By Andrei Tsygankov.
The 2012 U.S. presidential election presents a contrast to the 2008 election in terms of their perceptions by the Russian elite.
In 2008, then-President Dmitry Medvedev
expressed a desire to work with a “modern” U.S. leader rather than one
“whose eyes are turned back to the past.” He was referring to Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama. But influential Russian elites
voiced their support for the Republican candidate, John McCain, despite
McCain calling President Vladimir Putin a KGB spy who has no soul and
calling to expel Russia from the Group of Eight leading industrial
nations.
Even though McCain was more critical of the Kremlin, some members of
Putin’s entourage favored McCain because they believed he was more
predictable than Obama. They insisted that Russia was doing well
economically, whereas the United States was losing one position in the
world after another. Therefore, when confronted with the U.S. threat,
Russia might only get stronger and consolidate its status as a great
sovereign power. The elite’s main concern is with rebuilding power and
geopolitical influence. If McCain were in the White House, the thinking
went, Putin would have a convenient anti-Russian bogeyman whom the Kremlin could exploit for domestic political reasons, giving it
another pretext to ratchet up its anti-Americanism, increase defense
expenditures and crack down on the opposition.
Yet it seems that the Kremlin’s support for
U.S. hawks is shifting. In March, Medvedev took issue with U.S.
presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s characterization of Russia as the
“No. 1 geopolitical foe.” He said the view “smelled of Hollywood
stereotypes” and suggested that it was rooted in the Cold War.
But it wasn’t only Medvedev and his
pro-Western supporters who became critical of the Republican’s views.
Although President Vladimir Putin recently thanked Romney for his
openness regarding the “No.1 foe” comment, he also indicated that it
would be hard for the Kremlin to work with Romney as president,
especially on sensitive security issues such as the missile defense
system. During Putin’s interview with RT state television, he also
called Obama an “honest man who really wants to change much for the
better.” This comment was widely viewed as Putin’s most direct
endorsement of Obama in the presidential race.
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