At the time (1985 - it's on '
The Dream of the Blue Turtles'), many critics thought that this song was quite
over-the-top.
Sting was greatly ridiculed in the media for his support of native tribes in the Amazonian
rain forests, and for being very
earnest and
serious (his music had
jazz influences, for heaven's sake). Nowadays it's hard to see what the fuss was about; 'Russians' remains a curious, unique pop song, dated and unsubtle but still powerful. As with Billy Joel's '
We Didn't Start the Fire', 'Russians' is the kind of thing that was taught in school history lessons.
The song is famous for 'sampling' Sergei Prokofiev; specifically, the middle eight uses part of the 'Lieutenant Kije suite', originally written as the soundtrack to Aleksandr Fajntsimmer's 1934 film 'Lieutenant Kije'.
The line about Mr Reagan protecting us was particularly relevant in the UK at the time, as the USAF ran several nuclear-equipped airbases, from some of which the contemporary attacks against Libya were launched. There were doubts that Reagan's Star Wars missile defence system would work, and that, if it did, it might not actually protect the UK. But that's all over now, thankfully.
Whilst giving a speech to some Western diplomats in 1956, Nikita Khrushchev - who had Ronald Reagan's flair for the dramatic - said "...it doesn't matter whether the Soviet Union exists. If you don't like us, don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it our not, history is on our side. We will bury you". 'We will bury you' was a common Russian phrase meaning 'we will outlast you and attend your funeral'; Khrushchev did not intend for it to sound so proactive, although the damage was done.
Later, in 1964, he recanted: "I once said, "We will bury you," and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you." In some of the more depraved inner cities in the West this has indeed happened, although not the results have not been as utopian as perhaps Marx intended.
On the subject of the Russians loving their children, it's a curious thing to note that Russia's largest toyshop - 'Detsky Mir' (literally 'Children's World') - is situated on Lubyanka Square, directly opposite the headquarters of the Russian Secret Service (and also that of the KGB and NKVD).
Also, 'Russians' are people who are 'Russian'.