Mr. Yeltsin's latest comments followed a year of U-S led NATO air strikes on Iraq and then Serbia, Russia's Slav and Orthodox ally. And, independent military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer says relations are going from bad to worse. Anti-Western feelings have been growing in Russia since the financial collapse of 1998. Then came the NATO war in the Balkans and very serious upsurge of anti-Western feelings. Now there is the war in Chechnya and the Russian public mostly supports this war.
Western criticism is seen as meddling in Russia's affairs.
For public opinion in the West, Russia is increasingly a barbaric country that uses heavy weapons to hit civilians in the Caucasus. In a meeting with top generals, Russia's defense minister accused the West of stirring up trouble in the Caucasus to benefit U-S geopolitical interests. Analyst Pavel Felgenhauer says that after months of feeling ignored by the West as NATO bombed Serbia, Russia's political and military leaders were unmoved when Western moral interventionists, as he calls them, cried out against the Chechnya offensive. The result of this has been not simply a cooling of relations, but a very serious breakdown of international law over the last year. This breakdown of international law creates a situation in the world that is much more dangerous than in Cold War times.