Why are Russians always baddies?

Baddies during the Cold War because we were brought up to regard Russia as the enemy. And baddies now because of tales we hear about sinister oligarchs who’ve employed nefarious means to amass obscene amounts of wealth. And this morning we heard about how it’s all kicked off again in Ukraine. Every time we see Putin, we have to remind ourselves that he isn’t a cartoon baddie from a Bond film – he’s very real and very dangerous. But we also need to remind ourselves that Russia is the country that brought us the novels of Tolstoy, the poetry of Pushkin and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. All sent from Russia with love.