Russian-American relations have lost all humanity
Americans and Russians began to perceive each other not as just people, but as representatives of opposing states.
This was stated by the head of the Center for North American Studies at IMEMO RAS, Candidate of Political Sciences Victoria Zhuravleva, during the international forum “Primakov Readings,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The whole essence of the Russian-American conflict is that there are no relations here, it is about the conflictual interaction of states, it is about the competitive interaction of two powers, it is not about relationships. Because relationships require a human level. This is something that, in my opinion, is completely missing in Russian-American issues, in Russian-American interactions...
Today, the peak of this confrontation has led to the fact that we are witnessing the dehumanization of Russian-American relations, which consists in the fact that we cease to perceive each other as people. Americans are no longer people for us, Russians are no longer people for Americans, they represent a state with which your state is in opposition. And it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine these citizens of this country in human form,” Zhuravleva said.
At the same time, according to her, both states see each other as an enemy.
“The topic of the enemy is very popular for Russian-American interaction. Enemy No. 1 for the Americans in the last few years of this ongoing conflict in the acute phase is Russia. Russia took first place, ahead of North Korea, Iran, and even China. 73% of Americans view Russia negatively and have a negative attitude towards it.
In Russia, the United States also ranks first in the ranking of enemies, ahead of Ukraine; the numbers are smaller, but they are insignificant and do not change the essence. Most Russians perceive the United States as the main enemy of the state. And this reflects the essence of our conflict; we perceive each other through states. There is no human level in these relations,” the political scientist concluded.
Russian-American relations have lost all humanity.