True or not, you seriously under estimate the power of the US media to shape opinions of America and most are nothing but negative. I've been to over 20 countries and most have very piss poor views of America: either as anarchy and murder inc or as 280 million ultra millionaires pissing on the rest of humanity. That is trully what most believe.
I have just gone through 50 posts here without any mention of a giant of faith, literature and civilization like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn even by the defenders of Russia. That may say something about why Russia is not enjoying a good press here.
BTW, I have a piss poor view of most of Western Europe (far more so than of Russia), the United Nations, and the folks who killed 300 innocent schoolchildren in a former Soviet republic bordering Russia (I personally think it would have been wonderful if Bush had called Putin and ofered a blank check on American assistance to the extent desired by Putin and miltant public statement in support of Putin in that affair). I am skeptical of anyone who does not have similar piss poor views of those targets.
Russia does not have to be RodneyDangerfieldNation and Western expectations are not very high. Putin could have a very good relationship with us and vice versa to the great benefit of Russia and the US. Maybe he will seek that. Bush has not been very critical of Putin and, if anything, has been quite the opposite.
If you are Russian by ancestry, you may not appreciate the mythical lore of leprechauns and banshees or the near genetic attitude normal to my Irish relatives against many Brits (other than Churchill, Thatcher and Blair). As a Catholic, I may not appreciate the sufferings of the Orthodox in the 20th century as you do. You should play your strong trump cards such as the fate and suffering of the Orthodox under communism including your martyrs, the fate of the Romanovs which no real American can fail to hold against the Soviets (not against the Russians or the Orthodox), the magnificent witness of Solzhenitsyn (that exemplar of Russian culture) who helped shore up our "Cold war" mentality without encouraging any anti-Russian feeling whatsoever. Did not our domestic enemy Soros actually loot Russia during the Yeltsin era by corrupting local officials to buy the economic patrimony of much of Russia at 10 cents on the dollar or 10 kopeks on the ruble???? Perhaps the nited States can cooperate in his prosecution by the Russians for crimes of bribery. Perhaps the Russians would like to sue him under RICO in our courts for restoration of the loot.
In the middle of the 19th century, the US had an ally in Russia and vice versa. Russia's history has been hard but that would seem to guarantee that Russia is a more promising potential ally by far than any of the Euroweenie states.
I am afraid that derisive references to the US in the Cold War or to Cold War wannabes born too late to contribute does not help the cause of better regard among Americans for Russia. I know that I never regarded anti-communism as anti-Russian any more than it was anti-Cuban or anti-Chinese. The subjects of communist regimes were the bulk of communism's victims.
How much do Americans know about the Russian Orthodox Church? About Russian history? About Russian literature? We Americans need and deserve to be wooed to a regard for Russia that would benefit both nations. Likewise Russians need and deserve to be wooed as well. A Russo-American friendship or even alliance (now that communism is at least formally out of the way) is very much in the interests of both. Add India and much of Eastern Europe.
If Putin would publicly embrace Russian Orthodoxy convincingly and genuinely, it would help with American conservatives. At the very least, Moscow ought to be worth an Orthodox Mass. Better yet would be sincere conversion to Orthodoxy without which it is impossible for Russia to truly be Russia.
If Putin would further give credible assurances that Russia will not revert to the post-1917 "bad old days," so much the better. If those two things are in place, the US should be prepared to reciprocate in any reasonable way. We have much to learn from a restored Russia. I suspect we have a few things to help Russia with as well.
May God bless you and yours.