Nurturing Anti-Americanism in Russia

Thanks to a variety of rather unpopular policies of the current U.S. government (not to mention the Iraq war, Guantanamo, and Abu Graib), anti-Americanism has become a hot political commodity abroad, and a useful invective for any politician to seize upon as a useful distraction or any easy way to score points. Russia is certainly no exception, as the state’s increasingly aggressive and well funded propaganda work to build public animosity toward the United States as enemy No.1 is really beginning to produce strong results. Today the Washington Post reports on the latest Levada Polls, which shows that 64% of Russians aged between 16 and 29 years old describe the United States as an “enemy” or “rival.” Additionally, 54% say that Stalin “did more good than bad” and 63% share the president’s view that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th Century.” Read the complete article here.