F. ROADMAP
Chapter II will outline the recent historical examples of anti-Americanism in Putin’s Russia to include an analysis of Putin’s evolving anti-Americanism over time from a historical context during the Soviet era as well as post-Soviet Russia. Significant discussion will be offered about the role the 1990s Yeltsin years may have played in the exacerbation of Putin’s hostility toward America. Starting with his sudden appearance at the power-table in 1999 through present day 2013, the Putin years shall be analyzed for consistencies or fluctuations in Putinist anti-Americanism. The chapter will conclude with an interpretation of the many different forms that Putin’s anti-Americanism has taken.
The thesis will then turn toward the nature of domestic Russian politics in Chapter III, namely an overview of Putin’s hybrid authoritarian regime and what makes his Russia something less than an outright authoritarian state. An analysis of the role of the public and the elites within the Russian political sphere will also be offered. A base of understanding of the democratic-authoritarian nature of Russia is required. By showing how Putin’s hold on power still remains in the hands of his constituents, the subsequent interpretation of the necessity of Putin’s anti-Americanism in his domestic sphere will be more plausible. This chapter will also include discussion of the authoritarian mechanisms available to Putin and detail the means by which Putin and his government are able to influence public sentiment and opinion toward the United States.
Chapter IV will then combine the nature of Russian anti-Americanism with the domestic circumstances of Russian politics to detail the potential domestic political implications of Putin’s anti-Americanism. Analysis will be offered regarding the benefits intrinsic to Putin’s exploitative use of anti-Americanism.
Chapter V will conclude the thesis with a summary of the findings and interpretations. Recommendations for further research shall also be presented. Additionally, insight will be offered regarding the most recent developments in Russian-American relations and how these instances could be interpreted based on the Putinist proclivity for domestically employed anti-Americanism.
II. VLADIMIR PUTIN’S ANTI-AMERICANISM: OUTWARDLY FLUCTUATING BUT INTERNALLY CONSISTENT?
Chapter II will offer a thorough examination of the central character in this thesis: Vladimir Putin. An analysis shall be made regarding Putin’s personal history from a modest childhood upbringing to eventual twenty-first century global strongman. Special focus shall be offered regarding his adulthood experience within the Soviet Union and his tenure within the anti-Western paranoia-generating machine, namely the Committee for State Security, or KGB. The investigations shall then turn toward Putin’s post-Soviet-era experiences during the Yeltsin years culminating in Putin’s own ascendency to the pinnacle of power within the Russian Federation.
This chapter will provide evidence that Vladimir Putin’s anti-Americanism over his lifetime has been a consistent personal attribute, even if temporarily behind-the-scenes given fluctuations in official Russian government attitude toward the United States. According to Peter Katzenstein, Robert Keohane, and Ivan Krastev, anti-Americanism represents a wide mental propensity to negatively view all aspects of America and American society.1 This study of Putinist anti-Americanism, therefore, will not be reduced to any single isolated incident of criticism or opposition to a particular U.S. policy or action. Rather, an extended pattern of animosity in rhetoric and actions will be observable. Putin has always been innately anti-American based on his earlier history. The vehemence of his anti-Americanism, as measured by the frequency of anti-American rhetoric and policy actions, seems to fluctuate over the course of his tenure on the global scene. The roots of his anti-Americanism, nevertheless, run too deep, formed in his early adulthood, ossified before his rise to power, and eventually displayed in earnest while in power.
1 Peter Katzenstein and Robert Keohane, Anti-Americanism in World Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), 12; Ivan Krastev, “The Anti-American Century,” Journal of Democracy 15, no 2 (April 2004): 7.
A. PUTIN’S EARLY HISTORY
Vladimir Putin’s rise to the top of Russian political society is quite remarkable given his upbringing in a poverty-stricken Soviet family. He lived generally distant from the levers of power until he was suddenly holding those very levers. Little in his early life could be seen as a signal of his future. But it remains those early years and especially into adulthood that provided the seed of Putin’s perpetually negative outlook toward the West and the United States. Putin’s anti-Americanism, therefore, stems from his early life, failing to dramatically alter or dissipate with the evolving geopolitical situation.
1. Early Life and College
Born into a poor family after the Great Patriotic War, Vladimir Putin’s childhood was marked by standard Soviet deprivation: cramped and paltry living conditions, food rationing, and isolation from the outside world. A self-described childhood “hooligan,” Putin was at best an average student and preferred to remain in the background and refrained from any leadership over his classmates. His teachers, nevertheless, recognized his intelligence, even if his grades never seemed to coincide. His childhood instructors also note his generally unforgiving nature toward anyone that Putin believes betrayed him, regardless of the severity of the issue in question.1 He took a particular liking to martial arts, specifically Judo because of the necessity of hard work, physical fitness, and blood compared to the “ballet” nature of karate. Putin’s love of Judo would continue into present day, where he still routinely practices. Putin’s admiration of those who are willing to toil in the extreme and his general loathing of any disloyalty cast some light on Putin’s more recent behavior has a head of state, especially regarding alleged slights by the United States and international community.
By the time Putin attended college at Leningrad State University (LGU), most LGU faculty were ardent communist supporters, so Putin became exposed to the most ardent anti-American and anti-Western Soviet propaganda while in college, under the guise of receiving a higher education and studying law.2 Putin’s exposure to Sovietized anti-Americanism would only increase exponentially as he now fancied a career as an officer in the KGB to do his part to protect the Soviet Union. His childhood ambitions of becoming a pilot or sailor had dissipated with age. Popular movies had portrayed a glamorized version of service within the state security apparatus, to which Putin had succumb before entering college.3 His romanticized vision of spies and KGB service continued after his initial recruitment into the security services from the University, but eventually the truly mundane nature of the service hit him like so many whose popculture vision of reality is quashed by true reality.
1 Nataliya Gevorkyan, Natalya Timakova, and Andrei Kolesnikov, First Person, trans. Catherine Fitzpatrick (New York: Perseus Books Group, 2000), 13, 16.
2 Eric Shiraev and Vladislav Zubock, Anti-Americanism in Russia from