ABSTRACT
In 1928, Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov invented the character Ostap Bender, the anti-hero of their satiric novel The Twelve Chairs who tries to get rich with minimum to no effort. One of his dreams is to travel to Rio de Janeiro and stroll along its beaches. According to Brazilian journalist William Waack (2011), many Russians still associate his country with Bender’s vision of sweet life on the Copacabana. While Brazilians tire of the cliché of being happy, but lazy, Russians may likewise grow impatient with surveys brandishing them as unpopular, rude, or in some other way at fault. The two countries may be anything but two sides of the same coin, as Cardoso tried to imply with his vision of a “tropical Russia.” However they are heading towards a tighter relationship. At the moment, the focus lies on economic and political cooperation, yet it is likely that, thanks to measures such as visa-free travels, people will learn to understand each other beyond negotiation tables and overcome their highly stylized idea of their partner.
