Russian Paranoia?

[Pravoslavnik]

With the apparent escalation of tensions between Russia and the West lately, (e.g., the turmoil in the Ukraine and Estonia, the missle defense conflict in Poland and the Czech Republic, and the Litvenenko and Berezovsky cases) I would like to raise an issue which is directly relevant for the Orthodox Churches today. Is Russia paranoid about the West? More specifically, do the Russian people, and President Putin in particular, have exaggerated or imaginary fears about the U.S. and the E.U.? Do they really believe that the West is intending to harm or attack them in some way, and why?

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     President Putin has publicly said through Interfax that he views the Orthodox Church as an effective weapon of Russian foreign policy and self defense--a sort of Orthodox geopolitical judo partner.  I have no formal knowledge of foreign policy or geopolitical/military issues, but certainly wonder what Mr. Putin is trying to defend [i]against[/i].  My own impression is that the West has very much wanted Russia to succeed in its transition from a state-run, centralized Soviet economy and political system, to a functional, democratic "free market."  Why else would the West (e.g., the IMF) have poured so much money into Russia after the fall of the Soviet government?  If Russia succeeds, everyone wins geopolitically--except, perhaps, the Chechens.

        We all know that Hitler and the Nazi regime were plagued by severe paranoia, with disastrous consequences for the entire world.  Is the same thing true of Russia today, and, if so, what can be done to improve this situation?  Any thoughts?

[stumbler]

I certainly think that the Russian people have many reasons to justifiably fear the United States.

Take a look at a map, particularly noting where U.S. troops and bases are. Japan, where we have huge bases, is such a close neighbour to Russia that they are still arguing over the ownership of a few small islands and Russian fishermen regularly stop in (sometimes illegally) for supplies.

We are building MULTIPLE bases in Iraq. We have built bases in what the State Department likes to call "The Stans," including on formerly Soviet territories with concentrations of ethnic Russians and Russian speaking peoples.

We have 10's of thousands of troops nearby both eastern and western Russian borders, in South Korea and in Germany, where I saw a recent statistic indicates we have 75,000 military personnel. We have troops to the south, in Iraq and the stans, we are arming and equipping the Poles (who negotiated during their f-16 fighter purchase to have some assembly of the planes done in Poland.) We also have many bases in alaska, a mere 60 miles across the Bering Strait from Russia.

How would you feel if the United States were surrounded by Russian military installations? How about if Russia was spending money to influence elections in Canada and Mexico, like the $65 million we poured into the Ukrainian "Orange Revolution," which left the Ukraine with a gridlocked and bickering government?

The U.S. is acting quite aggressively toward Russia, and that should be a concern to every nation.

We must also remember that MacCarthyism left some scars on American thinking concerning Russia and Russians. Remember the U.S. propaganda films, like "Duck and Cover," which were shown to generations of schoolchildren - and implied that the Russians were ready at any moment to drop a nuclear bomb on them for no reason.

Surely, a duck and cover maneuver won't do much good in case of a direct nuclear attack, but it did manage to terrorize children into hating Russians for being bad and mean and scary and dangerous.

There are a lot of Americans who still feel that way about Russia and Russians, and many more are familiar with Russian gangsters who ply their trade here, and have that impression of Russians.

I don't want Putin running my church, or anyone else's for that matter, and I certainly don't want to belong to a church that claims I must support all of his "good initiatives," but I don't see anything wrong with supporting the idea of a strong Russia.

I also support the idea of a strong America, though I would prefer we used our power differently.

I think eventually, in the near future, we will be seeing a tri-polar arrangement - The U.S. - A Sino-Russian Alliance - and The E.U.

At least that is what I hope we will see, because three legs, unlike one or two, makes a very stable stool.

I don't think the Russians are "paranoid" at all. I think Putin and the Russian people are responding to U.S. actions and placements of U.S. troops, increasing U.S. involvement on and near the Russian borders, and various western attempts to use NGO's and "religious organizations" to push a U.S. agenda in Russia itself and on Russia's borders.

[Pravoslavnik]

Stumbler,

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  As an American who grew up learning how to "duck and cover" under my desk in grade school, I must disagree with a few of your points.  Certainly, it must superficially appear quite menancing for the U.S. and NATO to establish defensive military installations on the periphery of Russia, but why does this imply that the West would want to attack or harm the Russia Federation?  These installations are clearly in place as a reaction to the Comintern geopolitcal agenda of the former Soviet Union, which had an extensive history of invading and controlling neighboring nations with military and police forces for decades--Poland, the Baltic states, Czechoslovakia. Hungary, etc.  What is happening in the former Warsaw Pact nations is not a danger to Russia, but a defensive reaction to the conduct of the former Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.

     As a child, I was certainly frightened by Nikita Kruschev banging his shoe on the podium at the U.N. and saying that the Soviet Union "will bury" the U.S., but I also--in time--developed a deep appreciation for the history and culture of "Holy Russia" in particular--for Dostoevsky, Gogol, Turgenev, and the compositions of the Mighty Five.  When the Soviet Government initiated Glasnost and Perestroika, then later fell, I viewed this as a postentially positive turning point in world history---the end of the Cold War hostilities, and a new era of cooperation and growth throughout Eurasia and the world.

   Obviously, the disastrous, obtuse foreign and military policies of Bush and Cheney have worsened the entire geopolitical picture, but, as naive as it may seem, I do not believe that the U.S. or the E.U. has any realistic intention of attacking or undermining Russia.  Napoleon is dead, and so are Hitler and the Teutonic Papists who fought against St. Alexander Nevsky, and we have all certainly learned something from their disastrous intentions toward Russia.  Bush and Cheney, mercifully for all of us, will be out of office shortly, and, perhaps, a new era of true friendship and cooperation can develop between Russia and the West.

    Frankly, I think Putin and the former hard-line Soviets either know something important about Western geopolitics that I don't, or they are simply afraid of their own shadows and inner darkness. In short, I think that Putin and the`Russians are truly paranoid about the West.

[stumbler]

My personal opinion, as a Russian-American born in America, is that you seem quite naive.

Evil is not the province of one side or the other, and racism is racism.

There is no loud voice to decry racism against Russians.

Once, when I was in 4th grade, an old Babushka came to pick up her grandson Alex, a classmate of mine, and I was there and spoke to her in Russian. For the rest of my tenure at that school, which was thankfully brief, Alex and I were referred to as "Russian Potatoes" and far, far worse.

There is no reason for the U.S. to need troops surrounding Russia. We are not "good" any more than they are.

[Pravoslavnik]

Stumbler,

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  In looking at possible "paranoia," I believe that we must test reality carefully.  I am not so naive as to imagine that the U.S. is not capable of evil, nor do I imagine that Russia is, necessarily, any more evil than any other nation--Japan, Germany, America, etc.  Your experience as an American immigrant is by no means unusual, nor is it specific to Russians.  Throughout its history Americans have always treated immigrants with hostility.  There was a time when signs in America said, "The Irish need not apply," and my Slovenian aunts told me stories about American kids throwing rocks at them in the 1930's and calling them "Cat-lickers" and "Bohunks" (i.e., Catholics and erstwhile Bohemians.)

   In truth, homo sapiens have always been tribal, xenophobic, and genocidal, just like our closest primate relatives, the chimpanzees.  Nevertheless, I don't realistically imagine that the U.S. or the E.U. has any intention of attacking Russia.  Why would they?  What would be achieved by such stupidity?  It seems clear to me that it is entirely in the best interest of the West for Russia to prosper and to maintain friendly political and economic relations with the West. 

   Hitler's paranoia was largely a projection of his own internal hostility and hatred of everything that he perceived as non-German--Slavs, Jews, French, English, etc.  Could the same phenomenon be occurring in the modern Russian Federation?  I have read that there is a surge of xenophobia and Russian nationalist sentiment in Russia today, which is perhaps being used by politicians to enhance their own popularity.  This is all too similar to other facist political movements in modern European history, which often devolve into paranoid foreign relations.

[stumbler]

As I stated, I am not an immigrant. I was born in America. I was singled out for speaking a different language to a "different person" - a babushka with a head scarf who came to pick up her grandson at school.

Just look at the immigration debate here if you want to see xenophobia.

I detect in your post an inability to see both sides using the same criteria.

What about American nationalism? All the people who yell at any given opportunity "We're Number One" - while the only thing we are number one in is incarceration rates per capita. Certainly not in education or health care or infant mortality or lifespan.

(BTW, I do happen to believe our border should be less porous and that immigration at this point is changing American culture. Is that "xenophobia" a result of my Russian heritage?)

[Pravoslavnik]

Stumbler,

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    There is, no doubt, a degree of xenophobia in modern America, as you can attest, but America has generally been able to get past this tendency--partly because we are a nation formed almost entirely of immigrants.  Look at the wide-scale rioting in France last year, by way of comparison. If Americans I have known personally are xenophobic, in any enduring way, it usually has to do with the ideal of the [i]melting pot[/i]; are the  immigrants coming here really endeavoring to be Americans, or are they simply wanting to take advantage of American liberty and opportunities-- which were "bought" at a price--without assimilating and becoming fellow citizens?  For example, I live in a city that has a large number of Mexican immigrants--some legal, many illegal.  It doesn't really bother me, since, afterall, my region of the county used to be part of Mexico, but I do feel a little annoyed with the  large scale Cinco de Mayo celebrations when all of the local Mexicans cruise around with Mexican flags draped from their cars.  Do they also celebrate the 4th of July?  Nevertheless, I do not support the xenophobic politicians who want to build a wall on our border, or harrass immigrants.

    Americans have also been xenophobic during times of war or perceived national threats.  My grandfather, the son of German immigrants, was spied on at his business by the FBI during World War I, and the parents of my best friend from childhood--a third generation Japanese American--were interred in an American concentration camp during World War II.  No doubt, Russian Americans have also been victimized here since the Cold War, as are people from the Middle East today.  (I was detained in a hostile manner by the police at an airport a few years ago, probably because I have a beard and look somewhat "Middle Eastern.")

     Having said all of this, I still believe that Mr. Putin and many people in the Russian Federation today seem truly paranoid --experiencing exaggerated or unrealistic fears of the West--or at least play upon these fears for political reasons, something that many American politicians have also done over the years.  Perhaps this Russian paranoia is partly a legacy of World War II, and/or of many years of exposure to anti-Western, Soviet propaganda.  (Think, for example, of Eisenstein's film [i]Alexander Nevsky[/i], which was used by Stalin in 1942 to mobilize public support for the war effort.)