When we think of Russia, our first impression is of a fighting nation. Drinking vodka, holding an AK47, and holding a Russian matryoshka doll in his arms. Our stereotypes of them come from past and present exchanges.
But we have different cultures, different races, and even different language families. So what do they think of Europeans and Americans who share the same European race, who believe in Christianity (Orthodox Christianity), and who share the same language system?
The author is not a Westerner, and can only summarize some foreign information to see how Europeans and Americans view Russia.
First, wishful thinking
Judging from the data released so far, the confrontation between the United States and Russia in various fields is relatively fierce. I am afraid that many people cannot imagine that many years ago Russia naively thought that it belonged to the large camp of Western countries. For example, Yeltsin, who once shouted that "only Western democracies are our true friends," and Putin, who once integrated Russia into Europe, also said with satisfaction that "this is a historical moment."
But as it turns out, they were all wishful thinking. Snowden has exposed many explosive documents, from the words of some documents we can see that the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are the "5 eyes" that are qualified to spy on the world, which is also commonly known as the "Five Eyes Alliance".
But we know that even if Britain, Canada, Australia, and Singapore are multiplied by 2 together, their capabilities are far inferior to Russia's, but none of this matters. At the end of the day, people don't mean to take you to Russia. Or rather, it is a concrete manifestation of the "non-ethnic group" between the same race.
If you look at the historical reasons, it is also very good to understand the concerns of the United States, Britain and other countries. Ever since the October Revolution, the Western bourgeoisie has discovered that theoretical enemies have emerged in the form of a state. Then there was the Cold War period of the United States and the Soviet Union competing for hegemony, and the Soviet Union in some fields has not only used the term "great power" to describe, but also represents the direction of the development of human scientific and technological civilization. It is not so much that Westerners dislike the Soviet Union as they are really afraid of it.
Finally, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the giants of yesteryear fell. Did the tough guy shed the layers of rock-like muscles and become a pink and cute little girl?
No!
Russia, which has implemented the separation of powers and studied the direct presidential election style of Western politics, is inferior to the Soviet Union in the hearts of Europeans and Americans. After Putin came to power, the West's reports on Russia were: the upstart rich who spent thousands of dollars in high-end shopping malls; the rugged mammoth who soaked blondes on the Côte d'Azur.
And the Russian elite? For example, "the conscience of Russia" Solzhenitsyn, or the chess genius Kasparov. Viewers who are willing to exercise their fingers can look at the above two people in Du Niang's search bar.
While they have great achievements in their respective fields, they have a strong interest in politics without exception, and they oppose the current politics of Russia without exception. The West likes to package such elites as political figures persecuted by Russia.
People often know the two through literature or chess, but they always think that Russia likes to persecute such people politically.
2. Scary Caucasians
Last year, the famous director Nolan released an extremely brain-burning new film "Creed", the main villain of this movie is a plush Russian with a fluffy chest. This seems to have become the norm, such as the world's most profitable film series "007", almost all involving the Soviet Union, Russia are villains, and they are all fat-headed officials and stupid and vicious agents.
On Christmas Day 2013, Russia's permanent representative to NATO, Rogozin, confronted this image and made a big splash of black humor. On his New Year's greeting cards to NATO officials, he printed huge intercontinental missiles and more than 20 missile soldiers with gloomy expressions in gray army coats.
The greeting card was filled with warm wishes: Happy New Year to our NATO friends! In the face of Western skepticism and disapproval, Russia has not been self-reflective, nor has it been without self-doubt. They have made a series of efforts to better integrate into the European and American systems.
As mentioned earlier, Putin has made unremitting efforts to integrate Russia into the European Union, which he has called a "historic moment." But Russia in the Eyes of the West is a declining power. A British journalist once wrote in an editorial: In the eyes of Westerners, Russia is a mob with a lot of oil and gas. As for Russia's long history, great culture and good ideas, no one is interested.
Third, the image of Putin
There are many books about Putin in The country, but in my opinion, among the books on Putin in the Western camp, the most representative of their attitude is the book written by the Finnish journalist Anna Lauren: "These Russians Have Brain Problems."
The journalist, who has worked and lived in Russia for 4 years, has truly experienced Putin's position in the hearts of the Russian people. She wrote in the book: "We don't want the Russians to like Putin, but they enjoy it; we think the Russians should make a color revolution and overthrow Putin's rule, but they want to maintain the current regime for the sake of social stability." "
Westerners think that Putin's domination of Russia in this way will be doomed sooner or later, but the result is just the opposite. In order to prevent Russia's comeback, the West tried its best to pull all the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union into NATO. In 2008, Russia quickly launched the war in Georgia, and NATO's eastward expansion was effectively stopped.
NATO's policy failed, and the EU followed. Then there was the "Eastern Partnership Program," which included the Western Six Countries of the Former Soviet Union, including Ukraine, to westernize "liberal democracy." Well, ukraine is like a quagmire now. Many people still don't understand what is wrong with Ukraine. In fact, you don't have to ask Ukraine, ask the EUROPEAN Union to understand everything.
In Putin's first two terms, although the West did not like Putin, it understood that this was the choice of the Russians. Just two terms later, Putin and his good friend Medvedev played a set of combination punches, which were not recognized by the West. In fact, as a distant neighbor of Germany, their chancellor Angela Merkel is also 4 prime ministers, but no one says that this is a dictator.
In order to eliminate suspicion, Putin has relaxed restrictions on party building since 2012, increasing the number of legal political parties from 7 to 73, encouraging the opposition to run for local councils and political organs; in order to ease the protests in society, Putin has promoted the establishment of "Hyde Park" in major cities such as Moscow, where the public can publicly make anti-government remarks without approval...
Fourth, create a good image
Despite its prejudices, Russia is insisting on changing its image in the eyes of Western countries. For example, the "Valday" International Debate Club, initiated by Russia, the first members are all former politicians and scholars of the "Group of Seven".
Every September, Russia invites dozens of world think tanks to meet for a week, of course, with room and board. The first half discusses major Russian-related issues such as "where is Russia going — back to Europe or forward to Asia?"
In the second half, senior Russian officials took turns to meet, and the "finale" was Putin's banquet. During the banquet, he answered questions from foreign scholars, went straight to the point, spoke concisely, and never avoided sharp topics. In fact, in the author's opinion, the good image of Russia can not be established at all. Because the West wants a fallen Russia, not a rising giant. As long as Russia does not try to fall behind, Then Western politicians will never look down on Russia.