Thread: Victor Bout - Russian Businessman (?) facing 25 years in US prison

Originally Posted by Hanna

I think, with Russia things are a bit more similar to the USA: People can live their entire life there and not have any contact with foreigners, and perhaps they generally don't reflect much on how foreigners might percieve them or their country.

I think it's almost direct opposite. Russians care too much about what people from other countries think, and that's a tragedy of the nation. They may say "We don't care", but it's more of presenting a strong facade. Combined with an overall negative attitude towards Russia, it leads to people feeling constantly underappreciated and misunderstood, putting them into perpetual defensive position. It was very much like that in the USSR too, except that official media generally lulled people into believing that all decent foreigners liked us and admired our achievements, and only bad foreigners were unhappy (their loss, right?).

I'd say that this kind of neverending stress of trying to achieve two incompatible things at once (being a strong and self-respected nation as Russians see it, and being accepted and admired by the world community) is bad for nation's health.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

I think it's almost direct opposite. Russians care too much about what people from other countries think, and that's a tragedy of the nation. They may say "We don't care", but it's more of presenting a strong facade. Combined with an overall negative attitude towards Russia, it leads to people feeling constantly underappreciated and misunderstood, putting them into perpetual defensive position. It was very much like that in the USSR too, except that official media generally lulled people into believing that all decent foreigners liked us and admired our achievements, and only bad foreigners were unhappy (their loss, right?).

I'd say that this kind of neverending stress of trying to achieve two incompatible things at once (being a strong and self-respected nation as Russians see it, and being accepted and admired by the world community) is bad for nation's health.

Yes, I agree, that foreigners are often overestimated. Right method to deal with them is probable as depicted in film "Дежавю" Дежа вю (фильм, 198 — Википедия

I only tried to say, that at least for me (the kid back then in 1970s) it seemed natural that KGB or Soviet Army could act by any means to protect USSR citizens anywhere. But I am afraid it wasn't so even in those days.
Now our government can only observe and blame when some Russians get in trouble.