OPINION:
The road to freedom is seldom a straight shot and, sometimes, it twists back on itself. In a foolhardy about-face, Russia is retracing its steps toward the autocratic Soviet Union. In the process, Russians are losing their painstakingly won respect among Americans. It is a tragic loss.
A new Pew Research Center poll marks the rapid deterioration of attitudes among Americans toward Russia, largely the result of its treacherous misadventure in Ukraine. The survey finds the proportion of U.S. adults who view Russia as an enemy surging from 40% to 70% between January and late March, after only a month into the fighting. Unsurprisingly, the portion of those who view the aggressor nation as simply a competitor plummeted from 49% to 24%. Seldom has U.S. opinion shifted so sharply in so short a time.
Furthermore, Russia’s loss of face has been Ukraine’s gain. Poll respondents who hold a favorable view of Russia overall measure a minuscule 7%, surpassing only those expressing confidence in its leader, Vladimir Putin, amounting to a dismal 6%. In contrast, a preponderant 72% support his unbowed nemesis, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Americans have a weakness for the underdog, and they have little difficulty choosing their favorite in this war. While Mr. Putin appears to TV viewers as a humorless autocrat giving orders from his gilded offices, his Ukrainian adversary is seen pacing through war-torn cities in body armor, cheering on his beleaguered troops and sharing their risk of sudden death on the battlefield.
The glaring contrast of tyrant versus freedom fighter, intensified by scenes of devastated cities and the bodies of innocent Ukrainian civilians lying in the streets, has similarly jarred the global community. Consequently, the United Nations General Assembly suspended Russia last week from its membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council.
For Americans of middle years on up, revilement for Russia’s leader should be tinged with sympathy for its people. Cheers erupted from “the land of the free” when the “Captive Nations” broke away from Russia’s Iron Curtain. Time magazine heralded, “A thousand years of autocracy are reversed.” Russians themselves escaped their reputation as enemies of the West.
It was not to last, though. Mr. Putin, with the backing of self-dealing oligarchs, reestablished autocracy behind a facade of democracy. Information comes in the form of preapproved propaganda.
Russia’s president has claimed the breakup of the Soviet empire was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. To the contrary, the sudden flourishing of freedom was one of that century’s greatest success stories. And “the geopolitical catastrophe” of the still-young 21st century is Russia’s revanchist assault on its former possession, Ukraine.
It was former President Ronald Reagan who astutely observed, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” By attempting to enslave his neighbors, Mr. Putin has transformed his nation, in the eyes of Americans, from a competitor to an enemy. It is both foolish and tragic.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.