I was talking to a 21 year old Russian recently and he mentioned that older Russians, like his mom born in 1978, were basically raised to see everyone except China as an enemy. His mom lived through the collapse of the USSR and genuinely thinks everything is worse now. No real free speech, you can't own anything, the system screwed everyone over
Of course he told me that not everyone is like that, and he isn't like that himself. He basically said it's more of a boomer Soviet generation thing, that they're the ones who are distrustful and xenophobic toward foreigners, and that younger generations don't really have a say in how the country is run anyway
I'm just curious to know if this is true, what's really going on in Russia, and what Russians are actually like when it comes to their opinions on foreigners
In my opinion, people in Russia today often have different opinions, and there isn't such a strong, mostly unified opinion anymore. But I think there aren't many people who are xenophobic toward foreigners, maybe sometimes a small amount of distrust. There are many foreigners in Moscow all the time, and I haven't really noticed any particular xenophpbia or significant distrust.
To be honest, with the amount of Western Russophobia seen on display in Western news and social media, which while Lemmy is an aggregator but still serves as a social media space, I really wouldn't blame anyone outside the global West having a deep distrust of Westerners, and I understand the hatred, as well. While I don't think it really serves most of the global population to stubbornly cling to these things so much as the criminal ultrawealthy, it does serve some purpose of self - preservation.
On a side note, chatty Cathy stopped chatting with me, after I asked questions in this space about the other accounts, despite receiving no answers. Could be a coincidence, could not be, but the timing is certainly interesting, since they're still going strong, otherwise. Just makes my earlier comment stand out in bas relief, to me: Not everyone who smiles is friend, nor everyone who snarls is for.