Coveted, detested and unattainable?

This article explores how the image of the USA has developed in two major Russian daily newspapers, Izvestiya and Komsomolskaya Pravda, in a time period comprised of a total 20 weeks’ of study in the years of 1984, 1994, 2004 and 2009. For Russia this time span was dramatic: it moved from seemingly stable superpower in the 1980s, over the chaos after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, to the partial comeback to great power status at the beginning of the 21st century. While telling the story of how the image of the USA has evolved, the article also describes how Russian self-images have developed. The image projected of the USA was Manichean in the 1980s, whereas the most benevolent images were found in the 1990s. The examples from 2004 and 2009 reflect an assertive Russia that is back on the world stage. The USA is here again often criticized, but also — as before — comprises the scale against which Russia itself is measured