According to some political observers, both Russian and American politicians are ambitious, which is why the dialog between them is gradually getting harder to maintain.
More and more Western experts say or imply the word “crisis” when talking about the relations between the United States and Russia. They say that the key reason for this is the fact that the Kremlin treats some of the regions in Eastern Europe as those included in Russia’s area of influence while the Western world wants to see those regions as emerging Western-style democracies. This is the very contradiction that leads the sides to confronting each other.
Given the mentioned reasoning, a natural question arises. What kind of attitude should Washington choose when it comes to relations with Moscow?
As for Vladimir Putin, they say it’s beneficial for him to preserve a certain degree of uncertainty in his relations with Western leaders, especially the USA. For him, escalating the situation seems to be a better option. To be more specific, such an approach to building relations with the Western world allows Putin to seem unpredictable in the eyes of Western leaders and make them react in a different way to his political plans and decisions.
The experts say that splitting the NATO and weakening the alliance is one of the key goals pursued by Moscow these days. In particular, Putin wants to spoil the relations between the USA and Europe. As a result, Russia may get more influence in Europe. And it’s not about Russia’s neighbors only. Putin seems to want to spread his influence over as many European and Asian states as possible.
At the same time, some American political observers say that Washington and Moscow have different views on what positive and constructive relations should be. Donald Trump was not the first U.S. President to be optimistic about the future of Russia-US relations at first. At least 4 more presidents were optimistic as well. However, there is a major issue in the relations between the 2 superpowers. They have completely different views and attitudes, which is why those dreams about better relations constantly failed over the last couple of decades.
The observers believe that the Kremlin wants the White House to recognize Russia as a regional superpower, which further translates into great influence over the post-Soviet states and even beyond this territory. However, this is something that worries some of the USA’s allies in Europe. The U.S. establishment cannot let down their Western allies from Europe, which is why there is a big issue, and it cannot be resolved without concessions.
