Beware the Anglo-Saxons! Why Russia likes to invoke a medieval tribe when talking about the West

By: Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University and Elizaveta Gaufman, University of Groningen, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: October 30, 2025

Words: 1,187

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 5 days ago

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By Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University and Elizaveta Gaufman, University of Groningen

A new, old specter is haunting the world: the bloodthirsty Anglo-Saxons.

Well, that is what the Kremlin wants the world to believe.

Take the new Russian state-backed film “Tolerance.” Released in September 2025 to a less than enthusiastic public response, the dystopian tale of moral decay in the West opens with a warning of an “omnipresent Anglo-Saxon liberalism” that will “cause the ultimate …

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