{"id":171028,"date":"2015-08-06T21:05:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T21:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=171028"},"modified":"2016-11-30T01:54:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T00:54:32","slug":"pew-global-poll-finds-that-obamas-effort-to-isolate-russia-is-succeeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/pew-global-poll-finds-that-obamas-effort-to-isolate-russia-is-succeeding\/","title":{"rendered":"Pew Global Poll Finds that Obama’s Effort to Isolate Russia Is Succeeding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest Pew international poll finds that whereas U.S. and global sentiments toward Russia were rather moderate, not hostile, until after U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, the sentiments toward Russia both in the U.S. and in most countries are now generally sharply hostile.\u00a0This is an achievement for President Obama, toward which he has worked tirelessly, both publicly and in private.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pew\u2019s new report, dated August 5th, covers 39 countries, and is headlined,\u00a0“Russia, Putin Held in Low Regard around the World: Russia\u2019s Image Trails U.S. across All Regions.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0It finds that \u201cRussia\u2019s Image\u201d is 30% \u201cFavorable,\u201d and 51% \u201cUnfavorable,\u201d across the 39 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

A previous Pew international poll, published on 3 September 2013, had not found the same thing to be the case. It was bannered,\u00a0“Global Opinion of Russia Mixed: Negative Views Widespread in Mideast and Europe.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0This poll found that \u201cRussia\u2019s Global Image\u201d was 36% \u201cFavorable,\u201d and 39% \u201cUnfavorable,\u201d across the 38 countries that were polled. Russia\u2019s image has gone down one-sixth (lost 6% of its previous 36%) in \u201cFavorable\u201d ratings, and increased 31% (by 51%\/39%) in \u201cUnfavorable\u201d ratings.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the interim between those two polls, President Obama\u2019s Administration, as it began its second term in 2013, replaced its top State Department official who ran policymaking for Europe and Asia, with an aide to Hillary Clinton who comes from the leading \u201cneo-conservative\u201d family and who had previously been the top foreign policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, Victoria Nuland, whose husband Robert Kagan, had been a co-founder (along with Bill Kristol) of PNAC, the organization that, even before President George W. Bush was inaugurated, had led the voices calling for Sadam Hussein\u2019s overthrow, and for other pro-Saudi, pro-Israeli, anti-Russian, U.S. foreign policies.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Obama also replaced his first-term\u2019s U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine by Geoffrey Pyatt, another \u201cneo-conservative.\u201d Pyatt was assigned to execute inside Ukraine the instructions that he receives from Ms. Nuland, who is based in Washington.\u00a0Here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is one of the key phone-conversations that leaked out, in which Ms. Nuland tells Mr. Pyatt whom to place at the head of the Ukrainian government when Ukraine\u2019s democratically elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, will be overthrown, which overthrow happened 18 days later. That man, \u201cYats,\u201d did become appointed to lead the \u201cinterim\u201d government, and he is still in power there, though a figurehead President has been elected, by voters in the regions of Ukraine that had voted against Yanukovych. The\u00a0turnout<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in that 25 May 2014 election (the first post-coup election) was almost nil in the pro-Yanukovych districts. It was actually nil in the area of Ukraine commonly called \u201cDonbass,\u201d where\u00a0over 90% of the voters had voted for Yanukovych.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0They did not accept the Obama Administration\u2019s\u00a0coup<\/span><\/a>. It was\u00a0an extremely violent coup<\/span><\/a>. President Obama subsequently supported\u00a0an ethnic cleansing operation to get rid of the residents<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0the area of Ukraine that had voted 90%+ for Yanukovych<\/span><\/a>; that is, in Donbass. This is necessary for Obama to do in order to establish stability for the anti-Russian government that Obama has installed in Ukraine, because, otherwise, there is no way that the natural resources in that part of Ukraine can be retained by Obama\u2019s government if the voters who live there, stay there and vote in future Ukrainian elections. For American policy in Ukraine to succeed, those people must be\u00a0gotten rid of<\/span><\/a>. Many have\u00a0fled to nearby Russia<\/span><\/a>. This exodus actually helps Obama\u2019s purpose, to get rid of them: they can\u2019t vote in Ukraine. So: it, too, serves Obama\u2019s objective.<\/span><\/p>\n

The people in Donbass had hoped that, like with Crimea, the Russian government would accept their region as being part of Russia. Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin was mute on that request until mid-September of 2014,\u00a0at which time<\/span><\/a>\u00a0he told the leaders there that they should instead remain as part of Ukraine, but with a form of independence there so that Ukraine wouldn\u2019t be able to continue the ethnic cleansing to get rid of them (which Ukraine calls by the name of \u201cAnti Terrorist Operation,\u201d or ATO). In other words: Putin wants those people to be voting in Ukrainian elections, not in Russian ones. He doesn\u2019t want them to be killed, but he also doesn\u2019t want them to be in Russia. He wants as many of them as possible to stay alive, but inside Ukraine, whose government wants them to be dead or else gone. That\u2019s the real issue between Obama and Putin: Obama wants those people to be dead or else in Russia, while Putin wants those people to be alive and voting in Ukrainian elections, not<\/i> in Russia ones (where their presence or not will make no difference to the government in power: immaterial).<\/span><\/p>\n

During the coup, Obama\u2019s hired people in Ukraine\u00a0massacred busloads of Crimeans who had travelled to the capital in Kiev to protest the coup there while it was occurring<\/span><\/a>. As a result of that massacre, Crimeans in Crimea sought and obtained from the Russian government (and this was prior to the start of the ethnic cleansing program in Donbass) the protection by Russia\u2019s soldiers, many of whom were already stationed at Russia\u2019s naval base in Crimea, which had been located there since 1783. The Russian government complied with that request from Crimeans, and held a referendum in Crimea to allow the people there to decide whether Crimea should remain as part of Ukraine, which it had been only since 1954, or instead to become again part of Russia, as it had been for centuries before 1954.\u00a0The U.S. Government had sponsored Gallup polls to be taken in Crimea both before the coup and after, in order to determine whether there would be any way that such a referendum might be challenged by the United States, but the results both times showed overwhelming, in some cases near-100%, support of Crimeans for rejoining Russia, and for their no longer being part of Ukraine.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Obama, of course, has opposed both the people in Donbass and the people in Crimea, and has condemned Russia\u2019s protection of Crimea and Russia\u2019s military and other assistance (including extensive shipments of food, water, and medicines) to the people of Donbass. (The Ukrainian government has protested those shipments.) He has done everything that he can to turn global sentiment against Russia for responding to\u00a0the coup<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the U.S. had carried out next door to Russia, in Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some instances in which President Obama, during his second term, has expressed his intention to isolate Russia (and he always gives as the reason for isolating Russia the relationship between Ukraine and Russia):<\/span><\/p>\n

17 Mar. 2014:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/blog\/2014\/03\/17\/president-obama-announces-new-ukraine-related-santions<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to make clear to Russia that further provocations will achieve nothing except to further isolate Russia and diminish its place in the world.”<\/span><\/p>\n

17 Mar. 2014:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2014\/03\/17\/statement-president-ukraine<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“to\u00a0isolate Russia\u00a0for its actions”<\/span><\/p>\n

20 Mar. 2014:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2014\/03\/20\/statement-president-ukraine<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“Russia\u00a0must know that further escalation will only\u00a0isolate\u00a0it further”<\/span><\/p>\n

29 Jul. 2014:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/blog\/2014\/07\/29\/president-obama-russia-once-again-isolating-itself-international-community<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“Russia Is Once Again Isolating Itself from the International Community”<\/span><\/p>\n

11 Sep. 2014:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2014\/09\/11\/statement-president-new-sanctions-related-russia<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“These measures will increase\u00a0Russia’s\u00a0political\u00a0isolation”<\/span><\/p>\n

20 Jan. 2015:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2015\/01\/20\/remarks-president-state-union-address-january-20-2015<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated with its economy in tatters. That\u2019s how America leads.”<\/span><\/p>\n

25 Jan. 2015:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2015\/01\/25\/statements-president-obama-and-prime-minister-modi-republic-india<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026\u00a0what\u2019s at stake in Ukraine. And what we have done is to consistently isolate Russia on this issue and to raise the costs that Russia confronts.”<\/span><\/p>\n

June 8, 2015:\u00a0https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2015\/06\/08\/remarks-president-obama-press-conference-after-g7-summit<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“This is now the second year in a row that the G7 has met without\u00a0Russia\u00a0\u2013 another example of\u00a0Russia’s isolation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As regards the background of the February 2014 Ukrainian coup, it preceded Obama\u2019s second term. It was long in planning. Steve Weissman at Reader Supported News did\u00a0one superb article on that<\/span><\/a>. And Brandon Turbeville\u00a0at his site<\/span><\/a>\u00a0did another. Moreover, according to Ms. Nuland speaking in December 2013, just two months before the coup,\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve invested over five billion dollars\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to prepare for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

So: what Pew\u2019s polls are showing is that, concerning international opinion, America\u2019s President has been very successful at persuading the world that Russia is, as Obama stated in his\u00a0National Security Strategy 2015 (which referred to Russia in 17 of its 18 usages of the various forms of the word \u201caggressor\u201d)<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0evil.<\/span><\/p>\n

The allegations that Obama does not know what he is doing in foreign affairs are false. And, moreover, his effort here is a bipartisan one<\/span><\/a>: this ia an American achievement, not merely a personal victory for Obama. It\u2019s an excellent example of the way the U.S. government functions<\/span><\/a>, not merely of the way Mr. Obama does.<\/span><\/p>\n

———-<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse The latest Pew international poll finds that whereas U.S. and global sentiments toward Russia were rather moderate, not hostile, until after U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, the sentiments toward Russia both in the U.S. and in most countries are now generally sharply hostile.\u00a0This is an achievement for President Obama, toward which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":241492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[115,30,32,96,535,59,524,523,49,76,40,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-171028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-cia","12":"tag-cover-up","13":"tag-global-news","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-usa-news","18":"tag-warfare","19":"tag-white-house","20":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}