The Foreign Service Journal, December 2016

42 DECEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL from her provincial town who recently shared with the local paper her deep insight from a trip to Europe: how the aborigines (a Rus- sian term for natives of other countries) are disciplined and throw their garbage into rubbish bins. The effort to separate items for recycling impressed her even more. It was only natural that an element of resentment would emerge. Vladimir Kartsev, in his 1995 biography of populist politi- cian Vladimir Zhirinovsky, tries to explain the phenomenon by asking the American reader to step into the shoes of his Russian counterpart living in post- Soviet chaos: “Imagine General Motors and General Electric have been bought and taken over by local sheriffs. Lockheed is producing pots and pans. … Texas is engaged in a bloody war with Arkansas. Hawaii, NewMexico and Alaska have declared independence and called for a jihad against the U.S. government. … All you can see on television are old Russian films and ads for Stoli- chnaya vodka.” Now there is funding for domestically produced TV and film content. Anti-Western rhetoric has skyrocketed since the start of the current geopolitical rift. Meanwhile, more than half the population considers television the most trustworthy news source, according to a poll last year by the Levada Center, an independent research organization. And because people have little firsthand knowledge about foreigners, it is easy for TV producers to hop on the pendulum as it swings back against the West. In this way they impose their state-sponsored views: the West must be feared, Western people have crumbling morals, etc. Though it serves as a weather vane for the ever-present Rus- sian duality, the pendulum casts its shadow only on the surface. Foreign is, was and always will be cool…at least in terms of gadgets, food and films. Still, the anti-West swing has a danger- ous effect on the mindset. A 2015 Levada poll found that 31 percent of Russians believe the United States might attack their country. The vast majority of Rus- sians remain convinced of their country’s greatness: 25 percent believe that Russia is already a “great power,” and another 49 percent believe it will become one in the near future, accord- ing to 2016 Levada figures. Interestingly, in 2014 the “lead- ing indicators” of this greatness in the minds of the respon- dents were the country’s “developed economy” and “strong mili- tary”—52 percent and 42 percent respectively. Those factors have now dropped to 37 percent and 26 percent respectively. As of this year, 38 percent of respondents believe the country’s greatness is evidenced first and foremost by the “well-being of its citizens.”The The barrage of “feel good”TV programming—where, as one pundit put it, “prosperity is a state of mind”—is having an effect. Economic and other statistics indicate a real decline in the standard of living. Above left: Daily life on Tretyakovskiy Proezd Street, Moscow, February 2016. Above right: A young woman texts on the embankment in Sochi, Russia, February 2014. ARTHURBONDAR