There was resentment of "subsidizing" Eastern Europe and even worse, the "lazy Cubans".
The Russians are scum. They are NOT friends of the US. Worthless group of people, except for the literature.
I was deployed to Uzbekistan 2003-04. Older Uzbeks told me how Russians regarded them and other Central Asians as inferior. I told them my 1985 thesis on ethnic prejudice in the Soviet Army taught me the word `chernozhopii’ (”black asses”, applied to Uzbeks); how tens of thousands of Uzbeks were killed in the 1916 Karshi draft riots (just down the road from the U.S. base, a place I never dreamed I’d see twenty years later). This made me something of a Marco Polo to them.
Amazingly, Uzbeks still regard Russian culture as their window on the west (!).
Meanwhile, let’s not talk about Russian attitudes toward the Jews. The latest outbreaks in Russia against minorities could be based on the fearful violence of the Chechens and their role in the 2004 Beslan horror. I’m not blaming the Russians for anything; as a people they have survived odds that would have most of us Americans shaking in helpless fear.
But I think the phenomenon of Russian neo-fascism needs to be carefully explored. They still have all those rockets.