For those countries and others, it definitely is. Really, the thing is, after all the centuries of wars, ethnic cleansing, domination and so on, no matter how annoying the West might be, Russia will simply
always be seen by those countries as the biggest existential threat they face. West might write strongly worded letters about how bigoted you are and offer you money if you fly the LGBT flag on at least a few buildings, but that simply pales in comparison with the history of imperial domination Russia has in the region, especially for the Baltics and Poland, which is a perception which the Russian government has
never even tried to change.
Latvia's ex-PM said it pretty clearly in this interview, where he compared the way Russia is seen in EE to the way US is seen in LatAm:
Krišjānis Kariņš says Latin Americans view Europe a ‘bit like the Baltics’ perception of Russia.’
www.politico.eu
That is a pretty good analogy, but I'd say that it falls rather flat when looking at the reality at the ground.
In my personal opinion only, the US is really just about the best thing that had ever happened to Latinos. A highly developed, world-leadingly advanced, extremely wealthy society that is not only reachable for them on foot, but is also ideologically dominated by people who seek moral absolution in letting in just about infinite number of immigrants and who believe that even something as basic as interning illegal migrants is a crime against humanity? It's a godsend to them.
And yet... they hate it, because of the historical instances of the US intervening in their countries by causing coups and so on.
Now compare that to how most of EE sees Russia, especially the wealthiest and most advanced countries. All the negative ways LatAm sees the US in, but even worse, because while the US almost never actually did any invading, Russia did a lot of it, along with supressing the cultures and languages of the conquered peoples, like the Baltic nations especially. Just compare the way Latinos are still seething about
William Walker, with the centuries-long domination of Russia over its neighbours. It's two different worlds.
However, the biggest problem here is... there's just about no positives like LatAm has in regards to the US, such as it happily welcoming migrants from LatAm to replace the white population, and actually having a claim on being the leader of the region due to being much more advanced and wealthier than anybody else. Russia has none of that. Unlike with the US/LatAm situation, Russia is unquestionably much poorer, less developed and less technologically advanced when compared to most of EE, and especially so when compared to the richest countries here, that are also the most Russia-hating. Similarly, nobody from Europe, even from EE, is really trying to live in Russia. People from its (European) former colonies aren't pouring into Russia, Russians are pouring out of Russia and into European countries, while it's Central Asians that are coming in.
Combine that with just how badly those countries were treated under Russian control, and there really isn't any reason at all for Baltics, Czechs and Poles to like Russia in the slightest. From their POV, it's just an aggressive hellhole that, despite not being worth living in, is nevertheless trying to expand and subsume other countries into itself.
And I don't think they will ever change their opinion on that.
That I fully agree with. Would love to see Europe get more integrated with the rest of Eurasia, and given that we already see voices from countries as different as France and Bosnia murmuring about possibly joining BRICS and so on, I hope that will only continue.
www.indy100.com
