Russians in America are divided over Trump and fear the Cold War

Photos from the White House Facebook / Shealah Craighead

Anastasia Kurteeva worried that a new Cold War could begin. She's scared. It is terrible that the growing tension between the United States and Russia will impede the free movement between the two countries and that it will be more difficult for her parents to come from Moscow.

In August, the US government decided to temporarily limit the validity of non-immigrant tourist visas for Russians in response to a reduction in US diplomatic staff. This decision only reinforced Anastasia’s concerns. Since then, enmity between the two countries has only increased. Moreover, it became known that during the presidential election campaign of 2016, Russian operatives paid for thousands of Facebook advertising posts that exploit social differences in the United States.

“I heard stories about the Cold War and how scary it was to both sides,” says Kurteeva, who immigrated to the US in 2002. “Russian Americans are the worst of all because we are between the two countries and tied to both.”

The new wave of barbs between the motherland and the new home reminds Russian Americans of the times when Russia was the enemy of number XXUMX in the United States. Their concerns are not unreasonable: a survey conducted by CNN in August showed that 1% of Americans consider Russia a threat, a little less than at the height of the Cold War, when Russia was feared by 89% of US residents.

This political climate has opened a split between the generations of the American community of Russian immigrants — the older wave of Jewish refugees who left the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, and the younger cohort, who, like Courteyeva, came with hopes of a rich life and without memories of international opposition.

In Los Angeles, the city of fashionable clubs and restaurants, known for its gay community, an enclave of Russian immigrants (those who are older) who support President Donald Trump, believes that the accusations of secret collusion between the president and Russia have no reason and remind them political corruption in the home country. But for young Russians, Trump is a stain on their American dream and a copy of an authoritarian leader whom they hate in the person of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kurteeva, who obtained American citizenship in 2012, lives in the LGBT community in West Hollywood with her girlfriend, Maria Shtabskaya, also a Russian.

Anastasia Kurteeva and her girlfriend Maria Shtabskaya. Photo: Brinson Banks / The Washington Post

On a late August evening, 33-year-old Kurteeva, a girl of model growth, sits down next to Headquarters in a dimly lit prestigious restaurant near Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Kurteeva criticizes the Russian government more freely than Headquarters, which worries about the positive image of the Russians. When Kurteeva mentions Putin and her fears that because of him Russians will not be allowed to travel to the United States, Headquarters pushes her leg under the table.

Also skeptically Kurteev applies to Trump. Her political views are closely related to her life in the United States.

“When the election results appeared, it was like this: with whom do you associate yourself more? With a gay face or Russian nationality? She says. “I’m more worried about LGBT issues than Russian-American relations.”

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On a summer evening, a few dozen Russian-speaking residents gathered to sit together in Plummer Park, a popular Russian holiday destination in West Hollywood. Russian pop music is played from a portable speaker, and pizza and Russian delicacy are served along with pizza. Nearby there is a monument to soldiers of the Soviet army who died during the Second World War. Men gather around it every day to play chess and remember the past.

They speak almost exclusively Russian and buy goods mainly in Russian-owned stores. Many do not know English, so they watch state television from Moscow.

As a rule, these people are Republicans and sympathize with Trump, such red spots on a predominantly blue area. Democratic politics reminds them of socialism, from which they fled.

Raisa Agouf, a woman with fiery-colored hair and a no less striking character, puts on a red apron and begins serving food. She moved to the United States from Latvia to 1980, even under Soviet rule. She founded the first travel agency in West Hollywood to Russia and for many years has been a member of the Russian Advisory Council, a group created by the city council to meet the needs of the immigrant community.

Aguf, an elderly woman who refused to name her age, says she loves America. But from what she hears from the news on Russian television about the investigation of Russia's interference in elections and collusion with Trump, it is difficult to determine "what is true and what is not."

Despite this, she supports Trump’s policies and believes that he is being treated unfairly.

“I voted for him and believe that he can cope with what the people have instructed him,” she says.

To many Jews from the former USSR, conspiracy charges are reminiscent of the life they threw out - when even a household meeting could lead to charges of political crimes.

Andrei Korobkov, a professor at Russian studios at a university in Tennessee, says that endless attention to Russians ultimately gives more power to Putin.

“The amount of time devoted to Russia and the level of anger are much higher than with McCarthyism,” says Korobkov. “I think the only person who likes this hysteria is Putin, because the American media has made him a superhero, and his power is mostly exaggerated.”

Young Russian immigrants are disappointed that Trump won the election. Farhad Yusupov, head of the Russian Consultative Council and one of its few non-Jewish members and younger, calls Trump a “puppet”.

He has no doubt that the Russians intervened in the American elections, and their result was very upset.

“These elderly people are at home watching Russian television. Some of them — believe, want, or not — like Putin. Some like Trump, says 48-year-old Yusupov. “Most of my friends are Russian, but many are more liberal.” In the early years in America, our favorite TV show was Seinfeld, it formed our characters. ”

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One day, Nina Pankrats stumbled upon her neighbor, who was just having problems with a computer, and he asked: “Do you have any good Russian hackers?”.

Pankrats, who worked as an actress in Moscow in Moscow, has had constant problems with her work since she moved to the USA in 1994. But last year she almost had a high point - she was summoned six times to work in the Russian spy drama “The Americans”. She worries that she is too smiling to play the archetypical Russian.

That is why her agent advises her Russian clients to lose their accent in order to receive different roles. Russians are one of the few acceptable enemy roles remaining in Hollywood: no one is offended by a bad Russian.

Pankrats says that she is apolitical, but close attention to the Russians is a bit annoying. Nina misses her homeland: she criticizes the severity of American rules and laws, fears that an American police officer will stop her, and does not understand why her 21-year-old son should seriously deal with her future, and not enjoy her youth. Moreover, she knows too well how members of one family living in different countries can suffer from the increasing tension between the United States and Russia.

Pankraz moved to Nashwil to be with her husband, a lead singer of the Christian rock band 1980's Ruscha. She was eight months pregnant, barely spoke English, and she missed home a lot.

In the Cold War, a thaw had already occurred, but relations between the United States and Russia were still tense. When her mother wanted to come to see her born grandson, she had to stand for hours in the cold near the American consulate. She was denied a visa as a result without explanation, says Pankrats.

She never saw Mom anymore. Two months later, Nina's mother died of a heart attack. From a broken heart, says Pankrats.

Today Nina lives in Los Angeles. A couple of evenings ago, she gathered a few Russian friends to celebrate the 51 anniversary. The party was held on the balcony in her apartment - with a stunning view of palm trees against the background of a pink-orange sunset.

The guests smelled Putinka vodka - a Russian brand named after the president - and ate a “fur coat”. Communicated mainly in Russian.

Her friend Cyril Zima, a 33-year-old filmmaker who moved from Moscow several years ago, says that stereotypes about Russians are perverted, as are stereotypes about Americans - supposedly thick cowboys with pistols who eat cheeseburgers.

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Kurteeva calls America her home, but says that the media often represents a conflict with Russia in black and white.

“Not all Russians are bad and not all Americans are good,” says Kurteeva. “I think that as many undercover agents work for America as they do for Russia.”

Shtabskaya makes a face.

“I will not comment,” she says.

“I think we still have a lot to go to understand each other,” adds Shtabskaya. “Negative is too much.”

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