During the week of non-blogging I had several interesting discussions about neo-conservatives. One was prompted by a friend’s blurb on the changing perception of United States in Russia. According to a recent returnee from St. Pete, in a social setting, Russians are ultimately predicting a quick demise of US political and economic domination, not triggered by Russia or the EU, but in some respect promoted by the inefficiency of US domestic policy. Russians perceive US foreign policy as the direct consequence of the financial woes on the home front, and, obviously, offer no immediate solutions.

Yet, current foreign policy was shaped not during the downturn, but in the top of the boom in the late nineties. See here. In light of this, Europeans feel that US is trying to dominate the global political scene; Russians, being a bit more terminal in their assessment, are waiting for these efforts to crumble under their own weight. I suppose that’s a relic from the Soviet-days bipolar world.