Russia: Other Points of View

ISSUES OF TRUST IN RUSSIA

REPRINTS

Most Russians Don't Trust Anybody Else, but Believe They Have the Right to Deceive Others

By Svetlana Kononova

Russia Profile
December 20, 2010

The Soviet system allowed citizens to shirk their responsibilities in return for dependence on the state. But two decades after the collapse of the system, Russian citizens are reluctant to trust each other, readily willing to cheat each other and skeptical of everyone apart from their closest relatives.   

"She cheats and doesn't blush. But we are honest," claims an advertising billboard on the Moscow metro, depicting a rude and devious saleswoman. It doesn't matter what this poster is promoting  what is much more interesting is that it appeals to customers by exploiting their deep fears and longings. A large-scale survey titled the "Post-Soviet Man and Civil Society," conducted by the independent Levada Center, found that most Russians find it difficult to trust other people. Such surveys have been conducted every year since 1991, recording the most important changes in the Russians' mentality since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The results of the survey reveal some bizarre trends. The number of people who trust others has decreased significantly over the last two decades. In 1991, only 41 percent of respondents were skeptical and suspicious. Now, 70 percent say they do not trust anybody, 72 percent do not want to help anybody, and 75 percent do not want to cooperate with other people in solving problems.

IS RUSSIA READY FOR DEMOCRACY?

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION

SERIES #2  IS RUSSIA READY FOR DEMOCRACY?

By Sharon Tennison

A quote from the New York Times:  November 14, 2009

"It's time to stop treating Russia as a 'handicapped person," former Czech President Vaclav Havel said recently, responding to suggestions that Russia cannot be expected to reach democracy anytime soon. He urged that Russia be treated as a "partner country like any other," applying the same standards to Russia as are applied "to Burma, Brazil, the Czech Republic or any other country."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's use this quote as a springboard for pondering.

HOW DO WE, IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES, WORK WITH THE GRAVE DISPARITIES AMONG PERSONS WITH WHOM WE ASSOCIATE?

We are not all equally endowed or capable or favored in life. We can't apply the same standard to everyone.  Whether we are teachers, lawyers, business owners, or elected Congressmen and women, we run up against situations where national histories, family situations, ethnic backgrounds, traumas, and other variables complicate outcomes.

LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

Russia: Other Points of View

by Rami Schandall

When I was fresh out of high school I had two opportunities to visit the Soviet Union. This was an incredible, eye-opening experience.  I grew up in the anxious time of the Cold War between East and West. It was a period colored by a black fear of looming cataclysm. I knew that the world's leaders were playing a terribly dangerous game, and I was sick with anxiety with imagining the end of this beautiful world of ours. I realize now how my youthful nightmares were colored by after-images of the devastation of WWII in Europe, and the shock of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that resonated for decades afterward. How vividly my childhood was affected by fear of something even more catastrophic, and seemingly imminent. 

As a teenager, I took hold of this fear and used it to propel an engagement in Peace activism. I knew certainly that the propaganda on both sides of the Iron Curtain served political schemes that were sharply at odds with the common good. I disbelieved most of what I heard about the USSR, but I had no genuine picture to replace the propaganda. My grandmother was involved at that time with a group who sought to connect real people on both sides of the divide, to develop a "citizen diplomacy" that would take the wind out of the rhetoric. The Center for US/USSR Initiatives began organizing visits of Americans to Russia, and as the period of Perestroika and Glasnost began, these tours facilitated hundreds if not thousands of personal connections: people who had friends either side of the divide knew that what they experienced and the propaganda they were fed were completely different.

Read full article Russia:Other Points of View

OBAMA DRINKS RUSSIAN TEA - THE AFTERTASTE

REPRINTS

The Future of Russian-American Relations as Seen From Colomna and San Francisco

Summary Statement: The following is an article from a Russian newspaper Espresso which includes a Q&A that gives a bit of insight about the questions Russians are asking about Obama and Medvedev meetings. -- Sharon Tennison

by Tatiana Trishkina

Tatiana: Even if the leaders of our nations have a liking for each other, we can not ignore the views of political elites of both countries. The agenda of the Moscow summit was prepared by “elders”, whose intrigues go back to time of Reagan and Bush (father). Exactly 20 years ago, Robert Gates was preparing «propaganda bomb for Gorbachev» – the abolition of the Jackson-Vanik amendment. The amendment is still alive. Don’t you think that Obama was sent to Medvedev with a similar “bomb”?

LOYALIST

REPRINTS

By Arthur Lubow, the New York Times Edition

March 15, 2009

BEFORE A TEARY AUDIENCE of war-fatigued residents and young Russian soldiers standing on tanks, Valery Gergiev conducted a concert last August in Tskhinvali, the devastated capital of South Ossetia in Georgia.

The burned-out hulks of bombarded buildings testified to the fury of the fighting that took place when Georgia unsuccessfully tried to seize control of its breakaway region. Russian troops had occupied the town barely a week earlier, in support of the secessionist Ossetians. Speaking in English as well as in Russian on a live television broadcast, Gergiev told the crowd, “I am Ossetian myself,” and explained that he had come “to see with my own eyes the horrible destruction of this city” and to perform a concert in honor of the dead. “If it wasn’t for the help of the Russian Army here, there would be thousands and thousands more victims,” he said. “I am very grateful as Ossetian to my great country, Russia, for this help.”