­US media write about rise of anti-Americanism in Russia as an element of the ongoing election campaign. Journalists refer to statements made by Vladimir Putin and publications in Russian press portraying the US in a very negative way, as a country which intervenes in everything and tries to impose American perceptions on others. Is it election mood, deep-rooted prejudices or something else?

Putin’s suspicious stance vis-à-vis the US is unfortunately not just of an electoral character. The four-year pause when Medvedev was responsible for Russia’s foreign policy has not moderated Putin’s feelings about Washington’s “dictates and arrogance.” He is still very emotional about relations with the United States.

This factor is personal, experience from his first and second presidencies. Putin did a lot to develop mutually-beneficial, constructive relations with the United States, but was met with a clear unwillingness by the Bush administration to accept Russia as an equal partner. This will seriously influence the US-Russia agenda. Due to this factor of personal grievance, the United States does not seem to fit into Putin’s foreign policy, which is on the whole more pragmatic and prudent.

Russia is not the most anti-American country, rather an average one. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2009, more people have a favorable view of the United States in Russia (44 per cent) than in Turkey (14 per cent), Pakistan (16 per cent), Jordan (25 per cent), Egypt (27 per cent) and Argentina (38 per cent), even though these countries are either nominally US allies or close partners.

To be fair, American policy perplexes even supporters of the United States. America shocks the world with its deep conviction that as “the beacon of freedom” it can sit in judgment of the rest of the world and make them do the right thing, even by force. Meanwhile, American policy is often dogmatic, not free of mistakes and certainly not morally beyond reproach. There is nothing beyond reproach in international relations, but in the case of the United States, the gap between words and deeds is sometimes shocking. Any criticism of US policy in Russia is attributed to persistent anti-Americanism, although Washington gives sufficient grounds for justified criticism.

The Russian attitude to America is a complicated mixture. It is partly cynical – disbelief that a country can be guided by anything but mercantile considerations. There is also the messianic inertia – both the Russians and the Americans have always believed in the special mission of their nation, although now it is hard to understand what is left of it.

The internal trauma from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 is intertwined with a subconscious desire to be like America and a simultaneous realization of the impossibility of reaching this goal. The end of the global confrontation essentially destroyed Russia’s international stature.

The United States gained almost everything that the Soviet Union lost. Russian public and political consciousness is still unable to digest this. But Russia is probably the last important country in the world to sincerely believe in America’s omnipotence. While everyone else is talking about the decline of the US, on the Russian internet and in other public domains, Americans are behind everything.

How is Russian anti-Americanism to be overcome? We should replace it not with love for America (which sometimes develops into a bizarre form of worship) but a calm, rational and detached attitude to the United States – an interesting, intricate and equally contradictory country – based on an understanding that the interests of two enormous and completely different countries cannot coincide. Strategic competition is a normal and natural thing. The United States is a powerful country that plays the leading role in the world (at least for the time being) and seeks dominance over its partners.

However, demonization of America, morbid obsession with America, a compulsion to rebuff every remark by some ageing senator who is still stuck in the Cold War merely reflect our phobias and complexes rooted in Russian’s fractured political consciousness.

­Fyodor Lukyanov, for RT

­The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.