The West and Russia

As the Soviet Union crumbled the Russians pinned their hopes on the West. Eighty per cent of Russians viewed the United States positively and only 6 per cent negatively, according to opinion polls in the early 1990s. ¹ Today the numbers are almost reversed. They blame the West for the Yeltsin years. Some blame Harvard professors with their misguided economic policies. Vladimir Putin has transformed anger almost into a foreign policy doctrine. The United States is not quite the Great Satan (as it is in Iran) but it is identified as Russia's only real adversary. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund are seen as standard instruments of Western policy. The EU is regarded as a contemptible collection of European satellite states. Anti-Russian sentiment is also increasing in the West. Senator John McCain partly ran on an anti-Russian platform in 2008. In his book The New Cold War Edward Lucas writes ‘ we are facing a people who want to harm us, frustrate us, and weaken us’. ²