Russia - US Relations - Overview
The dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union presented an historic opportunity for a transition to a more peaceful and stable internatIonsl order and the gradual integration of the newly independent states into the comanity of democratic nations. The United States had a vital Interest In the success of this transition. The United States seeks a relationship with Russia based on cooperation in the pursuit of mutual interests and a frank and open discussion of disagreements based on mutual respect as the two countries seek to address the shared challenges of the 21st century.
The Marxist Bolsheviks (with Vladimir Lenin as the nominal leader) came to power after the ousting of the Russian Czar in 1917. They soon sued for peace with Germany, ending Russia's involvement in World War I. This concerned the Allies, who wished to keep Germany occupied in the East. They also wished to guard military ordnance that the Allies had previously given to the Russians. President Woodrow Wilson initially directed that the American troops in Russia were only to guard military stores. However, the men soon found themselves actively fighting Bolshevik troops. On November 11, 1918, an armistice officially ended World War I. That same day, the Americans found themselves engaged in their fiercest battle to that date.
A central concern of Soviet foreign and military policy since World War II, relations with the United States have gone through cycles of "cold" and "warm" periods. The Soviet Union and the United States differed over the meaning of the détente relationship. In the West, détente has usually been considered to mean a nonhostile, even harmonious, relationship. The Soviet Union, however, has preferred the terms mirnoe sosushchestvovanie (peaceful coexistence) or razriadka napriazhennosti (a discharging or easing of tensions) instead of the term détente. Brezhnev explained the Soviet perception of the détente relationship at the 1976 and 1981 CPSU party congresses, asserting that détente did not mean that the Soviet Union would cease to support Third World national liberation movements or the world class struggle. In the Soviet view, détente with the West was compatible with sponsoring Cuban intervention in the Third World. However, Soviet-sponsored intervention in the Third World met with growing protest from the United States. The détente relationship conclusively ended with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. A general improvement in Soviet-American relations began soon after Gorbachev was selected general secretary in March 1985.
In the post-Soviet era, Russia’s foreign relations have gone through several stages. In the early 1990s, Russia sought friendly relations with virtually all countries, especially the West and Japan. By the mid-1990s, a nationalist faction discouraged relations with the West in favor of renewed influence in the “Near Abroad” (the territory of the former Soviet Union) and closer ties with China. In the mid-1990s, the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the first of two conflicts with the Republic of Chechnya strained relations with the West.
In the early 2000s, the Putin Administration continued to attempt a balance between restoring Russia’s influence in the Near Abroad (particularly Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Ukraine) and preserving positive relations with the West, which looked with disfavor on Russia’s nationalistic ambitions. In that period, Russia’s perceived support of regimes in Iran and Syria, Western support for successful democratic movements in Georgia and Ukraine, Western criticism of Putin’s policies toward Chechnya, and restriction of nongovernmental organizations and the media were issues that damaged the bilateral rapport briefly achieved in late 2001. Relations were affected by the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war and subsequent decision by Russia to recognize the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. As a result, US-Russian contact decreased significantly.
Russia matters for the defense and promotion of U.S. national interests in a way matched by few other countries in the world. Russia is the world’s largest country by landmass and is a key geopolitical player in the East Asia-Pacific region, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Europe. Russia and the U.S. collectively control over 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, and Russia is the world’s largest producer of hydrocarbons. It is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a member of the G8 and G20, and a key player in the Quartet on Middle East peace, the P5+1 talks on Iran, and the Six-Party talks on North Korea.
On such critical issues as preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, combating terrorism, countering narcotics, addressing the effects of climate change, increasing trade and investment to enhance economic prosperity, and managing global financial markets, the United States is better positioned to advance its national interests if it can work with Russia in the spirit of cooperation. Russia’s long-term prosperity, modernity, integration into the global economy, and political liberalization are all in the interest of the United States.
Relations with the United States have been a central concern of Soviet and Russian foreign policy since World War II. The United States gained unique stature in the Soviet Union when it emerged from World War II as the ultimate guarantor of European security against attack from the east and the top military power in the NATO alliance. A crucial factor of Soviet-United States relations was the mutual nuclear threat that arose in the 1950s as the Soviet Union developed first a nuclear capability and then a nuclear strategy. The nuclear threat and the underlying potential of "mutually assured destruction" created a chilling presence for the rest of the world. A high point in Soviet-United States relations was the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) that resulted from the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) of 1972. This agreement was an early achievement of the détente, or easing of tensions, that prevailed between the superpowers through most of the 1970s until the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
The early 1980s were a time of tense relations and confrontations. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan brought trade and cultural embargoes from the United States and highly visible gestures such as the United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In Europe the superpowers publicly traded threats and took actions such as the deployment of advanced nuclear weapons while they exchanged compromise positions at the negotiating table. Several events of 1983--the downing of a South Korean civilian airliner by the Soviet air force, the United States invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada to evict a Marxist regime, and the exit of the Soviet delegation from arms control talks--kept bilateral tensions high.
By the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union had resumed talks on intermediate-range nuclear forces and strategic arms reduction. During that period, Soviet leadership underwent a major shift from Leonid I. Brezhnev, who died in November 1982, to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who became general secretary in March 1985. The accession of Gorbachev ultimately ended a period of strident Soviet propaganda against United States president Ronald W. Reagan, whom Russia blamed for prolonging Cold War tensions because of his staunchly anticommunist positions.
In 1985 Reagan and Gorbachev began a series of annual summit meetings that yielded cultural exchange agreements, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) in 1987, and less tangible benefits. The sight of the "cold warrior" Reagan consorting with his Russian opposite number combined with the instant popularity that Gorbachev gained in the United States to again warm relations. In the mid- and late 1980s, the Soviet Union also stepped up media access and contacts. Soviet spokesmen began appearing regularly on United States television, and United States journalists received unprecedented access to everyday life in the Soviet Union.
In the early 1990s, relations with the United States lost none of their significance for Russia. Russia viewed summitry with the United States as the mark of its continued status as a great power and nuclear superpower. Presidents Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush declared a United States-Soviet strategic partnership at the summit of July 1991, decisively marking the end of the Cold War. President Bush declared that United States-Soviet cooperation during the Persian Gulf crisis of 1990-91 had laid the groundwork for a partnership in resolving bilateral and world problems. For Russia, the closer relations of the early 1990s included a broad range of activities, including tourism and educational exchanges, the study of United States institutions and processes to adapt them for a new "Union of Sovereign States" (one proposed title for a new, nonideological Soviet Union), and the beginning of United States aid to Russia.
During this period, the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia supported the United States on several international issues. In the UN Security Council, the Soviet Union and Russia supported sanctions and operations against Iraq before, during, and after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990; called on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) to abide by safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); supported sending UN observers to conflict-ridden Georgia and Tajikistan; and supported UN economic sanctions against Serbia. The Soviet Union cosponsored Middle East peace talks that opened in October 1991.
In its cooperation with the United States on strategic arms control, Russia declared that it was the successor to the Soviet Union in assuming the obligations of START, which had been signed in July 1991. The Supreme Soviet ratified this treaty in November 1992. Presidents Bush and Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) in January 1993. The United States ratified that treaty in January 1996, but the much more problematic ratification by the new, nationalist-dominated State Duma was left until after the midyear presidential election.
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