Anti-Americanism in Putin’s Russia
Layers, Specifics, Functions
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Anti-Americanism in Russia is part of the deep resentment and collective negative identity found among the people. Its particular character lies in the historic conflation of anti-Western ideas with the communist ideology of Stalinism and the final decades of the Soviet Union. In the current image of America, all of those layers that accumulated in the collective subconscious during the Soviet totalitarianism can be exposed. The Putin system’s propaganda uses this with virtuosity. Ever since the demonstrations against the rigged Russian elections in the winter of 2011, and especially after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, anti-Americanism has become a core element of authoritarian rule. Anti-Americanism provides the basis for broad-based mobilisation and consolidation of the population around those in power against external and internal enemies.
(Osteuropa 4/2015, pp. 73–97)