IMI-Aktuell 2015/084
Putins US-Sicht
(18.02.2015)
Häufig wird dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin eine Art pathologischer US-Hass unterstellt, der noch aus seiner KGB-Zeit her stamme. Kritisch hiermit gehen Fiona Hill und Clifford G. Gaddy ins Gericht, die in ihrem Buch „Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin“, das in Auszügen im Atlantic (via Bpb-Newesletter) erschien, zu dem Ergebnis gelangen, die US-Handlungen nach dem Kalten Krieg seien für Putins negatives US-Bild verantwortlich, kein wie auch immer tief sitzender Anti-Amerikanismus: „[T]here is little evidence of any anti-American views in the early phases of Putin’s public life. […] NATO’s Kosovo campaign was a turning point for Moscow and for Putin personally. Russian officials interpreted the intervention as a means of expanding NATO’s influence in the Balkans, not as an effort to deal with a humanitarian crisis. They began to revise their previous conclusions about the prospects for cooperating with NATO as well as with the United States as the leader of the alliance. […] His more negative views of the United States, and its perceived threat to Russia, seem to have hardened later in the 2000s, over the course of his interactions and relationships with two American presidents: George W. Bush and Barack Obama. […] By 2013, as the crisis in Ukraine began to unfold, Putin’s view of America had become dark indeed.” (jw)