Photo: Screenshot/Anadolu Agency

Turkey seems to be one of the biggest factors in the abetting, empowering, even training and funding ISIS. Why is the MSM ignoring this? Why are members of congress ignoring this. At Least Joe Biden has talked about it.

It is looking more and more like Turkey, a member of NATO, is massively abetting ISIS, with the United States and NATO looking the other way.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin taking the presidential oath at his third inauguration ceremony on May 7, 2012. (Russian government photo)

After a year and a half of conducting research on Russia, the world’s largest country, mostly for a book I co-authored on the history of post-Soviet U.S.-Russia relations and its context for the Ukraine conflict, it was time for me to finally go see this beautiful, fascinating and complex nation in person and to meet its people on their own terms and territory.

On this maiden voyage to Russia, I visited six cities in two weeks:  Moscow, Simferopol, Yalta, Sevastopol, Krasnodar and St. Petersburg. In each city, I talked to a cross-section of people, from cab drivers and bus riders to civil society workers, professionals, and entrepreneurs of small- to medium-sized businesses.

I even had an opportunity to hear what teenagers had to say in two of those cities as my travel mate and I participated in a Q&A session with students of a private high school in St. Petersburg and teens who were part of various youth clubs in Krasnodar. Their questions reflected a thoughtful engagement with the world as they led to discussions on environmental sustainability, socially responsible economics and how to promote initiative, goodwill and peaceful conflict resolution.

Many of the adults were no less thoughtful during the formal interviews and informal conversations I had with them. Admittedly, I wondered how I would be received as an American during one of the most acrimonious periods of U.S.-Russia relations since the end of the Cold War.

It helped that my travel mate has been going in and out of Russia since the 1980s, lives part-time in St. Petersburg, and has developed good relations with many Russians across the country. Once most Russians realized that I came in goodwill and did not approach them or their country with a superiority complex, they usually responded with some combination of curiosity, honesty and hospitality.

Below is a summary of what Russians that I spoke to thought about a range of issues, from their leader to their economy to the Ukraine war, Western media’s portrayal of them and what they wanted to say to Americans.

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Entrance to Red Square, Moscow

GUM Shopping Complex, Red Square, Moscow

Kremlin Wall, Red Square, Moscow

Red Square, Moscow

St. Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow

Church destroyed under Stalin’s orders, rebuilt with original blueprints in early 1990’s, outside Red Square, Moscow

Child breaches the barricades at Red Square, Moscow

Squat building in center is Lenin’s Tomb, Red Square, Moscow

Outside Red Square, Moscow

Bolshoi Theater, Moscow

Moscow Street Life

Park in Moscow

One of many murals in Moscow

Monument to Soviet Worker, Moscow

Gagarin Monument, Moscow

Monument to Charles DeGaulle in front of Cosmos Hotel in Moscow

The American Embassy in Moscow

Meeting of Public Council in Krasnodar, Russia

Thoroughfare for pedestrians in downtown Krasnodar

Civil society workers in Krasnodar

Bus station in Simferopol, Crimea

Father and son wait at bus station in Simferopol, Crimea

Botanical park in Simferopol, Crimea

Me at botanical park in Simferopol, Crimea

Commemoration of 70th Anniversary of Victory Day, WWII, at Livadia Palace, Yalta, Crimea

Courtyard where famous photo of FDR, Churchill and Stalin was shot at Yalta Conference in 1945, Livadia Palace

Room where final documents of the Yalta Conference were signed, Livadia Palace

Room at Livadia Palace with full portraits of Czar and Czarina

View of Yalta Coastline from balcony at Livadia Palace

Wax figures of Yalta Conference at Livadia Palace

Bust of Nicholas II at Livadia Palace

Dock at naval base, Sevastopol, Crimea

Naval base, Sevastopol, Crimea

Walking bridge at naval base, Sevastopol, Crimea

Starducks Coffee at naval base, Sevastopol, Crimea

Leader of the Black Sea Cossacks, Sevastopol, Crimea

Retired naval officer, election monitor during Crimean referendum, Sevastopol

Nicolai, who was a driver during the “Crimean Spring” aka “Third Defense of Sevastopol” in Sevastopol, Crimea

Popular billboard seen throughout Crimea with Putin’s image, it reads “Crimea. Russia. Forever.” 

Church on Spilt Blood, built on site of Alexander II’s assassination in 1881, St. Petersburg

Astoria Hotel where Hitler planned to celebrate the taking of Leningrad, St. Petersburg

Peter the Great Monument, St. Petersburg

Palace Square, where desperate peasants and workers pleaded for justice and were massacred by Nicholas II’s forces in 1905, St. Petersburg

Alexander’s Column, Palace Square, St. Petersburg

Palace in St. Petersburg

Building where Rasputin was murdered, St. Petersburg

Russian Art Museum, Palace Square, St. Petersburg

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

One of the palaces in St. Petersburg at night

St. Isaac’s Cathedral, one of the largest cathedrals in the world, St. Petersburg

The Singer Sewing Machine Building in St. Petersburg

All photos by Natylie S. Baldwin, 2015

Thoroughfare for pedestrians in downtown Krasnodar

I have to say that Krasnodar really blew me away since there was such a gap between my expectations and what I actually encountered there. I expected a sleepy agricultural town in the Black Sea region; however, what I saw was a vibrant city with some very civic-minded people taking the initiative to resolve problems in their communities and get local government to be responsive to the needs and desires of the residents.

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File:Churchill and Roosevelt Yalta.jpg – Wikimedia Commons
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The small airport at Simferopol had already been renovated as everything was clean and freshly painted. We made our way out into the night, which wasn’t the plan. Our original flight had been cancelled so we had to wait for another flight and got in five hours later than expected.

The overpowering stench of old cigarette smoke nearly suffocated me when we got into the taxi — a major contrast to Moscow where, as a result of the government’s anti-smoking campaign of the last few years, there weren’t that many smokers and those who were around had to do the deed outside.

As I rolled down the window for some relief, Sharon exchanged pleasantries with our driver — where we were from, etc. I asked her to ask him in Russian what he thought of Crimea’s reunification with Russia. He summed up, in broken English, what many people I talked to over the next couple of days would say: “Historically and ethnically, we are Russian, so it’s better to be with Russia than Ukraine.” But he also acknowledged that there were still plenty of problems that needed to be addressed and that it would take time; but under the leadership of Russia, they now had hope.

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