On my way back to Seattle from Sakhalin I read an article in the St. Petersburg Times entitled “The Country Russia Loves to Hate” by Vladimir Ryzhkov, a former Duma deputy and now a host of a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio. He cites a poll recently conducted by the Levada Center indicating that only 2.1 percent of all Russians consider the United States a friend and 45.4 percent see the United States as Russia’s enemy. In the article, Ryzhkov claims that this negative feeling is growing, despite the change in leadership in the U.S.
You can only imagine my dismay having just participated in our bilateral forum, the Russian American Pacific Partnership (RAPP), just days before. There the mood was upbeat and many talked about the “new opportunities” for our two countries due to the “reset of the relationship”. Granted we were at a meeting with people who had “shared interests”, but to read the results of this poll was discouraging. Even Ryzhkov was surprised by the findings. According to the Levada Center study, “Russian respondents were positive that the United States is to blame for the main problems in the world today.”
The article highlights another study conducted in June that indicated that, “85 percent of Russians, as well as their friends and relatives, have never been to the United States” and an 95 percent of respondents said that they “never had any form of contact with an American, or only a brief encounter.”
At our RAPP breakout session on Community Development: Public-Private Cooperation, the importance of exchanges was discussed at length. Over the years many Russians from business, academia, science, government, nongovernment and youth organizations have traveled to the U.S. on U.S. government funded exchange programs. These exchanges help build understanding and further cooperative efforts, a worthwhile investment in my opinion. However, at the meeting it was noted that the number of U.S. youth coming to Russia has decreased. There was a strong call for more funded programs to bring young American students to Russia.
This call for more engagement through exchanges, to bring more Russians in contact with Americans, is an important tool to help improve our mutual understanding and image. Clearly we have some work to do if these polls are indicative of the larger impression by Russians of the United States.
