#29 ON GEOECONOMICS and GEOPOLITICS

anti-US sentiment in Russia

cs loh

Sep 23, 2023

Summary

Historically, anti-US sentiment in Russia has come to the fore every time Moscow has decided to shift its policy from one of economic reform and modernisation to one more focused on maintaining domestic stability. This remains true today.
Deep down, Russia knows that it is predominantly a European/Western nation that has long sought to be accepted by the West. This is what makes anti-Western sentiment in Russia so conflicted.
Nevertheless, post-imperial Russia has often constructed its identity in contrast with a “morally corrupt” America, seeking to attribute to this American “Other” some of those traits that it is often guilty of possessing itself: an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy that, if it could, would seek to dominate the world.
Jealousy, an inability to emulate American successes and a deep-seated “inferiority complex” vis-à-vis the West have all contributed to Russia’s hostility towards the US.
Furthermore, just as anti-US sentiment can be linked to anti-Semitism in Europe, so can it be in Russia.
Russian anti-Americanism is also a political tool that aims to foster national unity, bolster the Kremlin’s domestic legitimacy and build a global “anti-US camp” so as to weaken America’s global hegemony.
But playing this anti-America card is a double-edged sword that may well end up both hollowing out Russia’s national identity and jeopardising the country’s long-term economic prospects and social progress.
Moreover, anti-Americanism has encouraged the emergence of xenophobic, pro-fascist and militaristic views in Russia.
The resurgence of Russian anti-Americanism has gone hand in hand with the rise of Moscow’s “expansionist hawks” and has been one of the driver’s of the Kremlin’s increasingly aggressive behaviour abroad since the late 2000s.
10. Today’s Russia is reminiscent of post-World War I Germany: a deeply humiliated and resentful former empire (or something akin to one) with an “insatiable desire” to restore its former glory.