Negative Views

From the MT:

"Majority of Russians and Americans View Each Other's Country Negatively, Polls Show"

The number of Russians and Americans who view each others' country negatively has soared during the Ukraine crisis, while more than four in 10 Russians believe the NATO countries have reason to fear Russia, recent poll results have shown. According to a survey released Wednesday by independent pollster Levada Center, the number of Russians whose attitude toward the U.S. is "bad" or "very bad" is 61 percent, compared to 56 percent in early March, and 44 percent in January. Over the same period, the number of those whose attitude toward the U.S. is "good" or "very good" has dropped to 26 percent, compared to 34 percent in early March, and 43 percent in January.

Americans' views of Russia have undergone similar changes with 68 percent, or more than two-thirds, viewing Russia as "unfriendly" or an "enemy," a Gallup poll released last week showed. That figure has soared from 44 percent in the second half of 2013 and just 20 percent in 2006, following the Russian-Western dispute over Ukraine and Moscow's annexation of Crimea in March. The number of Americans who view Russia as an "ally" or a "friendly" country has plummeted to 26 percent in 2014, compared to 50 percent in 2013 and 73 percent in 2006, survey results published on the Gallup website show. Meanwhile, 44 percent of Russians think the NATO countries have grounds for fearing Russia, compared to 33 percent in 2008 and 29 percent in 2002, the Levada poll shows. Sixty-two percent of respondents believe that Russia has grounds for fearing the NATO countries, up from 54 percent in 2000. The poll also shows that 70 percent of Russians think that their country's influence in the world is "large" or "rather large," compared to 51 percent who thought so in 2011, while the number of those who think that Russia's influence is "not very large" or that it wields "no influence at all" has dropped to 25 percent, compared to 46 percent in 2011. Another Levada poll showed last month that nearly two-thirds of Russians viewed their country as a great power, while nearly half of those surveyed said they wanted it to be perceived as a superpower that is respected and feared by other nations. The latest Levada poll was conducted from March 21-24 among 1,603 people in 45 Russian regions and gave a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

The Gallup poll was conducted from March 22-23 among 1,012 people living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It gave a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.

^ This is sad that the ordinary people of both Russia and the US see each other as the enemy. It is one thing for governments and politicians to do that and another for regular people. I am surprised that so many Russians see their country as a major power though. The US is currently the only Super Power left in the world, but there are other countries that have the potential to become one: ie China. I don't currently put Russia in that category. Yes they have a powerful military and they occupy parts of the Ukraine, but that doesn't make a country a Super Power. You have to have influence around the world and Russia lost that when the Soviet Union collapsed. I have lived and traveled around ordinary Russians (both inside Russia, inside the US and around the world) and what they tell me, as well as history, is that Russians (like Germans) need to be led. They need a strong leader to tell them what to do, how to do it and when to do it. The Germans had the Kaiser, Hitler and the occupation forces (until 1990.) The Russians had the Czars, Stalin, the Communists and now Putin. Whether right or wrong that is their history and makes up who they are as a people. They don't tend to question things. They may not like everything that is going on, but in public they tend to fully support the official line of the day and they talk badly about it in private. Old habits die hard in Russia. I remember when I was living there and everyday I would either walk or take a trolley-bus. Whenever we got near the old KGB building in the city you could see people going out of their way to cross the street and not have to walk in front of it. That is just one example of how things tend not to change. It has been 23 years since the USSR collapsed and that building is no longer used for anything related to the KGB or any government ministry and yet people still fear it. Hopefully, the ordinary people of Russia and the US can look past the politics and remember what brings them together. ^

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/majority-of-russians-and-americans-view-each-others-country-negatively-polls-show/497403.html