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Speaking of politics ...
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Posted by: AngryFisherman

Having tried to keep up to date on news and events in Russia for the last year and a half, I have ofcourse had a healthy dose of sceptisism to all that has been said and written. I've espescially paid attention to the fact that the major Russian media channels (tv, newspapers etc.) are owned and run by Russia's so-called oligarchs.

One thing that has struck me in particular is this "Putinism" thing, which has actually reached our, usually non-biased and objective, media here in Scandinavia. The president has been portrayed as a popular personality among ALL Russians, and this thing I do personally not buy at all (having learnt the lessons of history

).

What I'm getting at here is that when I travelled in Russia just a few weeks ago, I spoke to some different Russian people, mostly in Moscow. And during my conversations I had a strange feeling of deja-vu. Two years ago I travelled the east coast of the US, and during my stay in New York, most of the people I spoke to there said they didn't feel like Americans, but where New Yorkers. The Moscowites I spoke to said a similar thing, that they're not like "other" Russians. And the reason for this comment was that I mentioned to them about the apparent popularity of their president in our media showing Russians buying portraits of Putin and everybody voting for him.

Most of the Russians I spoke to were in their late 20s, and usually I found talking about politics with them quite easy (ofcourse I had the common desency not to raise any provocative questions without knowing the other person better first). This particaular group of people I spoke to did actually not bother to vote this time, as they had no faith that they would make any difference, and this part worries me a bit. But ofcourse they know their culture and traditions better than I ...

What I'm getting at here is that I had some myths dispelled about Russians and politics during my stay. I actually thought they would have a harder time talking about current politics. But ofcourse I didn't talk to anyone belonging to the younger and older generations about this.

But to be quite honest, I found talking about everyday life more interesting than politics in Russia ... all the great traditions, food, celebrations ... but also the hardships. And I simply love the way they use humor to deal with their terrible traffic (I wouldn't last 10 minutes driving there)

FisherMan

Posted by: Jutman

Fish...

As you can se I am a Scandinivian to and I totally disagree with you about the bias media. Its rather that Putin is not bad and democracy in Russia is not perfect and since there improvements over there why not tell about it = about Putin. But occasionaly tell about the lack of democracy. I have articles and taped news to prove it.

If you go America you will find simular. American media are bias to.

One thing I like very much about Russian, at least those I have encountered is that they can understand the difference between the individuel and the goverment. My first visit was few months after the Sakajev case and I was worried about, but the few ties it came up, they understood it was a goverment issue and Danes in general are good.
Something we in the west could learn from in connection to Iraq.