Poll: Russians Fear the United States More than ISIS-Type Terrorists

Although the Obama
administration not long ago hoped for a positive relationship
“reset” with Russia, tensions between the United States and Russia
have throughout this year continued to escalate to highs unseen
since the Cold War. A poll published
last week from the Russian Public Opinion Research Center indicates
that because of this worsening relationship, more Russians believe
the U.S. poses a terror threat to them than radical Islamists like
ISIS do.

The center reports that 22 percent of Russians consider the U.S.
to be “the main source of terrorist threats” to their nation. This
is a dramatic spike from one year ago, when only 4 percent believed
the U.S. was such a threat. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a
harshly anti-American speech on Friday,
accusing the West of sponsoring terrorism in Russia. The polling
data was gathered well-before the speech, but the nation’s media is
largely government-controlled, and the government has been
raising a specter of U.S. meddling for months.

Just as interesting is how this compares to the perceived threat
of other groups. America’s biggest bogeyman might by ISIS, but only
16 percent (a 3 percent rise) believe Islamic terror groups are the
main danger to Russia. This seems surprisingly low, since ISIS
issued a video
directed at Putin, warning that they are “on [their] way” to
Russia to remove him from power and to “liberate Chechnya and the
Caucuses.” Local threats from the contentious Caucuses has dropped
from 20 percent to a mere 3 percent. A terror attack in Chechnya
killed five police officers and injured a dozen other people
earlier this month, but that was after the polling data was
collected.

Also interesting is that for the first time, Russians fear a
terror attack from Ukraine, a nation that Russia has been invading
for much of this war. Seven percent believe the neighboring state
poses a threat even though, as the independent Moscow
Times
points out, Russian-state propaganda has presented Ukraine as a
monstrous fascist entity.

Polls by many organizations throughout the year have shown
Putin’s approval rating among their highest ever, in spite of an
economy that is on the verge of recession. His government has
unfortunately reversed a trend toward liberalization and is
cracking down on homosexuals, political dissidents, and religious
minorities. Emigration out of Russia has
spiked in the last two years, though Russians are
less inclined to come to the U.S. than they were in the ’90s or
early 2000s.

Recently, when a Fox News host fantasized that America’s
anti-terror operations would benefit a strong-man leader like
Putin, I pointed out that Russia has had a destructive domestic
terror war that has never really ended – last year
over 600 terror crimes were reported in the unstable
regions.

Not all Russians
buy into the Putin administration’s fear-mongering. Read
Reason interviews with prominent Russian libertarians

here and
here.