From Russia with Suspicion, Contempt, and Designs on New World Order

More local news in a moment... but first, a little foreign policy for breakfast...

When I visited the Soviet Union in its dying days in 1991, I sensed a genuine affection and warmth toward the United States from our young tour guides and the students other folks we met in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1992, when the resurrected tricolor had replaced the Red banner, I went with a group of volunteers to do work for a monastery and a restoration project at an art school, and the nuns and the art students appeared to welcome our help. But I caught myself then perhaps giving us Americans a little too much credit. Every now and then, as we would hand out little packages of M&Ms at a kindergarten or troop back from the jobsite in our bright Western duds (sometimes still more colorful after a hard day's work than the old Soviet grays and browns), I would think, "Oh, aren't we Americans special, shining the light of freedom for these poor oppressed people."

Eesh -- my first experience with being the Ugly American. I ran into more insensitive behavior from fellow Americans on later visits in 1995 and 1997. It was almost too stereotypical to be believed, but I heard an American tourist say, "I wish more of these folks would just speak English." A student I made friends with (Wolf, as he introduced himself) handed me a package of white socks with "USA" up the sides. Another American tourist had given him the socks as a gift. "We already have such things," he said, putting the lie to the tour books that advised Americans to bring our poor Russian friends gifts of basic consumer goods like toothpaste and blue jeans. Wolf and his friends continued to give us Americans gifts of postcards, books, and other mementos of their hometowns.

I don't think occasional acts of cultural insensitivity by American tourists did too much damage to U.S.-Russian relations. But a look at the Russian press today suggests that a much larger arrogance in our foreign policy has obliterated any post-Cold War goodwill on which we might have capitalized. Here's a sampling of stories from the English language edition of the nationalist online newspaper Pravda:

Russia Stands up for New World Without America: "[President] Medvedev has made a timely statement of Russia’s aspiration to become the new economic and political center in the world. The economic isolation of the USA inevitably makes many countries look for new centers of gravity. The concept of building the new economy without America, but with the help of Russia’s growing influence, may seem to be quite alluring to many. The development of USA’s internal economic problems into the global crisis may lead to significant changes in the structure of the world economy. As a result, new centers of gravity may turn out to be successful."

NATO Should Collapse Just like the USSR Did, Putin Believes: "The Russian prime minister also criticized NATO’s aggressive methods of working. 'We both know where the decisions are taken, as a rule: in one of the leading countries of the bloc. They are legitimatized afterwards and obtain an attractive and many-sided meaning,' Putin said."

Of course, the Russians aren't alone in their view that America is taking the wrong path and needs to be checked. At Eurocon-2008 in Moscow, American science fiction author Harry Harrison offered the following assessment of America's shift to fascism (dual shout-out to fascism-watcher Northern Valley Beacon and science-fiction guru Progressive on the Prairie):

“The culture undergoes serious changes – these changes are not always progressive. Within several years of Bush’s rule the American democratic power has turned into the state of a fascist or Stalinist type – the president violates the Constitution, such key principles as freedom of speech and freedom of conscience,” the 83-year-old science fiction writer said in the interview.

“Moreover, the USA behaves absolutely undemocratically towards the world: the USA ignores interests of other countries and it does not even try to understand them. As a result, the USA is simply unaware of the situation in the world and thus it’s unaware of the course it takes. It is a vivid illustration of reversible social and cultural progress.”

Now sure, America will catch some heck from its competitors (and domestic critics) no matter what it does. Anyone who has looked into Putin's eyes and seen his soul knows that Russia is playing power politics and will do or say whatever it can to crack American hegemony.

But the problem is that our buckaroo attitude toward the rest of the world makes it that much easier for Russia to make its case on the world stage. When the Russian president or prime minister or press complains that the U.S. lets its economic problems get out of hand and upset the world economy, or that the U.S. tries to boss its own allies (not to mention its rivals) around, or that the U.S. is oblivious to what's going on in the rest of the world, you can see even our friends nodding in agreement.

If we want our friends to stick with us, we need to be better friends. If we want to spread democracy, we need to act more like a democracy and less like an empire. We can continue to lead the world, but only if we act on the basis of communication, understanding, and cooperation.