''We're okay here, for serious''
Russian millennials about media, political decisions and international isolation
At the height of deterioration in the US-Russian relationship, CBS News' reporter Alex Wagner travelled to Moscow and asked the younger generation of Russians what they think of Americans, how they view the tensions between the US and Russia and whether they trust the media.
Russian millennials consider themselves to be different from older Russians. According to one of the interviewees, Kirill, people born in the Soviet Union didn't have a chance to travel around the world, while he and his peers have this opportunity because the borders are open and the Western pop culture can reach Russian young people. Although the interviewees' first association with America was Trump, they also named a number of others, such as Aerosmith, McDonald's, stars and stripes, liberty and comic books. ''Those are pretty positive or happy images of America,'' commented the reporter.
It's not right to isolate ourselves from the outer world, especially from America, because America is one of the leading countries in the world, said Kirill. Maria, a social media marketer, considers a new Cold War between Russia and the US to be just one of ''wonderful topics for journalists, [and] that's it''.
Nonetheless, others expressed their concerns about the current political situation. ''The political decisions that are made right now, they are destructive for all spheres of our life,'' considers David. He added that both sides were to be blamed. Asked about the most intriguing thing for him about the United States, David said he was surprised that American people were very vulnerable to any kind of even small propaganda. Another respondent, Artyom, expressed his distrust of the press: ''I don't think that it's the job of the media nowadays to say the truth. It's mostly emotional...'' He added that his opinion concerned Russian media as well.
Russian millennials say they don't feel isolated from the world. ''We still got YouTube,'' said Evgeni, an IT entrepreneur. ''We watch CBS, we watch Marvel, we watch HBO, our favourite series, like Game of Thrones, right? No, you cannot isolate us because we've got money and we can grab a ticket and visit you if we want. But we're okay here, for serious.''
They have mixed opinions on President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Kirill disagrees with the president on many points but is mostly satisfied with the current political system. ''I respect Trump, he does his job. I respect Putin, he does his job. But I do my job,'' said Evgeni, and his job is not to be ''an expert in politics.''