Why do Brighton Beach residents support Trump-NYT

Photo: Denis Malinin for ForumDaily.

Influential American edition The New York Times, The material was devoted to the opinion of the residents of Brighton Beach about the President of the United States Donald Trump and the Russian-American relations, which we translate InoSmi.

Not one American feels the secret intrigues underlying the Kremlin’s policy more acutely than Mikhail Rubinstein, who came from Russia almost 40 years ago, when Brighton Beach only turned into a Brooklyn bastion for those who fled from the Moscow regime.

“Putin? Interfere in American politics? ”Rubinstein asked in amazement, sitting in his popular Brighton Beach cafe. “Of course not, excluded. This is fake news spread by democrats, ”he said, echoing the universal words of denial, invented by his beloved President Trump, who still has strong support from local immigrant residents. Very firm, says Rubinstein, despite the growing number of reports that Russia has developed a secret plan for conducting cyber attacks before elections in America to help Trump.

“This is America,” he says. “To make someone in this country believe in something, you have to prove it.” He fled from Russia at a time when democratic rights and outbursts in Moscow were violently suppressed by the Kremlin - in much the same way as now.

There is the same mystery in Brighton Beach as in other places where Trump’s high level of support is observed: why do the residents of these territories, as well as President Trump and his supporters, don’t sound a special concern about Russia's unceremonious interference with American politics was documented by the american special services? This question seems even more difficult when asked by the old Soviet emigrants, who are more prudent and do not believe everything in a row. They need to better understand this, taking advantage of unrestricted freedom on Brighton Beach and seeing full shelves in stores.

“Putin served in the army,” said Vlad, a veteran of the Soviet army, who believes that this is enough to trust an authoritarian Russian president. And this is despite the professional training of the Russian leader, his long work in the KGB and a number of suspicious deaths of politicians and journalists who dared to challenge his regime. “He controls the situation in Russia,” Vlad continues, refusing to give his last name. “Putin and Trump are these decision-makers,” he added with admiration.

In this region, among these people, the words “strong man” are constantly heard to explain the support of Putin and Trump, but in fact, Brighton Beach is much more complicated, according to sociologist Sam Kliger, who heads the Russian section of the American Jewish Committee. Kliger, a refusenik who managed to escape from the USSR 27 years ago, notes that members of the Jewish community traditionally support Republicans at the presidential level, therefore Trump's victory was expected.

Sociologist Sam Kliger. Photo: Pavel Terekhov for ForumDaily.

“They hate everything that remotely resembles communism,” says Kliger, noting that even Democratic proposals to focus on public services can cause them to distrust. So these ardent supporters of the Republican Party have hung on Hillary Clinton not just the label of a "crook" already familiar from Trump's statements, but also called her a "socialist" - a word that Brighton Beach is hated and considered almost nasty.

“The Byzantine Empire,” Kliger sums up politely, stressing how much Brighton Beach has changed in recent years with the arrival of young immigrants from a much larger number of regions of the former Soviet Union who came more freely and for various reasons. According to him, many believe that modern Russia, whatever it may be, is not the same as the old Soviet Union. “Some are very afraid of Russia, while others believe that it is necessary to have a dialogue with it,” he says. Likewise, he says, there are also sharp disagreements over how much Putin can be trusted.

Signs of change are visible on the embankment, where some of the first refugees, the “pioneers” of Gorbachev's time, are now sitting and gazing at the ocean from a day home for the elderly. Garden of Joy Adult.

Photo: Pavel Terekhov for ForumDaily.

“Listen,” says Sam Rubinstein, trying to shout down the noise in his cafe. “People I know have long since left Russia, and they don’t care what happens in Russia.” He means that they have forgiven and forgotten that old world in which they once lived. “I wish Russia all the best,” he noted.

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