Reciprocally negative public perceptions are often considered an important factor in explaining the dynamics in current US-Russia relations and impeding potential normalisation. The question, however, remains whether “anti-Americanism” and “Russophobia” in public attitudes are an established fact or simply a useful rhetorical cliché. This FIIA seminar will try to see what the sentiment on both sides actually is and what stands behind it. To what extent do the American and Russian public consider each other a threat? What are the respective views concerning interference in domestic affairs? The presentations will be based on research conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Levada Analytical Center.
Puhujat
Senior Fellow, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Dina Smeltz is a Senior Fellow on public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs since 2012. With 25 years of experience designing and fielding international social and political surveys, she oversees the Council’s well-known annual survey of American attitudes toward foreign policy and has authored and coauthored many of the analyses based on that work. She also directs the Council’s collaboration with research organizations around the world. In her previous functions in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the US State Department’s Office of Research, With a special emphasis on research in post-conflict situations (informally referred to as a “combat pollster”), Smeltz has worked with research teams in Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus, Israel-Palestinian Territories, and in Iraq.
Senior Research Fellow, Levada Center
Stepan Goncharov is a senior research fellow at the Levada Center. Goncharov’s field of expertise and research interests include public opinion on international relations, use of media and modern social processes in Russia. Gonhcarov holds a Specialist degree in Political Science from Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) and has broad experience in qualitative studies. He is a regular contributor for ridl.io (Riddle), an online-journal on Russian affairs.
Panelistit
Programme Director
Arkady Moshes is the Programme Director of the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia research programme at the FIIA. From 2008 to 2015 he was an Associate Fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. He received his PhD from the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. His main areas of expertise include Russia-EU relations and the internal and foreign policy of Ukraine and Belarus. He has written extensively on those issues, as well as on Russia’s policy toward the CIS and Baltic States.
Puheenjohtaja
Programme Director
Arkady Moshes is Programme Director for the Russia, EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood and Eurasia research programme. He is also a member of the Programme on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS Eurasia) at George Washington University. Moshes’ areas of expertise include Russian foreign policy, European-Russian relations as well as internal and foreign policy of Ukraine and Belarus. He received his Ph.D in history of international relations from the Russian Academy of Sciences (1992).
Before moving to Finland in 2002, he had been working in the Institute of Europe in Moscow since 1988. From 2008 to 2015 he was an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House. From 2017 to 2022 he was a member of EU-Russia Expert Network (EUREN). He has been a visiting scholar at the Danish Institute for International Studies (2002) and the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (2016), a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2007) and a regular guest lecturer at the NATO Defence College (2005-10, 2013-15) and Geneva Center for Security Policy (1998-2022).
Arkady Moshes has authored a large number of academic and analytical publications and is a frequent media commentator.
He co-edited “A Slavic Triangle? Present and Future Relations Between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus” (Swedish National Defence College, 2002), “Russia as a Network State: What Works in Russia When State Institutions Do Not” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “What has remained of the USSR: Exploring the erosion of the post-Soviet space” (FIIA, 2019) and “Russian Policy toward Belarus after 2020 At a Turning Point?” (Lexington Books, 2023) and contributed articles to, among others, Security Dialogue, International Affairs, Post-Soviet Affairs and Demokratizatsiya.