And I heard all Europeans loved Obama. The shipyard workers are worried though that their own president is spineless.
The owner of Le Ralliement, a café patronized by shipyard workers a few hundred metres from where the Vladivostok is docked, bristled with anger at Mr. Cameron and Barack Obama, the U.S. president.
“Obama should get off our case and concentrate on solving America’s problems,” said the burly 62-year-old, who declined to be named.
Thumping his hands on the bar for emphasis, he added, “As for Cameron, he should stop being the voice of his master and obediently repeating everything Obama says. If he wants to be heard in Europe, he should act as if he’s part of it.”
He stroked his moustache before going on, “The British should have been kicked out of the European Union when they chose not to take the euro like everyone else. And that soft president of ours hasn’t got the guts to stand up to anyone.”
Asked if it was morally justifiable to sell sophisticated warships to Russia after the downing of Flight MH17 by a missile which Washington says was fired from an area in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Moscow rebels, the café owner replied, “If we don’t sell ships to them, someone else will.”
Around the port, used by the Nazis as a submarine base in the Second World War, many shared his opinion, even if they expressed it less vehemently.
Stephane Gohaud, a 46-year-old taxi driver, described the MH17 disaster as “horrifying and tragic”, but added, “[The plane] should never have flown over a war zone. I don’t believe the Russians wanted it to be shot. It was a horrible mistake.”
