Profile photo: On October 18, in Moscow, the Russian capital, Russian President Vladimir Putin listened to questions from the public during the program. Xinhua news agency
Just as Russia celebrated Putin’s choice of successor, the American think tank published a report containing "Putin may be assassinated in 2008", which caused strong repercussions in Russia. American experts rushed to clarify and criticized the Russian media for "exaggerating Putin’s assassination" as "irresponsible". Since the beginning of this year, the tension between the United States and Russia has escalated rapidly. Putin has repeatedly publicly criticized the United States, and the American media has also selected extreme words such as "greed" and "dictator" to be blamed on Putin. The British "Economist" said that "the hostility between Russia and the United States is reaching an unprecedented level after the end of the Cold War, and the anti-American propaganda at the end of the Soviet Union is not as emotional and real as it is today." On 15th, Russian senior generals’ remarks that "missiles may automatically strike back at American missiles" were interpreted by experts as "a nuclear war will happen at any time" between the United States and Russia. With the presidential elections in both countries next year, the hostility between the two sides is likely to escalate further.
"Putin’s assassination" triggered a fierce confrontation
On December 13th, Russia’s Kommersant reported the report "Russia’s Future Options" just published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an American think tank, with the title "Russia and the world will be shocked by Putin’s assassination". In the report, Kaczynski, a famous American expert on Russia, predicted that Putin might be assassinated after attending the Orthodox Christmas ceremony on January 7 next year, and Russia would fall into chaos. As Pu Jing has just chosen a successor and was invited to be the next prime minister of the government, Russians are full of longing for the future. This somewhat "killing scenery" prediction was quickly concerned by the Russian News Agency, Morning Post and other media.
A day later, Kaczynski publicly criticized Kommersant for distorting the original intention of the report, saying that Kommersant’s report that he predicted that Putin would be assassinated was ridiculous. Kaczynski said that in his report, he described three possible plans for Russia’s development: the first plan is also the most likely, that is, Russia will achieve steady development; The second scheme calls attention to the danger that a country’s political life depends too much on one person, and the assumption of Putin’s assassination is based on this; The third scheme predicts how the situation in Russia will develop once the oil price drops. He said that Kommersant was irresponsible because it published one of the hypothetical schemes. Kaczynski told the Russian News Agency: "I have been studying Russia all my life and have been to Russia many times. I also have many friends in Russia. And this article puts me in danger of losing my reputation. Some Russian politicians will think that this is an embarrassment to Russia, the Russian people and the Russian president. "
In this regard, the editor-in-chief of Kommersant retorted: "His statement is despicable and absurd. I read the Russian and English versions of this article, and we don’t admit that it is a conscious distortion of the basic views of the report. " "Kommersant" said in Kaczynski’s rebuttal news on the 14th that the report never made it clear that these assumptions were only theoretical.
On the 16th, on YouTube, the most famous video website in America, various comments were full of gunpowder. Some people say that "of course, those animals like to see Putin die", while others say that "Kommersant reporters are still exhibiting their ubiquitous Soviet-style propaganda". A netizen named "WIN096" said, "In Russia, Kommersant has a reputation as a pro-Western newspaper, so don’t underestimate this report. Putin has put Russia back on its feet. Obviously, Americans don’t like this. They can’t wait for a Russia without Putin. Assassination? Has the CIA ever assassinated foreign leaders? Of course, they have. They have done it many times before. It is not surprising that the assassination of Putin becomes a fact. "
"Missile automatic counterattack" becomes "nuclear war"
On the 16th, Professor Koskov from the Department of Russian and International Politics of Moscow University said that the incident profoundly showed that there was always misunderstanding in the communication channel between Russia and the United States, and there was always subconscious prejudice between the two sides, so they often could not interpret each other with a correct attitude. Koskov believes that the reason why the Russian media is so sensitive is because Russia itself lacks a sense of security, completely distrusts the United States, and the hostility between the two sides has increased.
In June 2001, after the first summit of Bush Putin, Bush said that Putin was "very frank and trustworthy", but since then, the two sides have increasingly criticized and questioned each other. At the Munich security conference earlier this year, Putin publicly criticized the unilateralism of the United States, and the western media said that "Russian leaders threatened to target Europe with nuclear bombs for the first time after the Cold War." Last month, Putin denounced the domestic opposition as a "running dog of the West", which shocked the West even more. The British "Economist" article entitled "Longing for the Cold War" on the 14th said that Russia’s hostility towards the United States is reaching an unprecedented level after the end of the Cold War.
On 15th, Baluyevsky, Chief of General Staff of Russian Armed Forces, severely criticized the US plan to deploy an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe. He said that the anti-missile missile launched by the United States may be mistaken by the Russian defense system as an intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at Russia, and thus it will be hit back, because the missile early warning systems of the United States and Russia are now automatic. The Russian "Viewpoint" borrowed the analysis of experts and believed that "the prospect of nuclear war between Russia and the United States is becoming more and more obvious." According to reports, the United States is provoking Iran or other Islamic countries to launch a nuclear attack on it. When a missile aimed at the United States is launched, its anti-missile system in Eastern Europe will play a role. When anti-missile missiles fly over Russia, they will be regarded as attack missiles, which will trigger Russia’s missile automatic early warning system to launch missiles at the United States, and the United States, which has advanced anti-missile systems and formal excuses, will begin to carry out nuclear strikes, resulting in both losses. The article also emphasizes that "this is not a plot in the novel, but a realistic military threat, which may happen at any time".
In recent years, Russian polling agencies have conducted surveys on "Who is Russia’s enemy" more than once, among which the United States often occupies the top spot. Kommersant analyzed: "When the United States criticized and suppressed Russia most severely, it was also the time when the Russian people’s anti-American sentiment was at its peak." Ella, the American coordinator of the NATO-Russia Council, said, "Since 2003, the Russian government has always portrayed the West as Russia’s sworn enemy and cultivated a feeling against the West." Russia’s subsequent oil power exacerbated the current anti-western sentiment.
The United States openly discusses whether Russia is an enemy.
An article in American Conservatives magazine in March this year said that after the "9.11" incident and the Iraq war, some people thought that America’s hostility towards Russia and its anti-Russian global geopolitical agenda would basically disappear. But this is not the case. On the contrary, the hostility of the Bush administration, the two parties in Congress and the American media towards Russia has only increased. The report believes that part of the reason is the Cold War. The Soviet Union was once the number one enemy of the United States, and too many Westerners did not distinguish between the Soviet Union and Russia. Also due to the influence of the cold war, lobbying groups from Poland and other places have hatred for their country’s submission to the Soviet Union. Many elites in Washington are also particularly hostile to Russia, "because long before the Iraq war broke out, Russia betrayed the idea of freedom and democracy cherished by the United States to set an example for other countries."
In the United States, there are more and more occasions to link "Russia" with "the enemy". The Middle East Times said that an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in November publicly suggested that "it’s time to start thinking again that Russia is an enemy". In October this year, six Russian experts took part in a discussion in new york, the theme of which was "Is Russia becoming our enemy again?" According to the pre-meeting survey, 41% of the audience thought yes, while 23% thought no.
Recently, due to dissatisfaction with the Russian Duma election and Putin, the US criticism of Russia has greatly escalated. Although American officials are cautious, the media does not hesitate to use extreme words. The New York Times published an editorial before the election of the Russian State Duma, attacking Putin’s "greed for power", saying that the election was neither free nor fair. George, a senior researcher at the American Council on Foreign Relations, said that "we have finally seen through his soul", and Washington post also said that "Russia is stepping on the threshold of restoring a one-party dictatorship similar to that of the Soviet Union". The hostility between the two sides is obviously not easy to disappear. The Christian Science Monitor reported on the 14th that although the world began to get used to the new name Medvedev, it should be realized that Putin, the familiar person behind him, will continue to face the challenge of confident Russia. (Special correspondent in the United States and Russia Guan Kejiang Zheng Runyu Special correspondent Liu Zhi Wang Beizhe)
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Editor: Li Xiuwei