to be ignored both several years ago and now. Respondents convinced that the West did not know the first thing about the mysterious Russian mentality numbered 38% in 2007 and 36% in 2010. Believers in basic maliciousness of the West (seeing Russia as a rival, it was going out of its way to make life hard for Russia) numbered 39% and 35%. Whoever considered the international community plain antagonistic numbered 24% three years ago and 22% this February. The largest drop (22% to 14%), however, was recorded in the group believing that Western criticism ought to be ignored because critics themselves were far from impeccable in whatever they were criticizing Russia for.
. . . Neither are the Russians particularly endeared to the United States. The reload presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama seems to be frustrating Russian general public to an ever greater degree. In February 2010, 73% Russians called the United States world’s number one aggressor and Russia’s likeliest potential enemy. (Three years ago, they numbered 75%.) In the meantime, faith in rapprochement with the United States dropped from 24% three years ago to 14% this February. Thirty-six percent actually said that Russia should stay away from the United States.
In other words, most Russians regard the United States as an enemy, a country Russia should remain politely neutral to and stay away from. Mostly pro-American are men aged 25-29 whose mentality was shaped by the years of the perestroika. Noticeably less friendly toward the United States are the Russians aged 55 and more who grew up during the Cold War.
It is fair to add that the West is mostly dismissed by the Russians aged 40-55 (49%), with college or university diplomas (52%), impressive income (50%), and residents of Moscow and other major cities (51% and 52%). Respondents with technical education (47%), the poor (47%), and villagers (48%) are more likely to heed criticism from abroad. These figures show that the social strata where representatives of the Russian middle class might be found are considerably less supportive of Western values than domestic democrats like to pretend. As for the Russians who are wealthy, their respect for the opinion of foreign countries keeps dwindling.
