Mark N. Katz, a professor of government and politics at George Mason University, writing in the Moscow Times:
I have recently returned from a two-week visit to Moscow where I gave lectures to university students studying international relations at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow State University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. While their views are not representative of all Russians —the students themselves readily acknowledged this — they were nonetheless extremely interesting and a very hopeful sign.
While critical of U.S. foreign policy, the young Russians I spoke to very much want Russia to have good relations with the United States and the West. They see this as being in Russia’s national interest and in their own personal interest as well.
This is because they highly value their ability to travel to the West, something that neither their parents nor grandparents could do in the Soviet Union. Indeed, most of the students I met had traveled abroad. They all fear that deteriorating Russian relations with the West could someday result in their becoming unable to travel there. Many expressed a fear that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s belligerence was going to lead to this.
I was especially surprised at how often I heard students use the expression “this stupid country” to describe Russia. I took this, however, not as an indication of disrespect for their motherland but of disappointment in it not being the modern democratic country that they want it to be.
As expected, the students were uniformly proud of the great Russian cultural figures of the 19th century. During two class discussions, I said a country that could produce Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin and many others is bound to be democratic one day. The students liked this idea but were pessimistic about whether it could be true.
But is precisely this pessimism among educated young Russians that makes me optimistic about the country. There cannot be positive change without the desire for it first. And the young Russians I met definitely have a strong desire to improve the country they live in.
NOTE FROM LR: We condemn in the strongest terms the racist filth poured out by some apparently Russian commenters below in response to this post. We leave them in place for two reasons: (1) they show this writer’s words touched a raw nerve in Russia, exposing the country’s stark barbarism and failure, and especially its deep internal, unspoken dissent and (2) they are representative, in our experience, of wider Russian racism which we have documented many times on this blog. We apologize to any normal reader who may be offended.
La Russophobe 
Russians, like most Europeans, are educated, illuminated people, unlike the cretinous Yanks and their spiritless, materialistic Israeli sidekicks.
“..illuminated people”
This is hilarious ! And your mama is glowing.
He probably meant “Freemasons”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati
Illuminati
Weishaupt had modeled his group to some extent on Freemasonry, and many Illuminati chapters drew membership from existing Masonic lodges.
:-)
owl281,
‘Russians, like most Europeans, are educated, illuminated people, unlike the cretinous Yanks and their spiritless, materialistic Israeli sidekicks.’
Yeah right, owl281 – you must have too much of that contaminated samogon, your basic daily diet Just travel 300-400 km from Moscow and you will see the true Russians; hungry, dirty, with no electricity, running water or gas almost 85% of Russians live in the conditions created by the government – if you are hungry and sick you don’t think about freedom – that’s your beloved government that does it to you. It is indeed a pleasure to see Russia drawning in its own excrements!!!
Ну что здесь можно сказать – Марк Кац старый тупой еврей, наверное. Видимо Кацу следует писать о своей исторической родине и её ближневосточных соседях и не лезть в такую сложную страну как Россия со своими примитивными рассуждениями. Прохфессор, блин.
La Russophobe – did you write the two comments (by owl281 and Strgey) yourself? They stir anti-Russian sentiment more than any single article that you wrote here… I can’t believe Russia produces one, let alone two such vicious idiots like owl281 and Strgey. You must have impersonated loony posters to perpetuate the perception that Russians are violent anti-Semites!
Felix,
Yanks are indeed most idiots incomparable in their intellect with Europeans, and this is an obvious fact clear to any European traveling to USA. And the degree of antisemitism in Strgey’s comments is much smaller than that of malicious russophobia in your and others comments at this forum. Russophobia is not anyhow better than antisemitism.
The worst perpetrators and catalysts of antisemitism are Jews themselves.
Does one really have to “perpetuate the perception” that Russia is the land of pogroms and violent anti-Semites? I have an impression that you Felix were one of thousands Jewish refugees from Russia; if so, you should know better. I can only admire you for your foresight.
I am fortunate that I don’t understand some of those non-English language comments, but the ones in English are enough for me.
There was one Russian poster here, Mr. Ouch, who constantly challenged my notion that Russians are full of anti-American hatred. If you read this, Mr. Ouch, what would you say now?
Felix is not a refugee from Russia. He is a refugee from Latvia, which is in the European Union now.
As far as pogroms go, few if any pogroms ever occurred on the territory that’s now the Russia Federation. All the pogroms in the Russian Empire occurred in territories that now belong to other republics: Ukraine, Moldova, Poland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Jewish_pogroms_in_the_Russian_Empire
Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire
Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, in particular, those of the late 19th century in what today is Ukraine, Moldova and Poland, gave rise to the international loanword pogrom
Felix is a crude and cynical Russian-speaking Jew.
On his website, he mocks the peace symbol with a superimposed B-52, the preferred American annihilator of human life in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and now Iraq and Afghanistan.
He is an enlightened sentient being, par excellence.
Yes, Felix’s preoccupation with hating “the left” and love for wars betray Soviet-style narrow-mindedness. Only the Soviets were knee-jerk leftists, and Felix is a knee-jerk rightist.
I just love how the rightists want to impose “peace, freedom, tolerance and democracy” around the World through wars and extermination of those who disagree with them.
I bet Felix’s Russian hero is Valeria Novodvorskaya, while a pacifist like Andrei Sakharov is an enemy.
Novodvorskaya stated:
“I’m absolutely not concerned about the number of missiles the democratic U.S. will fire against undemocratic Iraq. In my opinion, the more the better.”
This kind of statement would probably not even be found in the Nazi archives.
There was no Poland, Ukraine or Moldova then; it was all Russian Empire, wasn’t it? While it may be true, as far as the geography is concerned, it was only because very few Jews were allowed in Russia proper, which was outside the Pale of Settlement.
There are no doubts however that at least in many cases the pogroms were centrally organized by the Czarist authorities in the capital.
What a sweet couple – RTR and owl281… Zhirinovsky and Makashov will always find common grounds!
Do yourself a favor and try a simple experiment: reading.
At your age, you should be able to understand simple sentences like the ones we have constructed above.
Felix,
Why don’t you go bomb yet another country in the name of “peace”. Who’s next on your list? Iran? N. Korea? Belarus? Abkhazia?
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again for the umpteenth time … Jews robbed Russia high and dry in the 1990s, and many fled to Israel where the tentacles of law do not cross and no extradition can be obtained by Russia or the US
Remember:
Жид Россию не предаст – скажет цену и продаст!!!
I have an irrational leftwing type in my own family. My whole family walks on egg shells trying to avoid getting her going.
Similarly with owl281 & Ziggy who express opinions that are absurd. Americans and Jews do not have a history of attacking and stealing from others.
These kinds of attitudes cause Russia to be a poor nation that will never get ahead. If you instead invited Jews and America to set up industry in Russia and did not rip them off, Russia would soon be prosperous and happy. Russians cause their own poverty.
Economists say you get the kind of government that you deserve.
“Americans and Jews do not have a history of attacking and stealing from others.”
Oh, really? Ha-ha-ha! The whole history of America and Israel is one of attacking other countries and stealing from others. Israel has actually stolen the whole its land.
Listen here Einstein, everybody wants to live in America, and only losers who can’t get into America want to live in the wild dog infested Russia with its ragged babushkas begging on the streets and its drunken abusive men.
And I’m Russian
Totally wrong. I never will trade my old lovely Europe for your stupid ugly America, country of ethnic ghettos and ugly plazas, where there is no architecture, history, culture, nothing at all. The only what you can do well is to feed your stomachs full. But as you are Russian, you’re perhaps hungry, and well adapted to ghetto life. Enjoy US!
Ooops… Am I getting a russophobe?
Yep, and fleas like to live on a dog. What’s the news?
Russians have always claimed to hate their perceived enemy, while sending their children to study in their universities. In the one I’m at now there are no less than three Russian students, all of them happy to be getting some real education rather than the pay-for-grades stuff you get in Moscow.
It’s good to have some useful idiots like you around, though. Keeps me sane.
I agree. It’s very popular in Russia to have an education from USA. I am an example. CAME TO STUDY AND NEVER LEFT. Happy as a clam. Russia will never have a freedom of any kind. What they have is pseudo-freedom. Their education is good- don’t get me wrong, but totalitarian. No free thinking is allowed.
“Economists say you get the kind of government that you deserve.”
You highly deserved Bush and Obama.
Ron,
You write:
“Americans and Jews do not have a history of attacking and stealing from others.”
Orwell must be rolling in his grave.
Ron,
The worst terrorists in the world are the Yanks and the worst thieves are Jews (e.g., Bernard Madoff, the apotheosis).
The Jews did not steal Israel. They bought it. The Arabs sold the land and then later wanted it back.
I was there. I actually watched some of the money being transferred for that purpose.
I watched as the Jews converted raw desert into a productive garden.
I agree that Obama is mentally ill, but Bush converted a raw Islam charnal house into a reasonably free state that has destabilized Islam. This was a payback for 9-11. We found 55 hundred tons of yellowcake which now resides in Canada. Bush did well except that he never was a conservative.
What about huge Arab territories Israel occupied after that, using the US protection?! What about further occupation of the Arab land happening now?! Do you watch the international news?
“I watched as the Jews converted raw desert into a productive garden.”
Sorry, but this is completely irrelevant to our discussion, we’re speaking about attacking other countries and stealing land.
“As for American foreign policy it all revolves around keeping the oil tankers moving and keeping Europe free.”
Very nice and legitimate excuse. What about stealing Texas from Mexico, is this also about tankers and Europe? What about your terrible inhumane attaks on Vietnam, Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Yugoslavia? Did you really need napalm or atom bombing to let your f*** tankers move?
Russia never used chemical or nuclear weapons, btw. My respect to Russians for this, even though they are a “neo-imperial dictatorship state” in your mind. And who are you?!
BTW, I’m neither antisemite, no russophobe.
Quote”Very nice and legitimate excuse. What about stealing Texas from Mexico, is this also about tankers and Europe?”
For your information the US did not steal Texas from Mexico. Texas was an independent republic when its citizens revolted against the Mexican governments injustice and gained their independence in 1835….they were invited to become a member of the union of the US several times, but declined eventually accepting 12 yrs later.
That’s like saying: “Latvia and other Baltic states voluntarily joined Stalin’s UUSR” when their parliament voted to join it in 1940.
The reality is that USA stole Texas and the rest of the USA’s West from Mexico, and Stalin stole the Baltics.
FYI, and in your double-talk language: Abkhasia and South Ossetia are also independent republics when its citizens revolted against the Georgian governments injustice and gained their independence in 1994 ….they will be invited to become a member of the union of Russian Federation, and will eventually accept this.
Russians have killed more of their own citizens than any other country in the history of the world. They have not used atom bombs on Russians simply because it was more cost-effective to kill them with troikas and gulags. Katyn, deportations, assassinations, torture, the Holodomyr, the pogroms, the massacre of the kulaki, etc. etc. etc. are your inhuman crimes. Tsk-tsk.
Oh, of course South Ossetia and Abkhazia will enter the Russian Federation… Just like Texas entered the US, right? Weren’t you giving this example above?
Ah, hypocrites. But of course you’re here just to stir anger, not to discuss, debate or be rational. Suit yourself, dear boy.
As for American foreign policy it all revolves around keeping the oil tankers moving and keeping Europe free.
Ron,
“Keeping Europe free” from whom?
From Turkey? From Russia? Does Russia have plans or abilities to conquer the European Union?
FYI, EU spends orders of magnitude on defense than Russia. England and France each spend more money on defense that Russia, with Germany, Italy and Spain close behind:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
Rank Country World Share (%) ↓
1 United States 41.5
2 China 5.8
3 France 4.5
4 United Kingdom 4.5
5 Russia 4.0
6 Germany 3.2
7 Japan 3.2
8 Italy 2.8
14 Spain 1.3
The only threat to European security came from NATOin 1999, when it illegally attacked Yugoslavia and stole its land.
And who has that land that was stolen? Was it put in crates and shipped to Washington DC?
RV,
In case you didn’t know, Kosovo was taken by NATO from Serbia and given to Albanians. Just as S. Ossetia was taken by Russia from Georgia and given to Ossetians.
But I thought you approved of such actions RTR, after all, you are always trumpeting the separatists cause with regards to their war crimes against ethnic Georgians.
But you said “taken from Yugoslavia.” I believe Kosovars were Yugoslavians. Or to you Yugoslavia means your Orthodox cousins Serbs only?
By the way, I don’t believe Kosovo was “given” to Albania; Albania is separate and Kosovo is separate I think
I usually don’t comment much on things, as I tend to lurk rather than get involved. In this case I’ll make an exception.
I am intrigued and challenged by Owl, Strgy, Ziggy, and Zhidovka’s comments. The high level of your intellect, open mindedness, and willingness to engage in polite discourse renews my faith in humanity. By the way, guys, what color is the sky in your world?
owl281 and Strgey:
Firts of all have you read Mark Katz’s article actually? It seems the only thing read is the headline causing you both to spew such a venom.
In fact whoever this Katz guy is Jew or Dayak he didn’t say anything disparaging about the Russians and their intelligence. The headline referred to his Russian students views on their country’s policy, again, not characterizing the population’s intelligence in general, but applying to the course pursued by the rulers? So what so disrespectful or russiphobic this guy said you’ve taken to bash him with such spite? Well if you worship Medvedev-Putin duo and burn jossticks in front of their images, it’s up to you, but the professor said nothing against Russia, its people, culture or mentality. Even praised them and I guess too much. Yes as any other more or less big country of the European continent, I wanted to write European but that wouldn’t be totally accurate characteristic Russia contributed into the World culture, but was it so exceptional as Russians use to think of it?
Undeniably Baudelaire is more oustanding figure than Pushkin when it comes to poetry, Proust is more interesting and sophisticated than Tolstoy and maybe de Sade is quite shocking and disgusting but but his insights into the darkest abysses of human soul predate Dostoevsky’s ones.
In fact all this glorious Russian culture is just a pale refelction of the European one.
“Undeniably Baudelaire is more oustanding figure than Pushkin when it comes to poetry, Proust is more interesting and sophisticated than Tolstoy and maybe de Sade is quite shocking and disgusting but but his insights into the darkest abysses of human soul predate Dostoevsky’s ones.”
Comparing one great artist to another is silly and childish. They are all unique. Did you also find a backup to Chekhov, Gogol, Kuprin, Griboyedov, Pasternak, Bulgakov, Chaikovsky, Musorgsky, Rachmaninoff, Borodin, Schnittke, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka, Shostakovich? Also, why are you comparing European and Russian rather than French-Russian, German-Russian, Spanish-Rissian, etc? Finally, your comment that “all this glorious Russian culture is just a pale refelction of the European one” is a complete nonsense. Read more and listen more classic music!
You’re actually right, Ziggy. And believe me, I am a great admirer of Russian culture — in that sense I’m as Russophile as it’s possible to be. I speak Russian to my daughter, it’s one of her native languages; we read Pushkin together.
Yet this does not excuse any of the crimes of the Soviet Empire, just as the undeniable beauty of French culture is no excuse for the terror of the French revolution, or the depth and uniqueness of German culture no excuse for Nazism.
Russia, despite is quite admirable culture, is an unfulfilled promise. I really hope that its future will be as bright as a Pushkin novel, rather than as saddening as the reality in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.
Ziggy:
“Also, why are you comparing European and Russian rather than French-Russian, German-Russian, Spanish-Rissian, etc?”
Well, that’s actually what I did in fact. I was kinda comparing Russians and Europeans but actually it was rather Russian-French comparison. And talking about just French culture we can find also a lot of great composers take Berlioz, Debussy or Ravel, though I can admit that the Russians are stronger in the music department, but the Germans beat ’em here like totally. I’m a far cry from a Germanophile but I just can’t but worship old good Ricci Wagner)))
and what’s interesting is that almost every great Russian artist was to a smaller or bigger degree just a follower of some great European (mostly French, English or German). Pushkin imitated Byron, Czaikovsky – Wagner. Not all of them and I can agree with you in part that it’s a bit childish to compare, sure Russia gave the World great artists galore but… Still how many styles or trends were born in Russia instead of being imported and adopted, mostly what Russians did however much they were ranting about their authenticity, uniqueness some great mission and Truth they were supposed to bring to the corrupt and decadent West, was monkeying this very West and stealing its own ideas: Orthodoxy was imported from Bizantium, Conservatism and Romanticism from Germany, Enlightment from France, Marxism, Germany again, so where is that mysterious Russian Idea, its philosophers and ideologues talked about so much?
Transhumanista,
If you think that the French invented what you know them for – Enlightenment, Catholicism and good food – you have real problems with understanding history.
Everybody borrows from everybody else. USA – a country of immigrants – is especially good at borrowing and enhancing the best ideas from the rest of the World. That’s what progress is: learning from others.
If you go through the French or German or English culture with the same attitude, you will discover that all their greatest achievements were also inspired by foreign predecessors. In fact, the German 18th century composers, whom you admire so much, learned from Italians. So what? Does it make Mozart or Beethoven or Schubert less great?
“Pushkin imitated Byron, Czaikovsky – Wagner.”
Come on, Transhumanistua — this is an anecdote. All of them were INDEPENDENT and truly UNIQUE. Also, Pushkin was very broad in his poetry and novels — just read. Can you imagine something as “Captain’s Daughter” to be writen by Byron?!
I respect very much both the European and Russian cultures and think they mutually enrich each other.
RPL:
Well, why ask! That’s obvious – their sky is 3 colors at the same time: white, blue and red, like the glorious RuSSian flag, at least it had been until those mean greeedy fat Yankees stolen original RuSSian colors to use them on their disgusting tasteless mattreess-like parody of a banner (dear LR I hope you aren’t mad at my way sick sense of humor I hope you don’t take it as an insult of your country ), so now the life’s grown really tough on a Russian man, even his favority colors desecrated by Americans can’t warm him any more)))))
Europe is not under threat from Russia. It is under threat from Islam and the left.
Europe is under threat from Islamic radicalism, but not the left — the left has been dominant there for quite some time.
Europe is also under threat from expanding US hegemony and NATO enlargement.
Ron wrote: “American foreign policy revolves around keeping the oil tankers moving and keeping Europe free. Europe is not under threat from Russia. It is under threat from Islam and the left.”
So, how do you see this? How is USA “keeping Europe free from Islam and the left”?
How is USA “protecting” Europe from “the left”? Is USA murdering members of the Labour Party in UK and Socialists in France and Italy? How about the socialist Scandinavian countries? Is USA waging a war on Denmark, Norway and Sweden? LOL.
And how is USA “protecting” Europe from “Islam”? Exterminating Muslim residents of Europe?
In any case, why should it be USA’s job to fight wars on Europe’s left and Islam? If such wars need to be fought – then shouldn’t Europe do it? USA is a smaller country than EU. So, why should USA and US taxpayers do everything for Europeans?
Your concern for American taxpayers is very touching, especially considering how much you hate America and Americans
Europe has had it’s moral fiber eroded by the left. This is about to change.
Islam has been driven out before. First into Spain and then across into Africa.
Dimbulb Obama will be the initial instrument of this change. The reason is that Europe was the powerhouse that was our beginning. We are willing to fight to give them the required backbone.
But, Ron, does the US President have enough support to start a war on socialist countries; France, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway? Will there be enough volunteers willing to sacrifice their lives to exterminate those vile socialist Frenchies and Norwegians? I am sure the US has enough resolve to re-name French fries into Freedom fries, but are you prepared to fry the French in a nuclear holocaust?
There are all kinds of ways to do things short of the use of large scale armies. Iraq and the purple fingers proves that Islamic peoples want their freedom.
Obama and his crowd have already started the war. Of course they lack the sophistication to know what they have done. This war will spread.
Now hear this!
Uneuphemistically, Russian pop music sucks big time!
This is coming from a Russian Jew.
BTW, I am a Christianized Russian Jew.
I’ll have to concede that the most creative and artistic period in Russian music was before 1917.
That is, music that is heard, remembered, and cherished for probably the next few centuries.
Admittedly, the pop music that Russians compose today is so monotonous and repetitive, that it is forgotten easily – almost within a day.
That is probably the result of the Soviet crushing of creativity.
Seems that Russians worldwide share the notion that Putinist Russia is a stupid country. Even the proudest super-Rooshuns avoid getting there at any cost if possible, despite all their belligerent speeches on the Internet forums.
“The question asked to Internet users in Latvia during the research was: “Where would you go, if you were forced to leave the country?” … despite the massive Russian propaganda efforts, the participants representing the Russian speaking minority (mostly Soviet era settlers from USSR and their children), chose Russia as their destination of choice in only 6% of the cases!”
Welcome back, Georg/elmer/voroBey.
Sorry, but I thought your name was RTR/Michael Tal/Phobodunce/Ostap the Bender etc?
RPL,
‘I am intrigued and challenged by Owl, Strgy, Ziggy, and Zhidovka’s comments. The high level of your intellect, open mindedness, and willingness to engage in polite discourse renews my faith in humanity. By the way, guys, what color is the sky in your world?
Here is the response, ‘Owl, Strgy, Ziggy and Zhidovka – they are all the same person – ex KGB in his seventies, on pension of 40 dollars a month, living in one room with no inside toilet and no need for the bathroom either, undernourished, sick with no proper medical care, with gold teeths [always the high fashion in Russia], dressed in the latest Russian fashion [Oh my God!!]. He probably spent at least 10 years on paid vacation Soviet/Russian style in Vorkuta, Magadan or any other of those famous ‘kurorty’ or gulags. He probably walked directly from the Red Square after the victory parade to gulags, as millions of other soviet heroes, only because he was exposed to the western influence and contaminated by those revolting western ideas of freedom and tolerance. He is a typical happy russian savage – the backbone of Russian society. RPL; now you know.
I am actually 27 years old.
And your creative IQ does not exceed 80 on your best day.
Hey Porno xxx,
thanks for very precise description of your own life. I regret that we have to pay our taxes to provide lousy emigres like you with a welfare. You and your friends should be deported back to Magadan.
My God!
Yeah, it’s a pity that Ziggy&Co just seem to like to dish out offenses rather than engage in any dialogue. It’s this everybody-is-our-enemy mentality that is so saddening in so many Russian infonauts…
xxx, your description is certainly inaccurate for the individuals, but it does show what the problems with Russian history are. And yet I do have a profound faith in the capacity of the Russian people — the real Russians, not owl, Ziggy et caterva — to survive and flourish in a way that goes beyond the petrified imagination of their leaders. Not for nothing were so many of Russia’s most famous artists exhiled, deported, or persecuted… and yet, despite the persecution of the Russian government du jour, such great minds kept appearing.
Yes that’s absolutely true. Russia is dummy, crazy country… and Russia wish other countries live in the russian way.
They (KGB or FSB) killed our orange revolution in Ukraine and wish us to live with them in the same country!!!
Never.
Imposter?
Nah. Just another person named Robert. (fluke)
Robert (#1)
An emphatic no!, about the other Robert being an imposter – just look at his “monoker,” it is completely different to yours, both in layout and color.
LES as usual is 100% right.
@Robert: Actually, it was the Ukrainian voters who killed your “orange” revolution, primarily because Yuschenko made it look “brown”, as in “brown shirts”. No wonder the brown Social-Nationalist Party won the majority vote in Yuschenko’s beloved orange-brown West Ukraine.
The difference between Russia and the West is that in the West, we get a tax bill from the government and we pay it. We do not cheat as much, nor steal as much. I think it is because we are more closely related to the Roman Empire where the citizens obeyed the Emperor and Roman Law. Russian people think they are moral, but when you compare them to people of the West, they are real chislers.
The difference between Russia and the West is that in the West, we get a tax bill from the government and we pay it, so they can spray us with chemtrails, commit inside jobs against us citizens with this money, whatever. In Russia, the USAmericans bribe Putin and spray the entire Russian population with chemtrails just like that, without using the Russian taxpayers’ money. You see the difference?
Жид Россию не предаст – скажет цену и продаст, педераст!!!
I believe america is the main problem in this world,stupid evil government leading the most ignorant people that ever existed on earth.