Carnegie Moscow Center
While the United States has made mistakes, the current state of Russian-American relations stems mostly from the Kremlin’s creation of imitation democracy and its attempts to exploit the West and anti-Americanism for political survival.
Despite the support by some political parties in Europe, human rights organizations have been unable to prevent high-profile events taking place in autocratic countries.
A comparison of China and Russia can reveal not only the dramas of undemocratic societies and the limitations of modernization efforts by top-down governments, but also the challenges that the West faces.
It is understandable that Western leaders prefer to strike tactical deals with the Kremlin and hope Russia does not go down on their watch. But there is another approach: stop helping the Kremlin.
Putin’s new foreign policy doctrine has control as its true objective, sovereignty as its slogan, and nationalism as its soul.
Russian arms sales to China’s neighbors like India and Vietnam are not conscious acts by Moscow intended to damage the Russian-Chinese relationship.
“Russen & Deutsche,” an exhibition at the Neues Museum in Berlin, is an ambitious attempt to show how the ties between Russian and German cultures have developed over a thousand years.
A comprehensive P5+1 Iran deal that included a Russo-Iranian agreement on nuclear cooperation could give Moscow a powerful incentive to work with the West and open a sustainable path for Iran toward commercial nuclear power development.
At the start of the Obama administration’s second term, it is unclear how Washington and Moscow will approach relations going forward.
Relations between the EU and Russia are changing. By dissociating Russia from the West, Putin may aim to position Moscow to hold inescapable influence going forward.