Here the favourable views from a poll of 137 countries conducted by the Centre for Future of Democracy, Cambridge, UK
- USA: 62%
- Russia: 56%
- China: 55%
What’s more that Russia & China are more popular than the U.S. in developing nations, where 85% of the world’s population lives.
In Belt and Road (BRI) nations, China is extremely popular.
I’ve not claimed anything yet, I want to understand what you mean and compare it to my own views first.
Coming from a developed country bordering Russia where the views on Russians is officially as bad as it gets, Norway, I would guess that meeting people and seeing that they’re not the monster the media portraits them as would go a long way to improve relationships.
But I would not assume other countries with different wealth and historical relationships would experience it differently.
Well I don’t think many people have gone north this time (Sweden, Norway) due to the strict border control. So the ones you will likely will be well-off types. And those are often self-loathing. Have you seen those folks with “I’m ashamed to be Russian” signs? A guy I knew from school did that, he’s been living in Canada for several years now. All of this will help to cement the idea of Russia as this weird, comically evil Mordor.
The last time we had an influx of immigrants over the Norwegian-Russian border they came on bikes because they couldn’t afford cars and it’s illegal to walk across. I think that sets the bar for how expensive it is to flee to Norway from Russia.
I don’t think we’ll only see the well-off.
Fair. I suppose you have a better picture from the other side of the fence