Criticisms of America from Russia

The article I found was from a Russian news site, posted on the 23.07.2010 entitled:

"Outstanding Event Happens: USA Apologizes to Russia."

It was a piece written about the apology that America made to Russia after detaining the Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko. It was said that the Americans had broken international law when they had their special services arrest him while in Liberia (Africa.) He was arrested for transportation of drugs, but where the US broke the law was by taking him back to the States for a trial.

Originally Philip Crowley (State Department spokesperson) said that "the Russian diplomats had been promptly notified about Yaroshenko's arrest." However, he then had to retract this because he had to admit that the law had not been upheld.

"We just happened to send (the notice) to the wrong embassy," Crowley said. "Normally we try to arrange these consular notifications within 72 hours and we didn't discover our error until it was after that period of time," "The AP quoted the official as saying."

The criticism that can be seen from the entire article is that Russia is amazed that America apologised. It leads you to believe that Russia would agree with the common perception that The United States believes itself to be above the rest of the world and that what they do is always correct and the right way to do things. They also said that because Crowley did not mention which embassy the notice was sent to, they must be lying. This shows what little trust and faith they have in the words of an American.

Even after the apology this news site still managed to give America a backhanded compliment, showing that they aren't likely to forgive and forget anything done to Russia or its people. "One has to give Mr. Crowley and other officials credit for that. They had courage to say that their country violated the international law, although in a very original form."

However, we have to take into consideration the past that the two countries have had together. The opinions that Russia have or would have of America could largely be down to events such as the Cold War, where neither side were willing to back down. They may be holding onto the thought that America is never willing to admit 'defeat' or in this case, that they made a mistake.
"Russia showed in this scandal that it is not going to turn a blind eye on US lawlessness against its citizen."

The final quote again emphasising my point that they believe the US considers itself higher than everyone else in ranking and therefore almost a law unto themselves.

Source:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/23-07-2010/114352-usa_apologizes_russia-0/