[CCIP]

I should clarify so I don't come off as being unfriendly towards America in any way... what I mean is that there ARE quite a few Americans who think Russians are angry (whereas in reality they're very weary) and could potentially 'go berserk' and do something that would really hurt America or American interest. The chances of that are, and nearly always were close to zero. The other problem is that Americans like to project themselves onto Russia, and I think it's a tragic mistake to even begin to compare the two countries - of course Russia will end up looking bad. But Russia had a terrible, violent history - especially in the last 100 years - which America mercifully avoided. Much of the modern Russian character is shaped by the weariness of this violence and instability. Not that it does them any good.

Otherwise, I think the image of Russia not exaggarated, just mis-represented sometimes. Noone should be under any illusion of things there being good or bad - they're bad, but not in the ways one might always think. The key thing is that Russia as it is right now is a surprisingly stable state with a population that is surprisingly badly-off. I'd personally be far more optimistic if Russia were more unstable internally - but unfortunately the population is by and large so poor (besides a tiny and incredibly rich elite) and so politically passive that we can't even begin talking about democracy and other positive things there changing. It's a stable and not-really-good status quo. Most Russians will proudly announce that "we can survive in our country", and that's about as far as it goes for most of them (amazingly, it's a big improvement over the previous decade). Rather sad, really.