Majority of Russians consider United States a force for evil: US election 2008

29 May 2008

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow

Given that Vladimir Putin, their revered prime minister, once likened the United States to the Third Reich, it should come as little surprise that Russians were more suspicious of their Cold War adversary’s motives than any other nationality surveyed.

Just 16 per cent of those surveyed thought the United States a force for good in the world, compared with 56 percent who considered it a force for evil.

You don’t have to look far to see why.

Many Russians reckon that the United States played a crucial role in the financial collapse of the 1990s by pushing Boris Yeltsin’s government into making precipitous economic reforms.

The Iraq war and a relentless stream of anti-US rhetoric from Mr Putin, who regularly portrayed Washington as an imperialist aggressor, have only heightened that antagonism.

America’s plans to build a missile defence shield in central Europe and a Washington-led campaign to bring the ex-Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine have also played on Russia’s traditional paranoia.

State television frequently points to both issues as evidence that the United States is conspiring to encircle and enfeeble Russia as part of a plot to steal its vast energy resources.

Arguably more surprisingly, the survey shows that John McCain enjoys more support in Russia than most of the G8. While he still trailed Barack Obama by seven per cent, 24 per cent of Russians said they could vote for him if they could — compared to just eight per cent of French respondents.

In Soviet times it was generally agreed that the Kremlin preferred to see a Republican in the White House. Conservatives were more straightforward to deal with because they acted from self-interest and were less concerned with human rights than their Democratic rivals, it was reckoned.

Mr McCain, however, has been roundly criticised in the Russian media for his antagonistic opinions towards Moscow. He has long called for Russia’s expulsion from the G8, has been scathing about Mr Putin and dismissed the country’s presidential elections in March as “rigged”.

While Mr Obama has hardly been fulsome about Russia, his criticism has been far more muted.

That his lead over his Republican rival is so slim probably has much to do with prejudice in a country where old-fashioned racism is still largely acceptable.

Many respondents, however, were equally dubious about both candidates with some 45 per cent saying they did not know who they would vote for or admitting they would vote for neither — a much higher proportion than the samples taken in other G8 countries.

That could have something to do with the aides the two candidates have chosen to advise them on foreign policy. Mr Obama’s team includes Michael McFaul, an academic who has been critical of Mr Putin and Zbigniew Brzezinski, a well known hawk on Russia.

Mr McCain, however, is advised on foreign policy by former secretaries of state James Baker and Henry Kissinger, both seen as more pragmatic on Russia.

The hands of both men were seen in a foreign policy speech by Mr McCain this week that took a softer line on Russia.

Whatever Mr McCain may have said about Russia in the past, he could well take a different tack were he to become president. Both George W Bush and Jacques Chirac, the former French president, were vocal in their criticism on Russia’s war in Chechnya while on the campaign trail — only to soften their positions when they took office.

“Most realise that every position outlined on the campaign trail is not necessarily fulfilled when the candidate becomes president,” said Lyudmilla Lebedeva, a director at the Institute for USA studies in Moscow.