Reposted by Niko Jaakkola
Niko Jaakkola
@nikoecon.bsky.social
2.7K followers 2.9K following 1.9K posts
Associate Prof, Uni Bologna, Economics of climate & natural resources. Tweeting also as citizen, 🇫🇮/🇪🇺 and as resident 🇮🇹. Views are mine, most likely borrowed from somewhere. Suomeksi @nikoekon.bsky.social sites.google.com/view/jaakkola
![One woman returns to the question at the very end of the conversation, wanting to share her puzzlement: “I now started to think—indeed, why are there now coalitions against Russia everywhere …? That did not use to be the case …” Almost no one connects the perceived European “antagonism” to Russia with Europe’s reaction to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine or any other actions by Russia. “I don’t know why the Finns are so antagonistic to us. Maybe they never got over the fact that we took over Karelia in 1940”, opines one respondent. Others complain about their positive attitude towards the Baltic states and these states’ negative attitude towards Russia: “I don’t know why they [the Baltic states] are so adversarial, most probably they were ordered to be like that”, concludes another participant. Confusion, propaganda, wilful ignorance and lack of curiosity probably all play their role in shaping Russians’ perceptions of their country and its external relations. And it also helps explain why the war in Ukraine still seems distant to many in Russia—and why Europe’s own reaction to the war is overwhelmingly seen as negative, almost unfair.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eycg47nc4kycvzgiq3r5h326/bafkreigxnw7m4fq7oqng5alwmsyti4vnotciakg3fkuaik63f5xmbjnhri)
