The Global Power Barometer (GPB) has been tracking global reaction to President Putin’s Munich speech and to follow-up comments from various officials within the Russian government. Global reaction was favorable to President Putin’s point about a “unipolar world” and his objection to the “almost unrestrained, exaggerated use of force” by the U.S. Reaction to the Putin speech within the U.S. was negative, particularly among conservative commentators who charged that President Putin was initiating a new “Cold War”.
As the GPB has been reporting since its inception, Russia has been critical of U.S. initiatives from the NATO expansion, to the Eastern European missile defense shield, to the imbalance of energy infrastructure investment, to drive for Kosovo independence. As global thought leaders have pointed out continually, Russia does want to recapture its former power. President Putin’s Munich remarks were tremendously popular in Russia and his approval rating is above 70%. Russia’s threat to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is viewed as real and a response to U.S. policy.
In recent days, commentary in middle American newspapers has grown more negative, evoking in an almost nostalgic tone the days of the Cold War when there was just one big enemy that every American loved to fear. Note that there is a new thread of discussion within the U.S. that the Administration views the re-emergence of a Russian “threat” as a political plus on the domestic front.
The trend of deteriorating U.S./Russia relations is supported by the GPB data, not just in the substance of the state-to-state relations but in the way global commentary is building the split. Watch for more and watch how this is used within U.S. domestic politics and how it translates to Russia’s positions on a host of issues including the Middle East.
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