Abstract
During Obama’s presidency the Russian–American relations changed dramatically, from the reset to the worst crises since the end of the Cold War. All the factors that influence the process of mutual perception became unambiguously negative. This forms the basis for the “war of images” that is one of the main characteristics of the current crisis. Russia has been experiencing the highest level of anti-Americanism since the end of the Cold War. The main purpose of this chapter is to address these issues on the base of the social constructivist approach which gives us an opportunity for better understanding of the role of the American “other” in the contemporary Russian identity discourse. At the center of the authors’ analysis, which relies on expert and academic publications, political and journalistic texts, as well as visual images of Obama in Russia, are both the reality of politics and the process of image construction.
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Notes
- 1.
Alexei Levinson, “Amerika kak znachimyi Drugoi,” Pro et Contra, Vol. 11, No 2 (March–April 2007): 69.
- 2.
Angela Stent, The Limits of Partnership. U.S.-Russian Relations in the 21st Century (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2014): XVI.
- 3.
For details of the methodology used by the authors, see: Kurilla, Ivan and Victoria I. Zhuravleva, Russian/Soviet Studies in the United States, Amerikanistika in Russia: Mutual Representations in Academic Projects (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016).
- 4.
President Dmitry Medvedev, Meeting with Members of the Council on Foreign Relations, November 16, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/2092
- 5.
“Interv’u telekanalu ‘Vesti’ direktora Tsentra mezhdunarodnykh issledovanii Instituta SShA i Kanady RAN Anatoliya Utkina”; Vesti, October 22, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=217931&cid=1
- 6.
Maxim Shevchenko, “Osoboe mnenie” na Echo Moskvy, October 30, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://echo.msk.ru/programs/personalno/549904-echo/
- 7.
Sergey Elkin, “Barack Obama—Mikhail Gorbachev nashego veremeni?” RIA Novosti, November 7, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2017. https://ria.ru/caricature/20081107/154621621.html
- 8.
Fedor Lukyanov, “Barack Obama i ozhidanie chuda,” gazeta.ru, November 6, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2017. https://www.gazeta.ru/column/lukyanov/2874654.shtml
- 9.
President Dmitry Medvedev, “Talks were held between Dmitry Medvedev and President of the United States Barack Obama,” July 6, 2009. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/48750
- 10.
President Dmitry Medvedev, “Meeting with Russian and American Business Community Leaders,” June 24, 2010, Washington. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/8164
- 11.
“Fareed Zakaria GPS, “Interview with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,” aired September 20, 2009. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0909/20/fzgps.01.html
- 12.
Alexey Pushkov, Protivostoyanie. Obama protiv Putina (Moscow Algoritm, 2016): 115.
- 13.
Quoted in: Kathy Lally and Karen DeYoung, “Putin accuses Clinton, U.S. of fomenting election protests,” Washington Post, December 8, 2011. Accessed January 23, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/putin-accuses-clinton-us-of-stirring-election-protests/2011/12/08/gIQA0MUDfO_story.html?utm_term=.a8c2921bd3b1
- 14.
See, for instance: Jillian Rayfield, “Obama: The ‘80s Called, They Want Their Foreign Policy Back,” Salon, October 23, 2012. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.salon.com/2012/10/23/obama_the_80s_called_they_want_their_foreign_policy_back/
- 15.
“Joint Statement by the Presidents of the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Enhanced Bilateral Engagement,” Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/17/joint-statement-presidents-united-states-america-and-russian-federatio-1
- 16.
Vladimir Putin, “A Plea for Caution from Russia. What Putin Has to Say to Americans about Syria,” The New York Times, September 11, 2013.
- 17.
“The World’s Most Powerful People 2013,” Forbes, October 30, 2013.
- 18.
Pushkov, Protivostoyanie. Obama protiv Putina, 45.
- 19.
Vladimir Putin’s Valdai speech on October 24, 2014. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/46860
- 20.
Andrei Kolesnikov, Russian Ideology After Crimea (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2015).
- 21.
“Ugroza dlya Rossii so storony SShA,” Levada Center, May 12, 2015. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.levada.ru/12-05-2015/ugroza-dlya-rossii-so-storony-ssha
- 22.
Jacob Poushter, “Key Findings From Our Poll on the Russia-Ukraine Conflict,” Pew Research Center, June 10, 2015. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/10/key-findings-from-our-poll-on-the-russia-ukraine-conflict/
- 23.
“Global Opposition to U.S. Surveillance and Drones, but Limited Harm to America’s Image,” The Pew Center, July 2014. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/07/14/chapter-1-the-american-brand/
- 24.
About conservative shift in Russia in 2012–2016 see: Leonid Polyakov, “‘Conservatism’ in Russia. Political Tool or Historical Choice,” IFRI (Paris, 2015); Igor Zevelev, Russian National Identity and Foreign Policy. A Report of the CSIS Russia’s Foreign Policy in a Historical Perspective (Russia and Eurasia Program. CSIS, December 2016).
- 25.
Lavrov Sergey, “Russia’s Foreign Policy in a Historical Perspective,” Russia in Global Affairs, March 30, 2016. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/number/Russias-Foreign-Policy-in-a-Historical-Perspective-18067
- 26.
“V znachenii «poryadochnyi chelovek». «Meduza» vyyasnila u politikov i obshhestvennykh deyatelei, kto takoi «liberal»”, Meduza News, 2015. Accessed January 23, 2017. https://meduza.io/feature/2015/04/10/v-znachenii-poryadochnyy-chelovek
- 27.
Teresa Welsh, “Putin: U.S. Foreign Policy Has Failed,” Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/28/putin-issues-scathing-rebuke-of-obamas-foreign-policy; Teresa Welsh, “Obama: U.S. Will Work With Russia, Iran to End Syria Crisis,” Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/28/obama-us-will-work-with-russia-iran-to-end-syria-crisis
- 28.
Vitaly Podvitsky,“Chernyi vlastelin,” http://caricatura.ru/daily/podvitski/pic/735.jpg; Vitaly Podvitsky, “Na vsyaakuyu temnuyu storonu sily najdetsya svoi Dzhedai,” Accessed January 23, 2017. http://podvitski.ru/pictures/comix/1579/1579_big.jpg
- 29.
Sergey Elkin, “Chudo-pul’t Obamy po upravleniyu Rossiej,” http://kvedomosti.com/291492-hit-seti-chudo-pult-obamy-po-upravleniyu-rossiey.html; see also Sergey Elkin’s cartoon at Svoboda Radio Station, August 24, 2016. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.svoboda.org/a/27943891.html
- 30.
“Rekordnoe chislo rossiyan pozhelali emigrirovat v SShA,” RBC, October 16, 2015. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.rbc.ru/politics/16/10/2015/5620d2ef9a79477e79b083c5
- 31.
Obama went from saying that Russia is a regional power with the same GDP as Spain to saying that Russia is the principal threat to the U.S. political system.
- 32.
Dmitry Medvedev’s facebook account, January 19, 2017. Accessed January 23, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/Dmitry.Medvedev/posts/10154053104646851
- 33.
Aleksey Gorbachev, “Kudrin ne dozhdalsya Kirienko. Na Obshcherossiiskom grazhdanskom forume otechestvennoy demokratii predrekli mrachnoe budushchee,” Nezavisimaya gazeta, 21.11.2016. Accessed January 23, 2017. http://www.ng.ru/politics/2016-11-21/1_6864_kudrin.html
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Kurilla, I., Zhuravleva, V.I. (2018). Russia’s View on Obama’s Presidency: From Hope to Disappointment. In: Maass, M. (eds) The World Views of the Obama Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61076-4_7
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