[Goose]

Our, or at least my, main exposure to Russian citizens is framed by a very unrepresentative urban elite with access to international business and travel.  That's not the average Russian.  Outside of Moscow, St Petersburgh (combined population 18m) and a few others (and only a small subset of the folks living there) we have very little insight into how Russian citizens view the West.  My guess is it's not good.


The EU and western approach to Russia has been to increase financial and cultural partnerships with the belief that nations do not go to war with their biggest trading partner and people they think of as "like them".  We're seeing that this approach doesn't penetrate much beyond the elite business classes.

It doesn't penetrate there either nearly as much as the Ostpolitik" folks would like us to believe IMHO. The Russian elites are in fact not at all like us. They live in a kleptocracy where Putin and other "people of influence" can squash them like bugs without consequences. Their entire historical frame of reference going back centuries is totally unlike the US and European one. In Russia, it is never fair, it is never just, and you don't expect it to be. Whether that is good or bad, doesn't matter. There is nothing you can do about it. It is always like that. The alternative is the chaos of the early 90s. The elites certainly don't want that, and in the main the average Russian doesn't either. After all, Putin did "bring a certain order". For most Russians, that is all one can hope for. That is why they accept all this, because they think they have little choice. And as long as they believe that, they are correct.

[Goose]

Our, or at least my, main exposure to Russian citizens is framed by a very unrepresentative urban elite with access to international business and travel.  That's not the average Russian.  Outside of Moscow, St Petersburgh (combined population 18m) and a few others (and only a small subset of the folks living there) we have very little insight into how Russian citizens view the West.  My guess is it's not good.


The EU and western approach to Russia has been to increase financial and cultural partnerships with the belief that nations do not go to war with their biggest trading partner and people they think of as "like them".  We're seeing that this approach doesn't penetrate much beyond the elite business classes.

It doesn't penetrate there either nearly as much as the Ostpolitik" folks would like us to believe IMHO. The Russian elites are in fact not at all like us. They live in a kleptocracy where Putin and other "people of influence" can squash them like bugs without consequences. Their entire historical frame of reference going back centuries is totally unlike the US and European one. In Russia, it is never fair, it is never just, and you don't expect it to be. Whether that is good or bad, doesn't matter. There is nothing you can do about it. It is always like that. The alternative is the chaos of the early 90s. The elites certainly don't want that, and in the main the average Russian doesn't either. After all, Putin did "bring a certain order". For most Russians, that is all one can hope for. That is why they accept all this, because they think they have little choice. And as long as they believe that, they are correct.