Americans in Moscow Feel Chill in US-Russia Relations
"There is a lot of propaganda on Russian TV. And people's opinions changed. People who before felt good about Americans, they started to get bad ideas, wrong ideas. [There should be] Somebody in the correct role, who could talk at a high level, and stop some of that," said Karash.
Some American men asked U.S. diplomats about visas for their Russian girlfriends, but Alex Geller worried about a different kind of Visa.
In reprisal for American sanctions, Russia's parliament passed legislation that threatens to drive Visa and MasterCard, which have about 30 million Russian credit-card accounts, out of business in Russia.
Here is Geller, managing partner of an Internet company in Moscow:
"Can you imagine? You have to go to the doctor, you have to grab the cash. You have to go to any store, you have to grab cash. You want to a buy a ticket online, you cannot do that," said Geller.
It now looks like Russia will come up with a solution that will allow the American credit companies to stay.
Phil, an American lawyer, said he has lived here for a decade. Since the Ukraine crisis, he says, it is difficult to have normal conversations with Russian friends.
"I have opted to keep my mouth shut. I am not good that. But I keep more friends that way," said Phil.
Americans say they are coping with an abrupt change in mood.
Pujan Kasaju has worked in real estate finance here for two years:
"There were always questions: What's it like to live in America? Why did you come to Russia from America? Why would you leave a great country like America? Now it's like, What the hell are you guys doing? There is a sense of disenchantment," said Kasaju.
Tit-for-tat
No Americans interviewed said they have suffered harassment. But Kasaju saw photos on the Russian Internet showing hand-made signs on food kiosks and ice cream stands.
"'Americans are not allowed to buy our products, because we have enacted our own sanctions.' So, it's like a big joke. But maybe there is some half-seriousness to it," he said.
Several Americans blamed Washington for misreading Russian psychology. For the last 12 years, Marilyn Murray has shuttled between Arizona and Moscow. Here she teaches trauma therapy to Russian health-care professionals.
Because of Russia's flat geography, she says, it has often been invaded. As a result, Russians defend themselves by relying on the fear factor.
"They have had to establish a fearsome image to keep their predators away. And so, even if you look at what their symbol is. It is this bear, this huge Russian bear, that says, 'Fear me! If you don't respect and fear me, I am going to eat you!' They have had to do that for centuries for self-protection," said Murray.
Murray says Washington made a mistake by not, at least, faking fear of Russia.
"When U.S. government officials make a comment that Russia is no longer a threat, they act dismissive toward them, as though they are irrelevant, they are immaterial, they are not important - insignificant, inconsequential, just don't matter any more. Number one, it is very scary for a Russian [to realize] 'Oh, these people no longer fear us.' But the other thing that is really, really important - that many people don't realize - is how much they take that personally," she said.
For Americans living in Moscow, Russia can seem suddenly unfriendly and unprofitable. But friendliness was the treatment received by one American visitor tracked down for an interview in the halls of the old Soviet Army Museum.
Christopher Arndt was visiting Moscow from Pennsylvania:
"I had a gentleman just today, when I was standing looking kind of clueless, with the map in front of my face, offer to drive me over to the museum, because he couldn't quite explain it in English. And I sure could not understand him in Russian," said Arndt.
During this tourist season, Arndt's experience may be a rarity. Tourism professionals say the chill in Russia's relations with the West will cut American and European visitors here by at least 30 percent this year.
http://www.voanews.com/content/americans-in-moscow-feel-chill-in-us-russia-relations/1924554.html
You know, I get that analogy about the bear:
"They have had to establish a fearsome image to keep their predators away. And so, even if you look at what their symbol is. It is this bear, this huge Russian bear, that says, 'Fear me! If you don't respect and fear me, I am going to eat you!'[/b] They have had to do that for centuries for self-protection," said Murray.
So what she is saying is that Obama makes a mistake in being *dismissive* to Russia, and calling it a "regional power threatening some of its neighbors," and being utterly disinterested in Russia.
So they want respect. They need to be feared to feel safe, and it's just a grumpy bear that won't really bite it just wants you to be scared.
My opinion: that's all well and good, but you cannot go annexing places in 2014. You just can't and I don't care who you are, China or Russia or Iraq or whomever.
The US can't go around doing that, and neither can Russia. It's an international law thing, it's a global order thing. Also, you can't just go and let Iran have nuclear weapons. It's not responsible. Putin is like a bull in a china shop just breaking things, he'd get more respect for Russia if he were *genuinely* interested in keeping nukes out of the middle east, etc. And not just playing chess.
So I get the Russian psychology thing, but still, you can make the same arguments about middle eastern cultures or North Koreans and blah blah and on and on but at the end of the day, all nations have to abide by international law and can't bully their neighbors and it just be okay because "that's just how they are."
As for the need to be feared.. they really just have to get over the loss of empire. And nobody is ever going to invade them, that is just silly. The Brits had to transition away from the British Empire. We in the US will as well eventually, gracefully, without carrying some chip on our shoulder for the next seventy years over it. International law has to be upheld, and Russia is a major arms dealer in the world and has the #2 nuclear stockpile and capacity to build nuke plants and enable an Iran to go nuclear -- psychology and feelings and emotion aside, what Russia does in its foreign policy matters.
If they're just annexing and rolling their army up on borders and not being genuine about getting Assad's chem weapons out of Syria, and keeping nukes away from Iran, then what else can the West do? You can't just ignore it all and chalk it up to Russia needing to be feared.
Why are they so special, moreso than anyone else.
Western nations actually have what used to be called "sovietologists," now called "kremlinologists" -- academics whose sole work is just understanding Russia, or trying to, for goodness sake.All I know is.. if a Russian can emigrate to America and fit in great and love it here, then why can't they get along with their Euro neighbors, why are they still so xenophobic, why are they still so susceptable to their nationalists whipping them up. ??
They are European. It's 2014. Nobody is going to invade them. Their TV gave them a bunch of propaganda about Ukraine. They got all whipped up. And now Putin is backing off of it, leaving his own media and the east Ukrainian separatists in the lurch.
The elections were a success. The new president isn't a nazi, but rather, a founding member of the Party of Regions (yanu's party). That's democracy, count the votes and have a constitution and stick to it, that's all anyone expected.
