Rising Anti-Americanism in Russia

Russians are evidently sympathetic to Putin. His United Russia party took a landslide 64 percent of the parliamentary vote with a 63 percent turnout, an election his party would have won easily even without repressing his opponents, judging by opinion polls. He has attracted a devoted, nationalistic following among students—Kremlin-linked youth groups supervised the December voting to prevent a feared U.S.-funded revolution.

If there's any consolation for Washington, it's that, as bitter as it may be, this sentiment is not universal. It is in part fostered by Putin, and, as Condoleezza Rice suggested on a visit to Moscow last year, talk of a new Cold War seems premature. Russia may have withdrawn in July from a 1990 treaty limiting military-force numbers in Europe, but it continues to cooperate with Washington on counterterrorism, among other issues. "Americans and Russians have more in common than differences," says Alexander Lebedev, a former Duma deputy and billionaire part owner of the airline Aeroflot. "They're not facing each other across the Berlin Wall any more."

Moreover, Russia's presidential elections take place in March, and the politician backed by Putin as his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is considered to be sympathetic toward the West (he is expected to win). Medvedev has said Russia should position itself as part of Europe and that confrontation with the United States is unnecessary. At any rate, if Russia does have a change of heart, it would not be unprecedented. "The Russian mentality is of dashing from one extreme to another," says Khrushcheva. "The embrace of the West turns into the embrace of anti-Americanism and back again."