historical and analytical methods will be employed in this thesis covering an extended case study of anti-Americanism in Russia during the years under Vladimir Putin’s leadership from 1999 until present day 2013. The analysis will focus on anti-Americanism as a domestic political tool within an authoritarian state rather than focusing on its use as a geostrategic mechanism within international relations. Specific foreign policy actions and postures taken by Putin and Russia as well as words from his and his surrogates’ own mouths from the historical record will be referenced for contextual analysis with the goal of discerning patterns of anti-Americanism on both the world stage and the Russian stage during the prescribed timeline.
The most important sources for this thesis will be transcripts of statements by Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, as well as contemporary scholarly analyses of Russian politics and foreign policy. Of the sources surveyed, many are primary sources, to include Putin’s autobiographical interview book First Person. Primary source transcripts from the Russian government’s public online archives will be equally valuable, to include Federal Assembly addresses and Putin’s yearly multi-hour long news conferences and public-oriented discussions known as Direct Line in which public and press posit questions on a plethora of topics including foreign affairs and politics. These primary sources, along with the a wide array of all-encompassing academic and scholarly analytical resources available on the subject areas pursuant to this thesis will provide a solid foundation from which to delve into the necessary aspects of anti-Americanism.
As noted already, Russian public polling data spanning the entire era of Putin’s leadership is widely available from different organizations, including the independent Levada Center, as well as the state controlled Russian Public Opinion Research Center. Data from such organizations will facilitate a general analysis of the levels of anti-Americanism beyond the Kremlin walls and Russian government officials’ mouths.
In addition, historical and contemporary works about authoritarian governments and the structures and functionality of such systems will provide valuable insight into the near-authoritarian/hybrid system now entrenched in Putin’s Russia so that an evaluation may be made about the utility of anti-Americanism to domestic politics.
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
