http://www.russiaotherpointsofview.com/2014/01/russia-not-enemy-of-world-peace-after-all.html
January 09, 2014
Patrick_Armstrongby Patrick Armstrong
Ukrainians have lately been subjected to a barrage of propaganda and speechifying, especially from Americans. From John McCain’s end of the American political spectrum ("the destiny you seek lies in Europe”) to Victoria Nuland’s ("the United States stands with the people of Ukraine”), they have appeared in Kiev to encourage Ukrainians to sign up for the EU association. Obviously these two believe that Ukrainians agree that Moscow is a hostile troublemaker and not the destiny they seek and that the USA is their friend and standing with them. Or something like that.
We have an poll that sheds a little light on how the world really regards Russia and the USA. For some years WIN/Gallop International, an association of some of the biggest opinion polling companies in the world, has conducted an End of Year survey. For 2013, surveys were run in 65 countries with a total sample of about 66,000. The country-by-country results may be found here. The eighth question asked in each country was: "Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?”
The results are quite interesting. Overall 24% of the world’s population named the USA as the greatest threat, well ahead of second-place Pakistan at 8%. Russia was so far back in the running, it wasn’t mentioned in the summary reports.
54% of Russians named the USA as the greatest threat to peace. The anti-Russia mob will of course spin this as ineluctable proof of Russia’s eternal hostility (number-one geopolitical foe and all that) but one consideration alone should hold them: Putin did, after all, prevent an American military operation in Syria that, based on the Libyan time line of 226 days, would still be bombing away right now; Russians have heard a great deal about that diplomatic achievement. So it shouldn’t be surprising that after that (and Libya and Iraq, NATO expansion, missile defence and all the rest) Russians might feel that way. By the way 3% of Russians named Russia itself, in fifth place behind China, Iraq and Syria.
Let’s look at the USA findings; perhaps we will gain some context within which to place the Russian answer. 20% of Americans named Iran as the number-one threat to peace, followed by Afghanistan and North Korea. But, in fourth place at 13%, tied with North Korea in fact, was the USA itself. Russia placed eighth with 3%. Remarkable findings indeed: for every American who thinks North Korea is the main enemy of peace, there’s one who thinks his own country is! And who would have thought that, after all the propaganda and bad press, Americans regard Russia as the main threat to peace in the same proportion as Russian agree that it is – 3% in each case?
Let us move to Ukraine, where this essay began. 33% of Ukrainians put the USA first, Russia trails far behind at sixth place with only 5%. McCain and Nuland are wasting their time: a different destiny after all and perhaps they’re not so welcome standing there. (Of course there is plenty of evidence from polls that show that Ukrainians are split 50/50 on East-West issues but that particular poll is not much of a split: USA by six-to-one.)
Let’s look at some of the USA’s closest allies. For Canadians the USA and Iran are tied at first with 17% and Russia is far in the rear in 10th position with 2% (and this despite all the propaganda about Russia’s threat to "our” North Pole). For the British, the USA and Iran are also tied for first with 15%; Russia is eighth with 4% (after all the Litvinenko propaganda). Germans put the USA a whisker ahead of Iran (17% to 16%) and Russia in seventh position with 4%. The Japanese have the USA at third place with 7% and Russia is eighth with less than one percent. Even its closest allies see the USA as a much greater threat to the peace of the world than Russia. And Americans agree with them 13% to 3%!
How about the BRICS? For Brazilians USA leads with 26% and Russia is only 1%. We’ve already seen the Russians’ view. For Indians Pakistan beats the USA 25% to 19% but Russia hardly makes the chart at all: 17th place with less than one percent. The Chinese put the USA first at 49% and Russia at 2%. As to South Africans it’s USA at 18% and Russia at less than one percent. So that’s pretty clear: except for Indians, the USA is seen as the number-one threat to peace by the BRICS but (figure this as you will) Russians regard Russia as a greater threat to peace than anyone else in the BRICS!
But surely there must be some exceptions to this pattern of the USA being seen as the world’s greatest threat to peace and Russia a negligible threat. What about new and possible members of NATO? Latvians, however, give no comfort: the USA at 39% far exceeds Russia in second place at 14%. But surely Georgians! Ah! they do name Russia as the leading threat at 33%. But the USA still comes third at 12% after Iran!
Finally, however, we find one country that shares the views of McCain and Nuland. The Poles put Russia first (but only 18% do) and the USA 16th with less than one percent.
These results show two things quite clearly. The first is that a lot of people are, to put it mildly, sceptical about American motives and some of the sceptics are close allies (Canada, UK and Germany equate Iran with the USA as a threat to peace!). The second is that, with a couple of exceptions, Russia is not seen as much of a threat to peace. (For example, looking quickly at some more NATO countries, we find that even when the USA is ranked low, Russia is still lower: the USA tops Russia as a threat to peace in France 3%-2%; Italy 4%-2%; Spain 25%-1%; Belgium 8%-5%; Turkey 45%-2%; the Czech Republic 14%-8%). And these countries have received a two-decade propaganda blast on human rights, gay rights, reporter deaths, "the gas weapon”, desire to re-build the empire, Putin-the-KGB-thug, end of "reform”, media crackdowns, spheres of influence, election tampering, assertiveness, military buildup, threats to its neighbours and on and on.
For us on websites like this who often gripe about Russia’s lacklustre public relations efforts there is a tentative conclusion. Russia has been subjected to two decades of hostile propaganda that takes a Russian predisposition to belligerence for granted. There are too many examples to relate; a favourite from The Economist of 13 November 1993 will have to represent hundreds and hundreds of similar accusations: "An independent state of Georgia existed for 2½ years, until Trotsky's Red Army snuffed it out in 1921. Mr Yeltsin has given its successor exactly the same amount of time.” Of course Georgia is still there and has just signed on to the EU association package which, we are told, Putin refuses to let his neighbours do. And yet only trivial numbers of Canadians, Britons, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, Spaniards, Brazilians, Indians, Chinese etc regard Russia as a serious enemy of world peace: clearly they do not believe that it is innately bellicose. The propaganda effort has failed. That is the negative side, so to speak. As to the positive side, I am sure that Moscow’s initiative in Syria (and the first load of poisons have just left) and its cooperative role in the recent Iran agreement are slowly causing people to see Russia not as the eternal opponent of the propaganda, ever seeking to regain its empire, but as a country which can have a positive effect. To say nothing of the cumulative failure of innumerable cries of "Wolf!”, starting with The Economist in 1993. Something to watch.
We might wish that Moscow did better at refuting the lies about it, but maybe it’s not doing that badly, after all.
As for Americans all I can suggest is that they might want to reflect on Robert Gates’ words.
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Armáda Života Армия Жизни Life Army
Armáda Života Армия Жизни Life Army