Ignorance at its most dangerous

WHY is it OK to be so ignorant about Russia? I watched University Challenge in amazement as a team of distinguished Reading graduates completely failed to identify a single Russian city on a map of that country (they didn’t even know that St Petersburg is on the sea, and weren’t embarrassed about being so ignorant) and clearly had no knowledge of the Russian alphabet. This is normal among educated British people, so how can so many of them have such strong opinions about the alleged Russian threat? I think it’s the ignorance that breeds the fear.