According to Ksenia Semyonova, Chief Editor of TheQuestion, assumes that Russia urgently needs an external enemy as a scapegoat to be blamed for all the misfortunes Russia is facing. To be more specific, she says that in 2015 President Putin quoted Emperor Alexander III, who liked to say that the Russian Empire had only 2 allies – the army and the navy – while other nations may turn into Russia’s enemies whenever they see the right moment. President Putin agreed with this opinion. That said, president Putin says that Western nations forced Russia to apply some force for the sake of defending personal interests.
However, the situation seems to have changed since President Trump and his administration seem to be loyal to Russia and Putin and are seeking friendship and partnership with Putin. At the same time, President Trump questions the efficiency and consistency of the NATO, naming it an outdated alliance.
At the same time, the EU is looking for the ways to improve the bilateral relations with Russia. That’s why Putin understands the importance of finding another external enemy to but the blame on. The question is, who is going to become the next external enemy?
For decades, the USA has been Russia’s major enemy. This has been a pretty handy situation for the Kremlin since it’s easy to put the blame on Washington trying to destroy Russia by all means. They have been good at making the USA the biggest evil in the world and the source of big problems for the entire world. This is a good way to distract the Russian people from the existing failures of the Russian government as well as the growing amount of challenges they have been facing.
However, no everyone seems to treat Donald Trump as Russia’s ally. Russian mass media were so good at promoting Donald Trump as if the Russian were going to vote for him. Basically, this means that the USA may really stop being Russia’s major enemy, which means Russia needs someone else instead, which is a really serious challenge.
Ksenia Semyonova assumes that the EU could be the next enemy of Russia but for the way of nationalism tearing the EU apart. Given the current situation in the EU, chances are the union may really cease to exist over the next few years if the so-called Euro-skeptics come into power in the countries that make the core of the EU.
May be China? Well, confronting with the world’s second-biggest economy investing billions in Russia’s infrastructure and energy sector is not a good idea. Ukraine is an insignificant enemy. This means that it’s hard to replace the USA with any other external enemy, which means the kremlin may start looking for internal enemies.
