Polemics and paranoia about a love-hate relationship

Sometimes the back-and-forth between scholars and self-appointed pundits at JRL can be entertaining. The excerpt below is from Andreas Umland's response to this critique of his article (full version here) about anti-American sentiment in Russia - I'm eliding the details.

Whoever knows Russian and had the opportunity to watch, for a week or so, the foreign affairs reporting of the two main Russian TV stations ORT and RTR might also start to "like the word 'paranoia'." Because that is exactly what Russia's politicians, journalists, pseudo-scholars, and other public figures are cultivating, on a daily basis, in Russian mass media today. Thus, Vladimir Putin's recent assessment that the Russian-Ukrainian gas conflict has been instigated by the Bush administration has raised only few eyebrows, in Russia. Who else than the amerikantsy could be behind the costly confrontation between the two Slavic brother-nations?

Many Russian opinion makers seem to think that the more unpleasant an international (and, sometimes, even national) event is for Russia, the more likely it is that the US is somehow behind it. Scores of Russian intellectuals and politicians appear to actually "need" America for the definition of their homeland: Russia is what the US not is, and the US is what Russia is not. The longer these intellectuals and politicians will have access to Russian mass media the deeper such views will sink into Russian discourse already heavily contaminated with xenophobia and conspirology. My prediction is, therefore, that ­ should Putin continue to shape Moscow's information policies ­ Russian popular anti-Americanism will grow further, in the future. Whereas Western and Central European views of the US will, after the end of the Bush Jr. Administration, significantly and lastingly improve, the "Obama effect" may be only brief, in Russia.

I tend to agree that the anti-Americanism one encounters in the Russian mainstream is sometimes breathtaking. However, it's strange that amidst all of the dislike of the amorphous concept of "America," one still often encounters acceptance of or even affection for things American. drugoi had a post about this a while ago, in which he asked whether Russians' attitude toward the US might be similar to the way you feel about "a woman you really like who won't let you get close to her." I'm not sure it's as simple as that, but the seven pages of comments to his post provide at least some insight as to the range of opinions existing among the more vocal segments of the Russian blogosphere.