Americans' opinion about Russia has changed a lot since 2022, says conservative journalist Candice Owens. In a special interview with RTVI, she said that negativity remains primarily among the older generation, but young people are much more open to different points of view.
“I describe it as a Cold War hangover, where you are always a product of your youth and what was taught to you at school when you were young. Many of these people [пожилых] grew up preparing for nuclear war, sitting under their desks as if training for nuclear war. And so for these people, I think it’s really difficult to somehow change their idea of what Russia is,” Owens said.
The activist spoke at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), and before that she visited Moscow. According to her, she wanted to come to the Russian Federation for a long time, especially after the stories of her husband, who fished in Russia many times. However, many Americans are under the impression from the media that Russia is unsafe and cold towards US citizens. According to Owens, the reality is “exactly the opposite,” and Moscow is “a surprisingly safe and quiet city.”
“Where can a person who has never been anywhere get an idea of anything? He will get the idea from TV, from films, from what the government reports. And so I arrived without any expectations. Of course, I believed more in what my husband told me about how beautiful Russia is. But I was simply shocked by how different it was from the images of Russia,” the journalist said.
The change in attitude towards Russia is largely due to the loss of trust among Americans, especially young Americans, in the narratives of traditional media, the journalist continues. She said that recently in the United States more and more attention has been focused on other ways of obtaining information – in particular, Owens herself has gained fame thanks to YouTube and Instagram. Americans were most disillusioned with the media at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, says RTVI’s interlocutor. She herself has repeatedly criticized official information about COVID-19 and opposed vaccination.
“I think the media told a lot of lies and people changed their lives by believing what the media told them, only to hear a couple of years later, ‘We were kidding, we were wrong, we lied and in the process we smeared you,’” Owens said.
Watch the full interview with Candace Owens on RTVI and on the “Duty in America” YouTube channel.
I'm not sure what I was expecting but I wasn't expecting this.
Moscow is an unbelievably beautiful city. pic.twitter.com/q35ZthjxxK— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 31, 2026
