Voice from abroad: student Annie Himes in Russia

Photo Credit: Annie Himes
December 5, 2016

The Journal Star asked Annie Himes, a student living and teaching in Russia through the Fulbright program, what life is like in Russia, how Russians see the U.S. election, how each has made sense of Trump's election from afar, and what hopes they have for future relations between the two countries.

Himes teaches English to third- and fourth-year college students in Saratov, Russia. Outside of class, she spends about 5-7 hours a week working with two Russian tutors and facilitates English discussion groups for students centered largely on current events in the U.S. A 2012 graduate of Papillion-La Vista High School, Himes earned degrees in Russian, history and global studies as well as minors in Spanish, English, human rights, humanitarian affairs, women’s and gender studies and political science.

My students do engage in political discussions with me. They are curious about American political culture, and they are not shy to draw connections between what they see in the U.S. and Russia. In my second week of teaching, I had a student come up to me and express disappointment that the Yabloko Party (Russia’s most liberal political party with pro-LGBT platforms) did not do better in the September parliamentary elections. My students have also been willing to constructively criticize their own government, specifically the treatment of opposition leaders in Russia.

I have students who have taken a nuanced interest in American politics. One of my students in particular is curious about the Black Lives Matter movement. He is interested in protest and dissent in the United States. One of my colleagues told me she conducted a mock U.S. presidential election in her classroom of 10 students, and only two voted for Donald Trump (one of the students who voted for Trump is a foreign exchange student from France.)

The young people I have interacted with in Russia are by and large open-minded, worldly and progressive in their thinking. However, I do want to emphasize that Russia is not monolithic. Just like it is impossible to make generalizations about the way Americans see and understand the world, it is impossible and unfair to do this to Russians. Russians are willing to talk openly both about their government and American government.

I explained the Electoral College to my students -- I teach approximately 70 students -- at the beginning of the semester in September. Most students found the system bizarre. They did not quite understand its purpose in a democratic country.

My students are curious to know my perspective on the election. They have many nuanced questions about Trump’s cabinet appointees, his 100-day plan, his business investments and even the possibility of vote recounts in certain states. They are extremely intelligent and read widely about U.S. government -- sources from Russia and the United States.

One thing my students have said is that they believe the unpredictability of U.S. elections is a strong incentive for Americans to show up and vote. They like that no matter what the polls say, no one truly knows who will win until the votes are counted.

My optimism about the future of U.S.-Russian relations stems from my interpersonal experiences living in Russia and is less connected with current geopolitical realities. There is a consensus among Russia experts in the United States that U.S.-Russian relations are currently the worst they have been since the Cold War era. Generally, the course of U.S.-Russian relations post-election is unpredictable because President-elect Trump largely avoided speaking about foreign policy in specific terms, and many of the statements he did make -- for example, in regard to NATO -- are inconsistent with American foreign policy traditions, which exist very much apart from partisan politics.

I am curious to watch how Trump's administration will interact with career members of the U.S. foreign policy community. Specifically in regard to Russia, I am interested to see if any changes occur in our policy toward the Syrian Civil War, specifically in response to Russian aggression, and regarding the conflict in Ukraine and Crimea, specifically whether U.S. sanctions against Russia will remain under a Trump administration.

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Adapted from "Voices from abroad: UNL students in Russia talk U.S. election" by Chris Dunker in the Lincoln Journal Star.