Russia has not deal with adversity well, but they did not deal with the oil boom well either. Putin and his Russian colleagues have been to selfish with their assets and too autocratic in their dealings with people at home and abroad. While I do not hold Obama in high regard, I think he will probably be much more accommodating to the Russians than they probably deserve.BARACK Obama will have few traffic problems getting to the Kremlin for his first summit with Russian president Dmitri Medvedev on Monday – the Obamamania that has swept much of the rest of the world is absent from Moscow; there will be no adoring crowds to greet him.
A recent poll by Russia's Levada Centre found only 23 per cent of citizens believe the US president will "do the right thing in world affairs", with many doubting his promise of change will heal antagonisms between Russia and the West.
A long list of issues – from Nato's eastward expansion, to missile defence, to human rights, to the contest for oil and gas in Central Asia – continue to poison relations between the former Cold War superpowers.
Russian news agency Pravda was less than subtle in an editorial summing up the Obama administration, headlined: "Obama: Deceiver, cheat, swindler, liar, fraudster, con-artist."
The root cause of the antagonism is a belief in the Kremlin that relations with the West must inevitably be a "zero-sum" game – every gain for the West is a loss for Russia.
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That said, he apparently has gotten an agreement to allow troops and arms to be sent to Afghanistan through Russia. That is a good deal, but it is with an impetuous power that can take it away on whim.
David Ignatius quotes the Russians on the "reset" button.
... "What happens when you press the reset button on a computer?" he muses. "It goes dark, and then after a while the same screen comes back again."The Russian sense of grievance seems to spring from the failure of the Soviet Union as well as the failure to recover from that demise.
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3 comments:
"The Russian sense of grievance seems to spring from the failure of the Soviet Union as well as the failure to recover from that demise."
Exactly summed. Thank you.
A "sense of grievance" seems to rule so many groups today, not just the Russians. It has its foundation in a narcissistic magical belief that one shouldn't have to play by the same rules and consequences as others.
The Russians, like so many others, refuse to bear authentic witness to their own history.
Jokes aren't funny unless they contain an element of truth.
The "zero sum" mindset in Russian culture is reflected in a joke told to me by a emigrant Muscovite:
A Russian bureaucreat asks a man about his neighbor.
"He has a goat" replies the man.
"Would you like a goat too?" asks the bureaucrat.
"No." replies the man curtly.
"Would you like two goats?" asks the bureaucrat.
"No." the man replies again.
"Then, what would you like?" asks the bureaucrat.
"I want that my neighbor's goat should die."
It is hard to negotiate with some people.
P.s. Moscow lost and Los Angeles won big when my friend moved here. Too bad.
Jokes aren't funny unless they contain an element of truth.
The "zero sum" mindset in Russian culture is reflected in a joke told to me by a emigrant Muscovite:
A Russian bureaucreat asks a man about his neighbor.
"He has a goat" replies the man.
"Would you like a goat too?" asks the bureaucrat.
"No." replies the man curtly.
"Would you like two goats?" asks the bureaucrat.
"No." the man replies again.
"Then, what would you like?" asks the bureaucrat.
"I want that my neighbor's goat should die."
It is hard to negotiate with some people.
P.s. Moscow lost and Los Angeles won big when my friend moved here. Too bad.
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