In March, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, was giving a speech about corruption at the Duma. Zhirinovsky, who is known for his theatrics, accused his fellow lawmakers, who don’t really make laws so much as rubber-stamp whatever Vladimir Putin puts in front of them, of being in the employ of anonymous “gangs” and mob bosses—a common charge that focus-groups well in the provinces. “I will get into the Kremlin, and I will have you shot and hanged, you no-gooders and scoundrels,” Zhirinovsky announced. He then exited the Duma, the L.D.P.R. delegation in tow. (He returned a little later, demanding an apology.)
The speech was apparently meant to remind Russians that Zhirinovsky is running for president. He will not win, and he knows it. That’s not the point. Zhirinovsky’s role in today’s Russia, which abides by an almost Victorian sense of hierarchy, in which each cog must fill a predetermined niche, is that of court jester. His real job, the job that many Russian intelligentsia have long assumed was given to him by the F.S.B., is to say things that appeal to the nationalist-populist element while reminding everyone else that, his many shortcomings notwithstanding, the current president, whoever he may be, is vastly preferable to the half-Jewish, quasi-fascist nutbag named Zhirik. The crazier Zhirik gets, the better. He’s been embroiled in a fist fight on the floor of the Duma. (See the video.) He’s declared Russia ought to take back Alaska. He once said, “Russian soldiers will wash their boots in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.”
When smart, educated, liberal-ish Russians in Moscow and St. Petersburg think of Donald Trump, they’re reminded of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Except, they’re quick to note, Zhirinovsky is educated. He was an undergraduate degree at the prestigious Moscow State University, where he studied in the Turkish Studies Department in the Institute of Asian and African Studies. Later, after serving with the Army in the Caucasus, he obtained a law degree. This is another way of saying: Zhirik knows things, including what his role is.
Trump does not know things, and this is what flummoxes and frightens smart Russians—the Russians who follow international politics at Meduza.io and Dozhd.ru, the subset of would-be Westernizers waiting for the next glasnost. They imagine Trump being the leader of some Tea Party faction on Capitol Hill, banging on about birth certificates and jihadists and cartels while unintentionally reminding everyone how lucky they are that Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz or, really, anyone else living (or dead) in the whole United States isn’t their fearless leader. To these people, the brouhaha surrounding Trump’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak—the meeting at which Trump, who has waged war on leakers in his own administration, apparently leaked sensitive intel—is alternately amusing and a little terrifying. These days, more terrifying than amusing. (Meduza likes to link to Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert making fun of the president.) This is what happens, they say, when Zhirinovsky is in charge—except it’s worse, because Zhirinovsky knows he’s not supposed to be in charge. Trump has no idea he has no idea. Thoughtful Russians, in other words, view Trump the way many thoughtful people who voted for Clinton last year, on the left and right, think of Trump—dangerously out of his depth.
To non-elitny Russians who think there’s nothing ironic about Zhirinovsky calling for legislation that would “cleanse” the Russian language of foreign words (see here), the United States is simply catching up. Since the beginning of time, these Russians, the great gray middle, the people who are being suffocated by Putin and love him for it, have imagined that Americans thought about and fretted over Russia much, much more than they do. Russians are fond of saying Americans believe there are bears prowling the streets of Moscow, which suggests Americans are actually thinking about Russia. They are not. (Of course, now they are, and, to these Russians, that is how things ought to be. Americans ought to be thinking about and fretting over Russia because Russia, in their minds, is a great and powerful country, and it demands respect, the same way Putin demands respect. Neither Putin nor Trump appears to grasp that a leader who is seen to be demanding respect is not deserving of it.)
To these Russians, Trump may have his eccentricities, he may lack Putin’s stoniness, but he pays attention to them. America is paying attention to Russia! That so many Americans are upset about this, that they get all lathered up whining about a stupid meeting, suggests the country has been gripped by yet another Red Scare, minus the Reds. It confirms for them what they have always believed, which is that Russia is important, America is scared, and the new American president is simply giving voice to that reality. State-controlled media like Channel 1 no longer poke fun at Trump. (They used to.) Now, their target is America—and Americans.
In fact, when it comes to Americans, there is a convergence of sorts among Russian journalists, pundits and bloggers, who seem to be in agreement that Americans are in the middle of a protracted, Russo-phobic seizure. See, for example, Georgy Bovt’s recent piece, in Gazeta.ru, slamming “political schizophrenia” in the United States. (Among other things, Bovt takes issue with Time’s admittedly over-the-top cover featuring the White House melting into St. Basil’s.) A Russian reporter who covers Russian politics compared the United States right now to the Coen Brothers’ 2008 movie Burn After Reading, in which the knucklehead personal trainer, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), and his co-worker, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), believe they’ve stumbled onto a highly sensitive government CD that is not, in fact, highly sensitive.
The snickering is warranted. Progressives have never appeared all that worried about Russia. Once upon a time, they were apologists for it. More recently, they sought a “reset” with the Kremlin. Funny that. Of course, they’re not alone in their topsy-turviness. Right-wingers used to call the Soviet Union evil. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and they stopped caring about Russia, or they found it kind of amusing or unfortunate or . . . whatever. It was not really a part of the discourse. Now, progressives are sounding like Red-baiters who see Russian infiltration everywhere, and the Trumpkins and their allies on the alt-right have taken to ridiculing progressives who warn of the Russians hijacking American elections. (Every other tweet coming from someone with a Pepe the Frog on his avatar includes something about Americans overreacting to something the Russian president just said.)
There’s a critical difference between Russians’ and Americans’ views of each other, however, and this says important things about us and them. Russians, irrespective of their politics, are much less forgiving of Americans—the American people, than Americans are of the Russian people. They see in Americans a profound stupidity, a myopia, a lack of insight—into Russia, into themselves. Americans, no matter their politics, like to distinguish between governments and peoples, between the Kremlin and “the Russians.” This seems only fair to them, and that may be true, and it may be unwarranted. In our desire to see the good in other people, we blind ourselves. The Kremlin is definitely not the Russian people, but it is of it. Nor is the American president, so hated and condescended to by his opponents, as alien to our heritage as we like to think. We prefer to imagine him a cancer imported by foreign powers—the F.S.B., the G.R.U., moneyed interests—but that’s a fantasy. Our fantasies are simply in conflict.
