Reverse “Russophobia”

Screenshot from Gazeta.ru: “Russians are better off living in Russia”

Danes eat vegetables without washing them. Danish children drink water from puddles in the street and in general, Danish lifestyle is unhygienic and a health hazard. And Danish women don’t care about their looks.

This is what awaits a foreigner in a country that consistently finds itself top of the list of the world’s happiest nations.

 “Russians are better off living in Russia”
The quotes are from an article published under the headline “Russians are better off living in Russia” by Gazeta.ru, authored by an immigrant with Russian background after five years in Denmark. Translations of the article in Danish media such as TV2, BT and Ekstrabladet took Danish readers by surprise and provoked bewilderment and a pinch of hurt national pride.

One of the images used by Gazeta.ru to demonstrate that it’s better for Russians not to live in the world’s happiest country, Denmark.

The article was also widely discussed in Russia, where blogger and travel writer Anton Nossik denounced the article suggesting to focus on the headline: That Russians are better off staying in Russia instead of pursuing Western lifestyle in Europe.

Stigmatising the West
As the Disinformation Review has shown, the myth about the West fundamentally disliking Russia and Russians is actively cultivated in pro-Kremlin media.

This kind of reporting about Europe, which is new to respected Russian media, testifies to the general trend to stigmatise the West combined with a wish to respond to the “russophobia”, which, according to the disinformation, dominates Western perceptions of Russia.