#15 - JRL 2006-206 - JRL Home
RIA Novosti
September 12, 2006
Five years after September 11. Russian attitude towards America

Moscow. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kolesnikov) September 11, 2001 drastically changed our vision of the modern world order.

Civilization suddenly faced extraordinary challenges, its inability to guarantee security and the need to find a non-trivial response to intricate and evolving methods used by terrorists.

The attacks targeted the U.S. Five years ago we all felt a bit American, as the shock from the outbreak of WWIII reverberated around the world. The attack was broadcast live and online. Today, however, Russians no longer feel that they are fighting this war together with the U.S. The reason, they believe, is the Bush administration's desire to impose their values on the world. This position can be interpreted in different ways; we are not going to judge it here, we are just stating that this is a prevailing sentiment among Russian people. Most of them, however, feel positive about America itself.

A survey conducted by the VTsIOM public opinion research center shows that the correlation of positive and negative responses is 49% to 34%. This is a deterioration against 2002, when 63% of respondents felt positive about the United States against 21% who expressed negative feelings. These findings are confirmed by another poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, a prominent pollster: 15% of respondents said their attitudes toward America had been good a year or two before, but deteriorated since then. Moreover, as many as 18% said that the main reason for the September 11 attacks was "the U.S. (President Bush) foreign policy, its aspiration for global domination and interference in other countries' affairs." Only 6% described the tragedy as "actions of criminals and terrorists", unprovoked by the U.S. The VTsIOM poll respondents said that the goal of the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq was to reinforce America's stand in the world.

Remarkably, these views, which are more likely to be voiced by left European intellectuals than by ordinary Russians, are supported mainly by respondents with better education and income, who are better adjusted in society and are in the most active age group, i.e. 36-54, according to the Public Opinion Foundation. Apparently, this group knows why we should dislike America better than other groups that are less educated, but more composed in their attitudes. The VTsIOM survey, however, shows that America's foreign policy is better understood by young people and sometimes even supported: as many as 22% of Russians aged 18-24 said they supported the U.S. efforts, including in Iraq.

Negative attitudes towards the U.S. foreign policy doctrine on the part of better educated and more affluent people in active age groups are not necessarily related to their post-imperial "phantom-limb pains" and complexes but to their vision of civilized values and a multi-polar world. As many as 61% of affluent respondents in the VTsIOM poll were more aware of the increasing terrorism threat, and in this respect this is the most pessimistic group. Apparently, this group believes that the U.S. policy provokes terrorists' action and therefore diminishes global security. In other words, Russians view the United States as a powerful, but overly active geopolitical player that is trying to spread its influence to as many countries and regions as possible. A similar role traditionally belonged to the Soviet Union and was passed on to Russia. So Russian respondents are inclined to assess the U.S. with a view to competition for geopolitical influence. But it is still a competitor, not an adversary.

After all, 77% of Russians took the September 11 attacks "to heart", the Public Opinion Foundation's poll showed. Normal human emotions prevailed over rational analysis. The latter is not in favor of U.S. policy, but it is neutral and even well-wishing towards American people.