Russians React to Obama’s Reelection · Global Voices
Donna Welles

With the American elections finally over, Barack Obama now embarks on his second term as President of the United States. Since his first campaign in 2008, Obama's top advisor on U.S.-Russia policy has been Stanford professor and democratic-transitions expert Michael McFaul, who earlier this year became America's ambassador to Russia.
Together, Obama and McFaul have pursued a “Reset” in relations with the Russian Federation. Recent events have led many observers to declare Obama's rapprochement a failure. Two watershed moments animating Obama's critics include the Kremlin-instigated closure of USAID offices in Moscow, and Vladimir Putin's assertion that the United States helped instigate street protests against Russian parliamentary and presidential elections last winter.
Vilhelm Konnander, a former president of the Swedish Society for the Study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, as well as a Global Voices author, epitomized the Reset-skepticism in a Facebook post:
[I wonder] what Obama's reelection will mean to US-Russian relations after the failed reset policy.
In his reaction [ru] to Obama's victory, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev expressed relief that Americans had not elected the candidate (Romney) who insisted on describing Russia as America's “number one geopolitical foe.”
President Obama meets President Medvedev at the Business Forum on July 6, 2009, White House photograph, public domain.
In far more colorful language, Russian Twitter users have weighed in on Obama's reelection with their own commentary. Here is one illustrative, and rather clamorous, exchange:
Shiitman:
А тут есть люди, которые расстраиваются, что ромни не победил?
Smirnov:
я
Falanster
почему??
Smirnov:
много раз объяснял же. Обама это предельно мягкий курс. Нахуй он такой нужен нам в России
Falanster:
ну он же как бы умеренный соцдем, а ромни пиздец, а рашке оба как жук лапкой потрогал
Well, [Obama] is a moderate socialist democrat, whereas Romney is a f—head, but neither is something for Rasha [sic] to shake a stick at.
Smirnov:
[…] сравните администрацию Буша-мл и Обамы по отношению к Москве. ОДНО И ТОЖЕ??
Kulturtrager:
При Обаме похуизм под видом “перезагрузки”
In other reactions, RuNetizens focused more on what Obama's second term might mean for the future of the United States. Oleg Kozyrev condemned [ru] the American election process, specifically the Electoral College, which he implied is undemocratic. Alexander Kireev cited polling data to illustrate [ru] racial polarization in American voting behavior.
On the lighter side of things, right-wing politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky blogged that yesterday's election results do not indicate American enthusiasm for the Obama Administration, but rather mark the beginning of American's slow march toward stagnation and isolationism:
Победа нынешнего президента США обусловлена не большими ожиданиями от продолжения деятельности президента, а обычным нежеланием американцев менять устоявшиеся порядки. Они консервативны, как и все избиратели. Все боятся: а вдруг новый что-то такое начнет?
[…]
Что сейчас будет делать Барак Обама? Ничего. У него третьего срока нет – ему хочется поцарствовать 4 года, он будет кататься по заграницам, внутренние вопросы ему не решить, их вообще никому нигде нельзя решить, это надо героическое что-то произвести. Поэтому Америка сама себя обрекает на застой.
The victory of the incumbent President of the United States is not due to great expectations about the President continuing his work, but rather Americans’ reluctance to change the established order. They're conservatives, like all voters. Everyone is scared: what would something new suddenly begin?
[…]
What will Barack Obama do now? Nothing. He doesn't get a third term — he wants to rule for [another] four years, he'll travel around on trips abroad, he won't solve any domestic issues — issues that nobody anywhere can solve, short of doing something heroic. For these reasons, America dooms itself to stagnation.