#13
BBC Monitoring
Russian TV ponders why so many Russians regard America
as enemy
Source: Centre TV, Moscow, in Russian 1700 gmt 12 Nov 01
[According to the previous report, 69 per cent of Centre TV viewers who took part in an opinion poll regard America as Russia's enemy]
[Leonid Mlechin] So, as we can see, an absolute majority of our viewers regard the United States as our enemy. But if you ask anyone now, no-one will be able to tell you what exactly the Americans did wrong to us and why they are our enemies. We never fought against the United States. In fact, there has been nothing wrong between us. But the feeling ingrained in us is that the Americans are our enemies.
On the other hand, it is not surprising. Those who saw a curious article in the Komsomolskaya Pravda [newspaper], will know why. The article was about a small village in which local saint Spiridon was revered. When the local old men learnt that the United States had begun bombing Afghanistan, they set up a round-the-clock vigil near the saint's grave because they believed that the Americans were unbelievers and enemies, and that now they would come and steal their favourite saint. So, this is how we see the United States, this is how we see the world. And it would be naive to think that this applies only to the situation outside Moscow, judging by your views, esteemed our viewers.
It would be interesting to ask the view of our president, who is leaving for the United States today, regarding the curious results of our interactive poll. He spent all day today, trying to dissuade his own generals and admirals from seeing the United States as our enemy.
As we said last week, Putin did attend the meeting of the top military command of the armed forces. He not only addressed generals and admirals with a speech but later in an informal atmosphere - as far as it is possible at the Defence Ministry - talked to commanders of [military] districts and fleets. And afterwards he invited the government and told it that no money should be spared on the army.
Putin did all this in order to get ready for his trip to the United States. No particular problems are expected in his conversations with the Americans. Instead, Putin has problems with his own fellow-countrymen, particularly with the military, who certainly cannot fathom this sudden U-turn in Russia's foreign defence policy. Like most our viewers, generals and admirals are perplexed and cannot understand how the United States suddenly stopped being our enemy.
Let me draw your attention to the fact that [Defence Minister] Sergey Ivanov, who, when he was secretary of the Security Council, looked like a real hawk, now, in his capacity as defence minister, looks like a dove against the background of his colleagues. But it is not Sergey Ivanov who has changed his views, it is the president's policy that has changed, and indeed it has changed radically.
As for the gist of his today's speech to the military, it could be boiled down to two main points. We need a minimum of nuclear weapons which means we are not going to have a nuclear war with the United States. The country should not be frightened about it and people should not be asked to make sacrifices for the sake of this war which is not going to happen. This is the first point.
And the second is that the main threat to the country is coming not from the West, not from NATO, but from the south. And this fact should have been recognized a long time ago.
Naturally, it was difficult for the generals to take all this in, therefore the president invented a new tactic. Today he was saying that yes, we are no longer enemies with the United States, yes, we don't need so many nuclear weapons but, on the other hand, we want to have a modern and well-equipped army, which means that all the money, most of which was used to create nuclear weapons, will now be used to strengthen general purpose forces.
On the whole, most of the military were pleased to hear that. Why? Because in the past money usually ended up with the Strategic Missile Troops, the strategic aviation and the part of the submarine fleet which carried nuclear weapons. Now these people will feel hurt. However, most generals and admirals will feel better because money will go to the Ground Troops, aviation and the fleet. This means that pilots will be able to fly. Moreover, the president today said in particular that money will be provided not only for weapons but for combat training as well. This means that pilots will be able to fly, tank crews will be able to test combat vehicles in the field and sailors will be able to go out to sea. This means a lot for the military and in this way Putin hopes to ease the tension which has emerged between him and the command of the armed forces.
It would certainly be much more difficult for him to soften the mood of the population, 70 per cent of which, according to the opinion poll of our viewers, hate the Americans and regard them as their enemies. It would be particularly nice for the Americans to learn about this now, when they have just had a new tragedy, which may have been another terrorist act. It would be nice for them to know that far away in Russia they are hated as much as they are hated by [Usamah] Bin-Ladin and other terrorists.
I would like to say a few words about what Putin was talking about today. He said that, thank God, military reform had got under way. It is difficult to agree with him here. He most probably said this in order to please his friend the defence minister since military reform has not started in this country. It will start only when the principle of bringing the armed forces up to strength will change, when we will move from compulsory conscription to bringing the army up to strength, using a contract system. Then professionals who will link their life with the armed forces will come and we will have a modern and well prepared army.
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