Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
You can't get around that connotation, since changing minds is not for altruistic purposes but for the sake of changing how their government acts and calculates.
That's your intention, not mine. I'd rather see Russians (or anyone for that matter) as friends than as enemies. The change of their governments' behavior would be a logical side effect of such an approach. Given the things people say about Putin, it may not be a given however. You can also find plenty of people in Iran who like the USA, but their government is not so eager so far. Pride, greed and stupidity/lack of education tend to get in the way of possible friendships, and that is as true here as it is there.

The question you obviously asked yourself is also how you would go about that given that their government does everything it can to keep foreign influences out. The internet seems somewhat divided by language barriers for a majority of people even in Western countries. Things like student exchange programs will probably not change a lot of minds in the time frame we're aiming at. Not to forget that a lot of us like to see Russia as the big devil, too, so maybe we should begin by curbing the vitriol coming from our side that they like to parade around on their state-controlled media to keep the vitriol on their side flowing.