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What do Vietnamese people think of Russia and Russian people?

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I used to like Russia as a country because of the way our education program and propaganda system portray the USSR. However, when I grew older, I spent many hours reading history of European countries. I learned that the Russian people are the best expansionists in the world, within 500 years here you go the biggest country in the world. I learned how Russian colonized new acquired lands, how they took a piece of Poland after WWII, how they involved in Czech, Hungary, and Afghanistan. I learned the Great Purge orchestrated by Stalin and I learned how Putin rose to power. To me now, Russia is as evil as the US. I like the US more.

I havent met a Russian yet. However, it seems that Russian girls are so attractive. Russian scientists under USSR era were top notch.

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Not Vietnamese, but I have met Vietnamese frequently so my understanding of them is much larger and wider than most of Westerners. Because they are many and varied from parts and parts, so I am glad to have more understanding, than majority of the Western people.

Vietnamese have become increasingly divided by times and times. In the past, previous generations got sympathy from Russia because Russia protected them from China; but modern generation see Russia’s alliance with China as a threat. In France, we have large Vietnamese population and, please remember Vietnamese in France is their oldest oversea community in the world, so they tend to be more understanding of Vietnam more than Vietnamese from other parts of the West.

Vietnamese see Russia as a former ally, untrustworthy for their words. This could have been debatable but it might be due to Russia’s alliance with China, their enemy.

A recent trend of Vietnamese people is because of broad relations with the United States, the Vietnamese love and respect Americans more than Russia despite the US war in Vietnam before. This could have pissed off a lot of Russians “how the hell the Americans and Vietnamese become ally when the Americans massacred Vietnamese?”

Anti-Russian sentiment in Vietnam is low, but on steady rise. The motivation of hatred against Russia first are mostly from Southern Vietnamese, who used to live with the West more. But today, it has become larger and more widespread by times due to Government’s corruption and how Moscow’s supports Vietnamese communist tyranny. Another key explanation is Vietnamese tend to sympathize with those from Poland, Romania and Hungary who used to suffer oppression from Russia and drawing Russia with China. Some unlovely Vietnamese words regarding hatred against Russia I heard was “Nga cho de” - translated as “dirty Russian dogs”. Some even went to “Russian garbage”. Or you can check in Wikipedia about “Nga ngo” (idiot Russian) and “Nga So” (Soviet Russia). However, it is still mostly overseas, and Southern Vietnamese although it has become widespread since 2010s.

Vietnamese are fine with Russian tourists, but some are conservatives.

I feel using the way before 2010s is totally useless because as the time changes, we have seen how the world moves out. Vietnamese from Vietnam tend to view Russia positively, but it has been on rapid decline since 2010s, which a large number of Vietnamese begin to perceive Russia as an imperialist, aggressor who want to subject other countries (20–25%, perhaps). On Vietnamese abroad, I would say I have more understanding from them, because I know that they hate Russia a lot. Otherwise, if Vietnamese do not hate Russia, why such thing?

Anti-Russian sentiment - Wikipedia

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Russia is a big country. Even bigger than our big bad neighbour

Russia is so cold! Russians are the toughest people on Earth. Only Russians can do this:

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3. Russians are the most beautiful people on the planet. Russian women are the most beautiful women in the world. Vietnamese love the pale skin and aquiline nose of Russians and how big and tall they are. They look like Barbie

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4. Russia used to be a protector of Vietnam and helped us a lot during the war and after it. Russia come back to defend us against China!

5. We all know China is scared of Russia :)

6. There are so many Russians in Nha Trang!

7. Russians drink a lot

8. Russians are smart

9. Russians love vodka

10. We think of bears when we think of Russia

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I was born and raised in Vung Tau - a small town near HCMC in VN. There is a large population of Russians there to collaborate with Vietnamese companies in oil industry since the technology in Vietnam is not enough to process oil. The Russian there are nice, quiet people, and most of us think they are like beautiful angels lol :) The Russian in Vung Tau are there for work, so they are very well-educated and know how to behave themselves.

Some previous Vietnamese generations (mostly our parents) who were sent by the government to Russia for study in Soviet time have bad impressions about Russian, they were heavily discriminated against by racist Russian groups, some even either physically abused or had their life in danger. Now in some areas in Vietnam like Nha Trang, Da Nang the Russian tourists, with many others, just make the place more chaotic. Generally young Vietnamese think Russian are somewhat conservative (we are conservative too, tbh) and racist towards foreigners.

However, Russia is a really big country, but in Vietnam people love to stereotype everyone, so dont think too hard about it, we are very hospital towards foreigners.

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For Vietnamese overseas, their opinion and views can be very different with Vietnamese in Vietnam, so when you ask Vietnamese people I guess you are talking about Vietnamese living in Vietnam. About the question how Vietnamese (live in Vietnam) think of Russia and Russian:

For the majority of Vietnamese people, Russia and Russian is respected. For obvious reason. Anyone saying it’s because government propaganda then you bet they’re lying, because it’s completely not true, the Vietnamese media almost always have a neutral stance to everything relates to foreign countries, the only exception would be matters relates to China but only problem related to the East Sea - SCS. If you are talking about education, we were teach that was USSR and socialist nations that help us not just Russia, of course Russia is the direct successor of USSR, that’s why we respect them. Look at Cuba, we respect them too, they didn’t give us billions of dollars and bazillions tons of weapons and ammunition, but their spirit is with us and for us that’s more than enough.

About the Nga Ngố - silly/dumb Russia thing, unlike Vietnamese overseas imagine, it’s not something Vietnamese netizen use because they look down on Russia, it’s just part of the joking attitude of Vietnamese netizen in general. Like calling ourselves “East Laos” - “Đông Lào” or Vịt (Duck), or calling America - Mẽo (literally have no meaning) - or Tạp chủng quốc Hoa Kỳ (Hybrid/Bastard state of America), or United Nations = Ô hợp quốc (Unorganized Nation)

But then you have some Vietnamese who really love USA and hate Russia, then I tell you why.

Vietnamese new generation mostly learn English for work and education, and with the internet boom, they have unlimited access to information on the internet. But due to their young age and lack of knowledge about history and politics they easily accept what the internet feed them. Of course, I know USSR is no saint, but they are far from any evil that imperialist and colonist nations that ever was. Imagine people watching youtube for history lesson, how wrong can it be. If the propaganda do not direct at Vietnam and Vietnamese people, people usually not try to look further than what they got because even if they like Russia, it’s not on the same level as their love for our country. And content in Russian simply unreadable.

The politics during cold war is incredible complicate, it’s quite easy to picking some events to draw a completely different picture. For example Vietnam, China and USSR used to racing for normalization with US, so which one betrayed socialism? US attack Vietnam, Vietnam attack Cambodia, China attack Vietnam, USSR attack Afghanistan, which one is the act of hegemony, which one is not? The answer is always very very complicate. History is like huge jigsaw puzzle, if you don’t have every single pieces to look at the whole picture, a few event can easily mislead you. And the school can’t possible teach you about everything. Even defending Vietnamese history from all those disinformation campaign from US is hard enough. Only recently we see a more neutral view toward Vietnam from western media, and that’s only because (in my opinion) of their “Pivot to Asia” policy, now China is the main focus, so Vietnam - a China’s old wound is naturally drawing their attention. So you can imagine how much bad stuffs Western propaganda throw at countries like “Russia” and “China”.

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It seems to me that most of answers here are from Northern Vietnamese.

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Most Vietnamese people don't know anything about Russia, except the fact that it has many bears.

To me Russia is a dangerous place for Asian people like me, they have big organized crime groups which are racist. Russia is rich thanks to oil and its military industry is quite mighty. Russians seem to be indifferent and violent.

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Russian helped us a lot in the past. They are very kind and tolerant. Russian girls are so beautiful. Russia is a cold country, this country is far away from VN in the north…

Personally, I don’t know much about Russia and Russian, bcs in our generation, we learn French or English. Language is the best way for someone to explore a culture, human, and others of a country. What I listed above is all I was told from my mom, and from what we learnt in school. Briefly, in the opinion of Vietnamese people, we love and respect Russian and their country.

P/s: I like Russian president Putin very much ( not in political aspect) coz i don’t care politics.

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Vietnam is a country of more than 2000 km from north to south. The Southerners and the Northern people are quite different in their skin color, facial features, traditions and psychology.

Most North Vietnamese love Russia while most southerners don't show love or hate.

The North of Vietnam is the place of origin of the Vietnamese nation, where the spirit of the Vietnamese nation is very high. North Vietnamese have a lot of sympathy for Russia and the Russians, because of 2 nations had to spend a lot of blood to defeat the mighty and cruel enemies (Napoleon, Hitler, Japan, Mongolia, America , China ). The North Vietnamese found similarities in Russia: heroism, humanity, generosity...

More interestingly, the Russian people and the North Vietnamese have some similar features in the face: high cheekbones, wide round face, so that northern Vietnamese women and Russian women are very beautiful.

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Russian aside, as the people of the two countries are too far away and not interacting much, so only that much they could think of each other.

But in longterm strategic, this two seeming unrelevant countries are more common than people think.

Some common point of view: multi-polarised world, concerning of US and CN rise, creation of new connection chain of value and trade route, the local benefit of both VN and RU in SEA, the strategic benefit of VN in future northern sea, the unconflicted benefit of both countries…

Believe it or not, those are more than enough assets to be allies. And both governments know better to keep being friendly and relevant to build it up.

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