Russia wakes up to Obama's America
05 November 2008 à 15h19
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Compared to the rest of the world, Russian interest for the American elections was very moderate. After Obama’s victory, Moscow remains cautious and waits for concrete declarations.
While the entire world was watching the American elections closely, Russian media and opinion seemed calm, compared to the international fever of the last few days.
Is it the legendary strained relationship between the USA and Russia speaking ? Or has the recent Georgian crisis made them more inward-looking ?
Until yesterday, the agitation was mainly on the internet.
Almost 3,000 Russian citizens cast their votes in a Gazeta.ru-sponsored poll: Barack Obama defeated John McCain 68 to 32 percent.
A surprising choice in a country stereotypically considered to be a racist and conservative nation.
This relative interest was probably due to the anti-Putin rhetoric of Obama’s former rivals.
John McCain clearly expressed his support to the Georgian and Ukranian governments last summer, and said about the Russian president “I looked into his eyes, and I saw K-G-B,”.
Hillary Clinton declared that “Putin has no soul”. The declarations were not very helpful when we know that Vladimir Putin still enjoys nearly 80 percent approval rating.
Olga Smalirovna, teaches International Relations at the Lomonossov University in Moscow : « The Russians like Obama because he reminds them of their president Medvedev, who is 42. Russians are known for paying attention to style and looks. They think that Obama is sharp, and he is a great orator.
He is also a promise of positive change for the USA, and Russians have the feeling they are living through a positive change since Putin’s election, as they improved their quality of life. »
But this positive opinion doesn’t really reflect the official line in Russia. Politics and media remain focused on the bad quality of relations between the two countries.
Mr Dolinski, a journalist for the French Russian language weekly Russian Thought , is sceptical : « Obama’s team never said very good things about Russia. The government has decided to adopt a wait-and-see policy. But everybody hopes to come back to the pre-Bush situation »
This morning, the Russian government welcomed the news with its usual caution.
"The news we are receiving on the results of the American presidential election shows that everyone has the right to hope for a freshening of US approaches to all the most complex issues, including foreign policy and therefore relations with the Russian Federation as well ," said the Russian deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin.
Vladimir Jirinovski, the ultranationalist leader was even more radical: "Obama, is the American Gorbachev. He won’t rebuild the US, he will destroy it, » he said yesterday to a Russian press agency.
But it is not necessary to listen to the « extremists » to feel Russian worries. The NATO issue is enough to irritate Russian opinion, as you can read in Komsomolskaya Pravda : « Barack Obama’s team, behind its pretended liberalism, is going to continue its movement to encircle Russia. »
No matter the president’s age or color. As long as Ukraine and Georgia stand between Russia and the USA, their relationship will still be somewhat stormy.
While the entire world was watching the American elections closely, Russian media and opinion seemed calm, compared to the international fever of the last few days.
Is it the legendary strained relationship between the USA and Russia speaking ? Or has the recent Georgian crisis made them more inward-looking ?
Until yesterday, the agitation was mainly on the internet.
Almost 3,000 Russian citizens cast their votes in a Gazeta.ru-sponsored poll: Barack Obama defeated John McCain 68 to 32 percent.
A surprising choice in a country stereotypically considered to be a racist and conservative nation.
This relative interest was probably due to the anti-Putin rhetoric of Obama’s former rivals.
John McCain clearly expressed his support to the Georgian and Ukranian governments last summer, and said about the Russian president “I looked into his eyes, and I saw K-G-B,”.
Hillary Clinton declared that “Putin has no soul”. The declarations were not very helpful when we know that Vladimir Putin still enjoys nearly 80 percent approval rating.
Olga Smalirovna, teaches International Relations at the Lomonossov University in Moscow : « The Russians like Obama because he reminds them of their president Medvedev, who is 42. Russians are known for paying attention to style and looks. They think that Obama is sharp, and he is a great orator.
He is also a promise of positive change for the USA, and Russians have the feeling they are living through a positive change since Putin’s election, as they improved their quality of life. »
But this positive opinion doesn’t really reflect the official line in Russia. Politics and media remain focused on the bad quality of relations between the two countries.
Mr Dolinski, a journalist for the French Russian language weekly Russian Thought , is sceptical : « Obama’s team never said very good things about Russia. The government has decided to adopt a wait-and-see policy. But everybody hopes to come back to the pre-Bush situation »
This morning, the Russian government welcomed the news with its usual caution.
"The news we are receiving on the results of the American presidential election shows that everyone has the right to hope for a freshening of US approaches to all the most complex issues, including foreign policy and therefore relations with the Russian Federation as well ," said the Russian deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin.
Vladimir Jirinovski, the ultranationalist leader was even more radical: "Obama, is the American Gorbachev. He won’t rebuild the US, he will destroy it, » he said yesterday to a Russian press agency.
But it is not necessary to listen to the « extremists » to feel Russian worries. The NATO issue is enough to irritate Russian opinion, as you can read in Komsomolskaya Pravda : « Barack Obama’s team, behind its pretended liberalism, is going to continue its movement to encircle Russia. »
No matter the president’s age or color. As long as Ukraine and Georgia stand between Russia and the USA, their relationship will still be somewhat stormy.
