In a recent article, Russian journalist Leonid Ragozin argued that ‘Russophobia exists and that it affects politics in the West’. However, the driving mechanisms of Western policies are primarily not Russophobia but are for the most part based on rational analyses, rebuts Hannes Adomeit.

Russian state propaganda labels any suggestion that Russia might be blamed for some wrongdoing as Russophobia. So is Russophobia solely the fruit of imagination? No, alas it isn't. Russophobia exists, argues journalist Leonid Ragozin. The myth about an omnipotent Russia which meddles everywhere obscures the impotency that spans entire Western societies.