Will Trump be able and willing to improve relations between the United States and Russia? Russian-American Relations: A Brief Historical Excursion

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Image copyright AFP Image caption Friendship apart?

On March 4, 1933, US President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, taking office, promised to pass key anti-crisis laws within 100 days. Since then, this period has become a traditional moment for summing up the first results of his tenure in power.

As observers point out, Donald Trump has not fulfilled any of his main promises in 100 days. However, it is possible that he simply did not have enough time.

Among the unfulfilled expectations is a warming in Russian-American relations.

In 2016, the Republican candidate to Vladimir Putin.

The honeymoon was over before it really started. And was he even there?

What happened? And, most importantly, what to expect from the future?

A round table of American and Russian experts in the Moscow branch of the Valdai Club, timed to coincide with the 100 days of Trump's presidency, was dedicated to this.

The announced theme sounded like this: "Relations between the United States and Russia under the Trump Administration: Opportunities and Limitations." As a result, the conversation was mainly about restrictions.

The meaning of the speeches boiled down to the fact that relations have returned to the Soviet-American level, and will remain there for the foreseeable future.

Trump's metamorphosis

Ivan Timofeev, program director of the Russian Council on International Affairs, joked that the number of Americanists in Moscow at least tripled last year.

Diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States were established in 1807, and the first official contact with one of the American colonies (future Pennsylvania) occurred in 1698.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the United States recognized the USSR only in 1933. During World War II, the USSR and the United States became allies in the Anti-Hitler coalition. Immediately after the end of the war, however, the USA and the USSR, as two superpowers, entered into a fierce strategic rivalry for influence in the world (the so-called "cold war"), which determined the development of world processes for half a century.

Currently, relations between Russia and the United States are developing in such areas as the fight against terrorism, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and space research.

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Story

The history of Russian-American relations goes back to the end of the 17th century, when an independent American state did not yet exist. In 1698, Peter I met in London with William Penn, the founder of the British colony, which later became the state of Pennsylvania. These were the first bilateral political contacts.

In the first half of the 18th century, the active colonization of North America by Russian merchants began. Many Russian settlements were founded in the Aleutian Islands, in mainland Alaska, in the modern Canadian provinces of Yukon and British Columbia, and in the American states of Washington, Oregon, and California. Gradually, the scattered Russian colonies-settlements were legalized; over the territory occupied by Russian settlers, the sovereignty of the Russian Empire was proclaimed. The city of Novoarkhangelsk (now Sitka) became the capital of Russian America.

In 1775, a revolt broke out in 13 British colonies against economic oppression by England. George III turned to the Russian Empress Catherine II with a request to assist the British troops in suppressing the uprising, which was refused. On July 4, 1776, the independence of the colonies was proclaimed in Philadelphia. Formally, Russia did not recognize this act, but supported the colonies' aspirations for independence. In 1780, at the height of the War of Independence, Russia declared armed neutrality, which meant de facto support for the colonies.

19th century

In 1809, Russia and the United States exchanged ambassadors, laying the foundation for diplomatic relations. The first US ambassador to Russia was John Quincy Adams, who later became the sixth US president. Andrey Dashkov became the first Russian ambassador to the United States.

In the 19th century, relations between the United States and Russia were generally friendly, despite the problems that arose at the beginning of the century as a result of the clash of Russian and American interests in the Alaska region and the Pacific coast of North America.

On April 5 (17), 1824, the Russian-American Convention on Friendly Relations, Trade, Navigation and Fishing was signed in St. Petersburg, which streamlined relations between the two states in the northwestern part of North America. It was during the negotiations that preceded its signing that in the summer of 1823 the Russian government was informed of the US's intention to put forward the thesis "America for Americans" as one of the principles of its foreign policy, which was later formalized in the form of the Monroe Doctrine. The Convention has fixed the southern border of the possessions of the Russian Empire in Alaska at latitude 54 ° 40'N. According to the convention, the Americans pledged not to settle north of this border, and the Russians to the south. Fishing and sailing along the Pacific coast were declared open to ships of both powers for 10 years.

In 1832, the United States and Russia signed a trade agreement, by which the parties, on a reciprocal basis, granted most favored nation treatment to goods and citizens of both countries.

In the middle of the century, the government of Nicholas I involved American engineers in their projects to modernize the empire. Thus, specialists from the United States played a crucial role in the construction of the railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg and equipping it with rolling stock, in the construction of the first telegraph lines and in the rearmament of the army after the Crimean War.

The peak of rapprochement between Russia and the United States was in the 1860s. - during the Civil War in the United States and the Polish Uprising of 1863-1864. Then Russia and the northern American states had a common enemy - England, which supported both the Southerners and the Polish rebels. To counter the actions of the British fleet in 1863, the Baltic squadron of Rear Admiral S.S. Lesovsky arrived in New York, and the Pacific squadron of Rear Admiral A.A. Popov arrived in San Francisco. Based in the United States, Russian sailors were supposed to, in case of war, paralyze the English maritime trade.

In 1867, all Russian possessions east of the Bering Strait were sold to the United States for $ 7.2 million. In addition to Alaska itself, they included the entire Aleutian archipelago and some islands in the Pacific Ocean.

However, in the 19th century, contradictions accumulated between Russia and the United States. In 1849-1850. the leader of the Hungarian revolution, Lajos Kossuth, visited the United States and found a sympathetic response in the American provinces. In 1850, the US Senate, on the initiative of Democratic Senator Lewis Cass, discussed the "Cass resolution" on the need to judge European monarchs for suppressing the revolutions of 1848 (first of all, as indicated in the draft resolution, the "Russian emperor"). Democratic Senator John Parker Hell was an active supporter of the resolution. Here is what the American historian Arthur Schlesinger writes about this in Cycles of American History:

A would-be historian, according to Hale, could begin the chapter on 1850 like this: “At the beginning of that year, the American Senate, the highest legislative body in the world, brought together the wisest and most magnanimous people who ever lived or will live, pushing aside trifling local cases, concerning their own lands, formed a kind of tribunal and began to judge the nations of the Earth, who committed the most brutal acts of despotism. "

Cass's proposal, Hale continued, is that “we act as angry judges! We must hold the nations of the Earth to account, and they will appear before us as defendants, and we will pass judgment on them. " An excellent principle. But why limit yourself to Austria?

Hale said he hoped the future historian would describe how the United States proceeded "to try not a minor power with little trade and low cost sanctions, but primarily over the Russian Empire with a verdict." In the end, Kossuth was defeated by the Russian army. “I will not agree to judge Austria until we have sentenced some of the bigger criminals. I do not want our actions to be like fishing with frequent nets, which catch small fish, but miss large ones. " I want to judge the Russian tsar, said Hale, not only for what he did to Hungary, but also “for what he did a long time ago, sending the unfortunate exiles into the Siberian snows ... When we do this, we will show that, raising our angry voice against a weaker power, we do it not out of cowardice. "

The “Kass resolution” was not adopted. But in the 1880s, the US Congress passed a series of decisions condemning the policies of Alexander III on the Jewish question.

Reign of Alexander III (1881-1894)

As noted by the Russian researcher A. A. Rodionov, the reign of the Russian Emperor Alexander III (1881-1894) was characterized by changes in relations between Russia and the United States, which determined the entire future prospect of their development. If the period before 1881 is described by historians as a time of harmonious relations, then starting from about 1885 between these states there is a clash of strategic interests and an increase in rivalry in all spheres of state relations. The entry of Russia and the United States into a higher stage of economic development leads to their foreign policy reorientation, the United States' rapprochement with Great Britain and Japan, and a US-Russian conflict of interests in the Far East and Manchuria. In the Russian Empire, after the assassination of Alexander II, a tightening of the political regime takes place, which intensifies the US-Russian contradictions in the field of ideology and forms of government, which appeared long before that. Therefore, it was at this time that a steady interest in the events taking place in Russia arose in American society, in particular, in the activities of the Narodnaya Volya organization and Russian "nihilists." The American press actively discussed the issues of Russian "nihilism", supporters and opponents of this movement delivered public lectures and arranged debates. Initially, the US public condemned the terrorist methods used by Russian revolutionaries. In many ways, according to the researcher, this was due to the manifestation of the phenomenon of political terrorism in the United States itself - suffice it to mention the attempts on the life of Presidents A. Lincoln and D. A. Garfield. During this time, American society tended to draw historical parallels between the assassinations of A. Lincoln and Alexander II as two great reformers.

The position of American society in relation to the Russian political regime in Russia in the first half of the 1880s. A. A. Rodionov characterizes it as a moderate criticism of tsarist authoritarianism, largely due to the exacerbation of contradictions between the two countries in the field of ideology and forms of government. The tsarist government is criticized in the United States for suppressing the Russian liberation movement, stopping reforms, lack of freedom of the press and representatives of the people, oppression of Jews, etc. as well as the absence of acute conflicts between Russia and the United States in the international arena. Nevertheless, the image of Russia as an undemocratic state is beginning to take shape in American society, where there are no civil liberties and violence is used against dissidents, while the reasons for the emergence of a radical revolutionary movement are associated with the policies of the tsarist government. In the minds of the Americans, condemnation of the reactionary course of the autocracy is mingled with the feeling of friendship.

In the second half of the 1880s - early 1890s. the conclusion of the Russian-American treaty on the mutual extradition of criminals (1887) leads to radical changes in public opinion in the United States - to a transition from traditional views of the Russian Empire as a friendly power to the so-called crusade for "free Russia". The very possibility of extraditing political refugees ran counter to the basic democratic principles of American society and its liberal tradition. The fight against the ratification of the treaty in the United States brought to life social movement, who advocated reforming Russia based on the principles of freedom and democracy and supported Russian political emigrants. It was during this period that persistent negative stereotypes towards Russia were formed in the American public consciousness. For many Americans, Russia is becoming a country that is at the medieval stage of development, where the "despotic" tsarist government oppresses the population, yearning for liberation.

In the late 1880s - early 1890s. In American society, there is a small but very active opposition to the tsarist regime, which is represented by a small group of Russian political emigrants, American journalists, public and political figures who organized campaigns in support of the cause of "Russian freedom", which had a significant influence on the formation of the image of Russia. Under the influence of this agitation, many Americans, the researcher notes, begin to understand the relations between the United States and Russia from the standpoint of a conflict of civilization and barbarism, a shift is taking place in US public opinion, which will subsequently lead American society to Russophobic sentiments and to a conviction in the “messianic role” of the United States. in the fact that the United States is called upon to carry out a liberation mission and interfere in the affairs of other countries and peoples. From moderate criticism of the political regime in Russia, US public opinion is moving to its active condemnation. Such a change is also facilitated by other objective reasons - the entry of the United States into a new stage of development as one of the world's economic leaders and the associated clash of economic interests of the United States and Russia, the massive immigration of Russian Jews to the United States, technological progress and the development of funds mass media in conjunction with the ideological development of the American nation - the emergence and implementation of ideas of superiority and teachings about the civilizing duty of the Anglo-Saxon race. Russia is becoming one of the targets of the US global mission as a country to be transformed along the North American model.

Among the most significant problems that were discussed during this period by the American society, one should name:

the Russian-American treaty on the mutual extradition of criminals of 1887;
the national-confessional policy of tsarism in relation to the Jews (the so-called "Jewish question" and the associated "passport conflict");
the punitive policy of tsarism in relation to the political opposition.

US Public Opinion about Russia at the Turn of the 19th-20th Centuries

As noted by the Russian historian R. Sh. Ganelin, at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. relations between the United States and Russia "were not intense": trade relations were very poorly developed, American capital was just beginning to penetrate into Russia, and governments did not see each other as significant foreign policy partners. Nevertheless, already in the second half of the XIX century. the idea of a bipolar world began to take shape, at different ends of which Russia and the United States were located. The image of Russia, according to the definition of the Russian historian V.V. Noskov, “was composed of three main elements - ideas: about the radical opposition of the paths of the historical development of Russia and America, which excludes the possibility of their peaceful coexistence; about Russia primarily as an expansionist power, whose actions on the world stage especially threaten the interests of the United States; about the special - uncompromising and all-encompassing - nature and inevitability of the struggle between America and Russia. " The Russo-Japanese War and the subsequent Revolution of 1905-1907, as well as the intensive economic development of Russia at the turn of the century, contributed to the increased attention of the American public to Russia.

The defining factors affecting US-Russian relations at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were the hostile position of the administration of US President Theodore Roosevelt and the American media towards Russia, especially during the Russo-Japanese War, the clash of economic interests in the Far East and Manchuria, as well as tensions over the "Jewish question" associated with restrictions on the rights of Jews in Russia and the active emigration of Russian Jews to the United States.

The number of Russian immigrants to the United States increased gradually starting in the 1880s and peaked in the decade before World War I. In total, more than 3.2 million people arrived from the Russian Empire to the United States, according to official data. A distinctive feature that distinguished the Russian emigration from the general European stream was the predominance of representatives of national (primarily Jews, but also Poles, Germans, Baltic peoples) and religious (Old Believers and religious sectarians - Stundists, Molokans and Dukhobors) minorities of the Russian Empire who moved to USA for reasons of national and religious discrimination. In addition, among the Russian emigrants were representatives of opposition and banned political parties and movements, as well as fugitive political prisoners and exiled settlers. At the same time, there was a ban on emigration in the legislation of the Russian Empire, so that resettlement in the United States was of a semi-legal, criminal nature. Only a few ethnic and religious groups, in particular Jews and sectarian groups of Dukhobors and Molokans, have been granted permission to leave the country by the Russian authorities. Free transfer to foreign citizenship was not allowed, and the time spent abroad was limited to a period of up to five years. In fact, this led to the fact that most of the Russian immigrants were in the United States illegally, and upon returning to the territory of the Russian Empire, they were threatened with criminal prosecution.

The increase in revolutionary and ethno-confessional (especially Jewish) immigration from Russia began to cause concern among American politicians, however, despite the adoption of several restrictive immigration laws, there was no decrease in the number or change in the structure of the flow of Russian immigrants to the United States. At the same time, the illegal status of Russian settlers in the United States and the reluctance of the tsarist administration to solve the problem of illegal emigration from the country became one of the factors that contributed to the deterioration of Russian-American relations at the beginning of the 20th century. A certain role was also played by the actions of a number of influential Jewish financiers who tried to put pressure on the Russian authorities in order to force them to remove ethno-confessional restrictions on Jews in Russia.

Rivalry in the Far East

In the 1880s, the United States finally established itself in the Pacific Ocean. In 1886, at the initiative of President Grover Cleveland, Congress held hearings on the future US policy in the Pacific. The participants in the hearing concluded that of all the Pacific countries, only Russian empire could potentially threaten US interests.

In this regard, the United States did not support the Russian-German-French ultimatum to Japan (1895). In 1899, the United States proclaimed the policy of “ open doors", Which provided for the preservation of the territorial integrity of China, first of all - at the expense of restraining the Russian advance to Manchuria and Korea.

In 1900-1902. American naval theorist Rear Admiral AT Mahan developed a theory of "containment" of Russia as a powerful "continental" power by creating a block of "sea" states led by the United States. A. T. Mahan and US President Theodore Roosevelt, who shared his concept, believed that the United States should pursue a policy of active expansion in the Far East. The rivalry between Washington and St. Petersburg because of the economic predominance in this region (primarily in Manchuria) was one of the reasons for the deterioration of Russian-American relations. The ideologists of the US foreign policy believed that the spread of Russian influence in the Far East threatened the economic and political interests of the United States. Speaking for the neutralization of Russian influence in this region, they stated that “Russia is not a civilized country and therefore cannot play a civilizing role in the East ... Under the current conditions, an undemocratic regime, archaism social structure and economic underdevelopment served as an additional argument against Russia. "

Since 1901, the Theodore Roosevelt administration has provided financial and military-technical assistance to Japan, Russia's main adversary in the Far East.

Russian-Japanese military conflict 1904-1905 marked a new milestone in the development of American public opinion about Russia, confronting it with the need to determine its attitude towards each of the warring powers. Theodore Roosevelt actually supported Japan, and a syndicate of American banks organized by J. Schiff provided Japan with significant financial assistance. At the same time, efforts were made to close Russia's access to Western loans. Thus, Russia and the United States entered a new phase of relations - open rivalry. Public opinion the United States was also extremely hostile towards the Russian government.

World War I. October Revolution and Russian Civil War

In the first world war Russia and the United States became allies. The year 1917 became a turning point for relations between the two countries. After the revolution took place in Russia, the United States refused to recognize the Soviet government. In 1918-1920, American troops took part in foreign intervention.

USSR - USA

Soviet and American tanks opposite each other. Berlin, October 27, 1961. "class =" cboxElement ">

The USA became one of the last states to recognize the USSR. The first ambassador of the USSR to the United States in 1933 was Alexander Troyanovsky. Since 1919, a struggle against the communist and socialist movement was launched in the United States - the activities of left-wing organizations were prohibited, and dangerous, according to the authorities, persons were expelled from the country. Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were established on November 16, 1933. Other events of this period, important for bilateral relations, include the participation of the Americans in the rescue of the Chelyuskin in 1934 (two American aircraft mechanics were awarded the Order of Lenin for this), as well as the flight of Valery Chkalov across the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver in 1937.

During World War II, relations between the United States and the USSR remained moderately good. The German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, caused a wave of respect and sympathy among the American people for the Soviet Union, which almost single-handedly resisted the fascist aggression. By the decision of Roosevelt, from November 1941, the Lend-Lease Law was extended to the USSR, within the framework of which American military equipment, property and food began to be supplied to the USSR.

But the union treaty between the USSR and the USA (as between the USSR and Great Britain) was not signed. The USSR and the USA were allies on the basis of an international document - the United Nations Declaration of January 1, 1942. Later, on June 23, 1942, a Soviet-American agreement was signed on the supply of military technologies. The United States, referring to the text of the 1941 Atlantic Charter, refused to recognize the Baltic States as part of the USSR. The US Congress also regularly raised the issue of religious freedom in the USSR.

The agreements between the members of the Anti-Hitler coalition, reached during and after the end of the war, determined the creation of a bipolar world in which the united West, led by the United States, opposed the bloc of socialist countries rallied around Soviet Union.

Cold war

Jimmy Carter and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev sign the SALT-2 agreement. Vienna, June 18, 1979. "class =" cboxElement ">

At the end of World War II, the USSR became a powerful superpower, whose influence spread from Western Europe to the Pacific Ocean. The establishment of pro-Soviet communist regimes in the states of Eastern Europe led to a sharp deterioration in relations between the USSR and the United States. The American leadership tried to prevent the spread of Soviet influence and leftist ideas (which was facilitated by the victory of the USSR in the war) further to the West, in Latin America, Asia and Africa. In the United States itself, anti-communist hysteria began - the so-called "Witch Hunt".

Very soon, the struggle between the two ideologies went beyond diplomatic relations and grew into a global confrontation of systems with every now and then outbreak of armed conflicts around the world - the Korean War, the Vietnam War, numerous Arab-Israeli wars, wars in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa ...

The arms race has become an important factor in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. Since August 1945, the United States considered itself a monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons and tried to use this trump card against the USSR. But in 1949 the Soviet Union also acquired atomic, and in 1953 - thermonuclear weapons, and then - the means of delivering these weapons to targets on the territory of its potential enemy (ballistic missiles). Both countries have invested colossal amounts of money in the military industry; the total nuclear arsenal has grown over several decades so that it would be enough to destroy the entire population of the planet more than a dozen times.

Already in the early 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war, when the USSR, in response to the deployment of American medium-range missiles in Turkey, deployed its own nuclear missiles in Cuba, which led to Cuban missile crisis 1962. Fortunately, thanks to the political will of the leaders of both countries, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, a military conflict was avoided. But besides the danger of a nuclear war, the arms race posed a threat to the economies of the USA and the USSR. The constant, essentially pointless, increase in military forces threatened economic collapse on both sides. In this situation, a number of bilateral treaties were signed limiting the accumulation of nuclear weapons.

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva on November 19, 1985 "class =" cboxElement ">

In the 1970s. negotiations were held on the limitation of strategic arms, as a result of which the SALT-I treaties (1972) were signed, which included the ABM Treaty and SALT-II (1979) on the limitation of launchers.

After the exposure of the Walkers who collaborated with Soviet intelligence (naval officer Walker, John Anthony), 25 Soviet diplomats were expelled.

On June 1, 1990, an Agreement was signed between the USSR and the United States on the demarcation line of sea spaces (the Agreement on the Shevardnadze-Baker Line) under the terms of which a part of the exclusive economic zone of the USSR and a section of the continental shelf with an area of 46.3 thousand square kilometers in the open central parts of the Bering Sea, as well as territorial waters in a small area in the Bering Strait between the islands of Ratmanov (Russia) and Kruzenshtern.

The most acute political, ideological and interethnic crisis that gripped the Soviet Union by the end of the 1980s led to the collapse of the state. In this regard, many conservative American politicians are inclined to attribute the victory in the Cold War to the United States. One way or another, the collapse of the USSR (and the collapse of the socialist system that preceded it) is considered to be the end of the Cold War and the beginning of new relations between East and West.

The current situation

Mr. Bush Jr. and his 2000 presidential aides promised the nation that they would abandon what they perceived as annoying and unproductive U.S. intervention in Russia during the Bill Clinton era, which prioritized Russia's integration into the global system of democracies. with a free market economy.

After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Federation declared itself the successor state of the Soviet Union, thanks to which Russia inherited a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. American consultants were actively involved in the development of economic reforms that marked Russia's transition from a planned to a market economy. During the transition period, the United States provided humanitarian aid to Russia (Operation Provide Hope). Relations between Russia and the United States have improved, but not for long.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic and socio-political crisis in Russia, a sharp decline in its international prestige and military-political potential led to the fact that the United States became virtually the only world leader. Russia hoped that with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, NATO would sooner or later also be dissolved, especially since the US leadership gave guarantees that the bloc would not expand eastward.

Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush sign the Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) "class =" cboxElement ">

However, in 1999 the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary were admitted to NATO, and in 2004 - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria. This fact, as well as the operations of the United States and its allies against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, caused confusion in Russia about building relations with the United States. On the one hand, after the terrorist act of September 11, 2001 in the United States, Russia joined the US-led anti-terrorist coalition, hoping that the actions of the Chechen separatists would also be subsumed under the term “terrorism”, which means that it would get at least the tacit support of the West; on the other hand, on June 13, 2002, the United States denounced the 1972 ABM Treaty, citing the need to protect itself from "rogue states."

In 2003, Russia, together with France and Germany, actually led the "camp of dissent" with US actions in relation to Iraq. At the end of 2004, an unprecedented "cold snap" began in Russian-American relations, associated with the events in Ukraine ("Orange Revolution").

Resumption of confrontation

(During M. Albright's visit to Russia in January 1999.) Boris N. Yeltsin and M. Albright reaffirmed the commitment of Russia and the United States to building bilateral relations based on equality, respect and consideration of each other's interests... The importance of constructive Russian-American interaction as stabilizing factor of international life... The president Russian Federation and the US Secretary of State spoke in favor of the further progressive development of multifaceted relations between the two countries at all levels and noted that the emerging differences in approaches to certain problems should not obscure commonality of fundamental strategic objectives two countries. M. Albright confirmed the principled line of the US administration to support Russian reforms.)

The main issues of concern between Russia and the United States include Russia's assistance to Iran in the implementation of its nuclear program, energy security, the situation in Georgia, Ukraine and Palestine, and the missile defense system deployed by the United States in Europe. Under the pretext of developing democracy, the United States finances some Russian non-governmental organizations and political parties.

On May 4, 2006, US Vice President Richard Cheney, while in Vilnius, made a speech that many now call "Vilnius", following the example of Churchill's "Fulton" speech. According to him, the United States is not satisfied with "Russia's use of its mineral resources as a foreign policy weapon of pressure, violation of human rights in Russia and Russia's destructive actions in the international arena." Russia's refusal to terminate cooperation with Iran, Syria, North Korea, Belarus and other states "causing concern" to the United States, leads to constant Russian-American conflicts in the UN Security Council.

In early 2007, a conflict erupted with renewed vigor between the United States and Russia over the United States' intention to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. According to the US leadership, this step is aimed at protecting Europe from North Korean and Iranian missiles. The Russian leadership categorically rejects this explanation. On February 8, 2007, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that "the United States of America should be prepared for a possible armed conflict with Russia." In turn, at the Munich Security Conference on February 10, 2007, Vladimir Putin attacked US foreign policy with harsh criticism. The commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, General Solovtsov, also said that if the US missile defense elements are nevertheless deployed in Eastern Europe, Russia may denounce the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles.

The document accompanying the document states that this decision was caused by "exceptional circumstances affecting the security of the Russian Federation." These include, in particular:

The Eastern European states parties to the CFE Treaty that have joined NATO exceeded the CFE “group” restrictions as a result of the expansion of the alliance;
Failure by NATO countries to fulfill their 1999 political commitment to expedite ratification of the Agreement on Adaptation of the CFE Treaty;
Refusal of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which have joined NATO, to participate in the CFE Treaty and, as a result, the emergence on the north-western border of the Russian Federation of a territory “free” from restrictions on the deployment of conventional weapons, including those of other countries;
The planned deployment of US military bases in the territories of Bulgaria and Romania.

In August 2008, a new round of confrontation between Russia and the United States was given by the invasion of Georgian troops in South Ossetia. Russian troops cleared the territory of the almost completely occupied unrecognized republic from the Georgian army and for several days continued bombing military installations throughout Georgia, after which Russia officially recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. The continued existence of the Russia-NATO Council was called into question.

Francis Fukuyama noted that with the election of Barack Obama for the first term: military force... The only difference is that, unlike the Soviet Union, Russia is more integrated into the world economy, and therefore more vulnerable. This imposes certain restrictions on Russia's actions, which did not exist during the Cold War. "

At a briefing on 01/07/2009, dedicated to the policy of the outgoing administration of US President Bush Jr., his national security adviser Stephen Hadley, speaking about US-Russian relations, formulated the results recent years: “… President Bush has worked to move bilateral relations from the Cold War era to cooperation in areas where we have common interests, while resolving differences in an open, consistent and transparent manner.” Among the achievements, Hadley noted American-Russian cooperation in the field of nuclear weapons reduction, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in solving the Iranian and North Korean problems, and in maintaining the negotiation process to achieve peace in the Middle East.

In 2013, the situation in Syria and the DPRK, missile defense, the position of non-profit organizations in Russia, the "Magnitsky Law" and "Dima Yakovlev's Law" are highlighted as topics of disagreements between the Russian Federation and the United States.

On the night of May 13-14, the FSB, while recruiting one of the Russian intelligence officers, detained Ryan Fogle, an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, who worked as the third secretary of the political department of the US Embassy in Russia.

Economic cooperation

The United States, despite its political problems, has traditionally been one of Russia's leading trading partners. In 2005, bilateral trade reached $ 19.2 billion, with Russian exports at $ 15.3 billion and US imports at $ 3.9 billion.

On November 19, 2006, within the framework of the Russian-American summit at the APEC summit in Hanoi, a Protocol was signed on the completion of bilateral negotiations with the United States on the terms of Russia's accession to the WTO in a package with intergovernmental agreements on agricultural biotechnologies, on trade in beef, on inspections of enterprises. , on the pork trade, on the protection of intellectual property rights and on the procedure for import licensing of goods containing encryption tools.

In 2005, deliveries of Russian oil and petroleum products to the United States reached 466 thousand barrels per day. If this trend continues, Russia may become one of the four main exporters of energy resources to the United States. In 2003, Gazprom began work on a project for the supply of liquefied natural gas to the United States. In 2005, the first “swap” deliveries were made. In the mid-2000s, the United States ranked 6th ($ 8.3 billion) in terms of accumulated foreign investment in Russia (6.5% of the total), and about half of American direct investment was invested in the fuel and energy complex. Major projects include Sakhalin-1 and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. Assembly shops for American Ford and General Motors cars are located at Russian car factories. The non-manufacturing sector accounts for a quarter of US direct investment, directed primarily to banking, insurance, and information services.

Direct Russian investments in the American economy exceed $ 1 billion. Russian companies Lukoil, Norilsk Nickel (a plant for the production of platinum group metals), Severstal (a steel company), EvrazGroup (a plant for the production of vanadium), Interros (hydrogen energy) and some others.

Cooperation is developing in the field of high technologies, innovation and informatics. The Russian-American Innovation Council for High Technologies has been created, the Intergovernmental Committee on Science and Technology is working, Russian companies participate in innovation forums in the United States. Leading companies in the US aerospace industry - Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney - have been actively cooperating with Russian enterprises for many years in the framework of projects on the ISS, space launches, the production of aircraft engines, and the development of new aircraft models.

American companies are showing significant interest in the development of trade and economic cooperation with the regions of Russia. For more than 10 years, the Russian-American Pacific Partnership has been operating, uniting representatives of business, science, public circles, federal and regional authorities of the Russian Far East and the US West Coast.

Human Rights Dialogue

US officials from time to time make public statements about the human rights situation in Russia. State Department The United States issues annual reports on the human rights situation around the world; The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in 2005-2013 responded to the assessments made by these reports to Russia in 2008, 2009 and 2013. The Russian Foreign Ministry also commented on the approach to Russia in the annual reports of the State Department on freedom of religion in the countries of the world.

In 2011, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a report on human rights in several countries, starting with a section on the United States. A spokesman for the US State Department said that the US did not consider foreign criticism on human rights issues to be interference in internal affairs, without commenting on specific statements of the report. In 2012, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a special report on the United States. Press Secretary of the US State Department V. Nuland commented on it this way: “We are an open book and want to continue to improve our society; openness to observation by the world is not a concern for us. "

US Senate in 2011 and 2013 held hearings on human rights and the rule of law in the Russian Federation, the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation held hearings on human rights in the United States in October 2012.

Cooperation in the field of culture

Cultural cooperation between Russia and the United States is carried out on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of Russia and the United States on the principles of cooperation in the field of culture, humanities and social sciences, education and the media dated September 2, 1998.

In 1999, the Russian Center for Science and Culture was opened in Washington DC.

The United States cooperates with Russian museums, cultural centers, art groups and artists on the basis of individual projects and contracts. US federal and municipal governments rely on direct links between organizations, citizens, cultural and educational institutions.

One of the main places in Russian-American cultural cooperation is occupied by a project of long-term cooperation between the Guggenheim Foundation and the State Hermitage Museum. Its main goal is to present, on a permanent basis, exhibitions of classical art from the Hermitage collection in the Guggenheim museums and, accordingly, to present collections of Western art of the 20th century in the halls of the Hermitage. In October 2001, the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum opened in Las Vegas. A joint exhibition from the collections of the Hermitage and the Guggenheim was timed to coincide with the opening.

In 2001, the Russian Embassy in Washington hosted a gala concert under the slogan "St. Petersburg 2003: Cultural Renaissance". He initiated a series of events in connection with the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg in order to popularize it as a center of world culture and attract the attention of the American public to the cultural heritage of St. Petersburg.

Links are being actively developed through the Library of Congress. More than 4,000 young Russian politicians, entrepreneurs and public figures have visited the United States on short-term study tours as part of the Open World program for Russian executives, which was established in 1999 at the initiative of Library Director John Billington. A joint project was launched by the Library of Congress and the Mariinsky Theater to modernize the archives of the theater.

A program of cooperation between the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Mariinsky Theater is under way. This project is designed for 10 years and involves an annual tour of the Mariinsky Theater in the largest US opera house. The first performances of the Mariinsky Theater at the Kennedy Center took place on 12-24 February 2002 and marked a new milestone in the development of Russian-American cultural ties.

Russian (Soviet) - American relations throughout their time span were distinguished by inconsistency and instability. The post-Soviet period was no exception. The only exception was the naivety with which the leaders of the newly formed Russian Federation approached the issues international politics and in particular - to the line of political behavior in relations with the United States.

The beginning of the 90s. was filled with euphoric expectations associated with the conviction of the liberal politicians who came to power that the destruction of the USSR eliminated all obstacles and at the same time created all the conditions for the transition in relations with the West, and above all its leader - the United States, to full-fledged partnership and cooperation. A very short period at the beginning of the relationship maintained these expectations, created the impression that they were valid.

In February 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin made his first official visit to Washington. In the course of it, a Declaration on New Relations between the Russian Federation and the United States was signed. The declaration proclaimed that relations between the two countries will be based on the principles:

1. Friendship and partnership, mutual trust. The United States and the Russian Federation no longer regard each other as potential adversaries.

2. Eliminating the remnants of hostility from the Cold War period, incl. reduction of strategic arsenals.

The document said about the desire of the United States and Russia to create a "new alliance of partners", i.e. on the transition from cooperation on a limited range of issues to an allied type of relations.

In June 1992, Yeltsin visited Washington for the second time. The Charter of the Russian-American partnership was signed, confirming and concretizing the main provisions of the Declaration on cooperation in the spheres of international peace and security, economic relations.

However, the Charter did not say anything about a “new alliance of partners”. The following was fundamentally new: the first part of the Charter stipulated the principles that should form the basis of Russian-American relations. They concerned the conduct of internal politics: democracy, freedom, protection of human rights, respect for the rights of minorities, including national ones. This was the first time in Russian history, when in a document concluded with a foreign state, the provisions concerning the state system and internal affairs of Russia were regulated.

Hence, it clearly followed that there was no talk of any equal Russian-American alliance. For the United States, Russia was, at best, a junior partner, further relations with which will be built depending on his "behavior", i.e. from the implementation of internal transformations, the assessment of which will be given by the same USA. This was also confirmed by the agreement of the same 1992 on granting the parties to each other the most favored nation treatment in trade. It was granted to Russia not on a permanent basis, as in other countries, but for one year, with an annual extension by the decision of the American Congress. In fact, the United States was able to exert pressure on Russia by threatening to cancel it at any time.

The reason for the departure from the "letter and spirit" of the February Declaration is due to the fact that by June 1992, a problem had been resolved that aroused particular concern in Washington and required Russia's participation. The United States feared the emergence of new nuclear powers in the form of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, on whose territory Soviet nuclear weapons remained. There was concern, which was shared by Moscow, about the leakage of atomic weapons and technologies for their production.

The coordinated pressure of the Russian Federation and the United States led to the fact that in May 1992 Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan pledged to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as nuclear-free countries. The weapons were exported to Russia, the nuclear status of which, as the legal successor to the USSR, was not disputed by anyone. The nuclear legacy problem was successfully resolved, and for the United States, the need for close cooperation with an increasingly weakened Russia became not the most urgent one.

The position of the United States became extremely clear by the beginning of 1994, when the question of NATO's eastward expansion was raised. This possibility was announced at the end of the Bush Sr. administration. For the democratic administration of Bill Clinton, the expansion of the alliance has become a top priority.

All subsequent years, Russian-American relations developed unevenly. Sufficient mutual understanding and mutual persistent interest distinguished cooperation in the field of nuclear security: in January 1993, the START-2 Treaty was signed, and in April 2010 - the START-3 Treaty; the sides constantly interact to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

However, on a number of other topics, the positions of the parties turned out to be incompatible: NATO expansion, the alliance's actions in the Balkans, the legitimacy of the very concept of "humanitarian intervention", the inviolability of the priority of international law, the role and place of the UN in modern world, recognition of Kosovo's independence, the fate of missile defense, US plans to create a national missile defense system and deploy its elements in Eastern Europe, etc. The positions of the parties turned out to be conceptually different in their views on the model of the world order.

By the end of the 1990s. in relations between Russia and the United States, one can speak of a crisis. In 1997, B. Clinton signed a directive that set the American strategic nuclear forces the task "to preserve the possibility of delivering a nuclear strike against Russian military and civilian targets."

A positive turn in Russian-American relations took place in the face of a new global threat - international terrorism. The active position of Russia from the very beginning of the anti-terrorist operation was highly appreciated in the United States. Russia has ceased to be identified with a threat to America's security. In May 2002, President George W. Bush paid a visit, during which a Joint Declaration on New Strategic Relations between the Russian Federation and the United States was signed, the content of which covered the maximum wide range areas of cooperation. There was hope that the idea of a bilateral partnership, which suffered a fiasco in 1992-2000, could become a reality.

However, soon the development of events showed that Russia and the United States retained fundamentally incompatible approaches to a number of vital issues of international life. Russia condemned the American invasion of Iraq and did not accept George W. Bush's strategy of "democratic" reconstruction of the world. On the other hand, the United States turned out to be unprepared for the rapid restoration of Russia's foreign policy independence. Washington was ready to partner with Moscow in solving problems important to America, but not to the fact that Russia would take a course towards restoring sovereign power that could challenge US interests.

The post-Soviet space has become the main field of conflict of interests. The US goal is to prevent the restoration of Russian influence in the former Soviet territory. With the exception of the once and for all lost Baltic, the confrontation went along the entire perimeter of the Russian border. It took extreme forms in August 2008 during the so-called "Caucasian crisis" caused by the Georgian adventure in South Ossetia. American warships entered the Black Sea and their clash with the Black Sea Fleet of Russia, which supported the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Transcaucasia seemed highly probable.

Washington drew certain conclusions from the "Caucasian crisis". Barack Obama's presidency began with the idea of "resetting" relations with Russia. This is understood as a rejection of the interpretation of Russia as an “enemy” and a transition to relations as with a “partner-rival”: a partner in solving, for example, the problem of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons; a rival in the space of neighboring states of Europe and Asia. According to S. Karaganov, Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, the proposed “reset” was actually “a quasi-reset, since it did not touch upon the main problem - the recognition of Russian security interests in the territory of the former USSR”.

Nevertheless, it is precisely the relations characterized by the concept of “partner-rivals” that are most real and even desirable for Russia and the United States both today and in the foreseeable future.

The United States will always be wary of Russia, because with the exception of China and possibly the European Union, only Russia is a potential global competitor to the United States and does not hide its global ambitions. The range of interests of our countries is so wide that in reality practically the entire world “agenda” becomes a bilateral “agenda”.

Confrontation in a number of cases is inevitable, but it is unacceptable to bring it to the "last edge". It is important to understand that Russia and the United States are unlikely to ever become friends, but they should never again become enemies. The ideal format for our relations is a constant dialogue between reasonable rival partners, always ready to toughly defend their national interests, but never confusing true interests with false ones.

Today, both sides are striving to build their relations based on the reality described above. The 2010 US National Security Strategy recognizes Russia as one of the centers of international influence, emphasizing that "in the interests of the United States is a strong, peaceful, prosperous Russia." In turn, the 2008 Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation in relations with the United States emphasizes maintaining a constant dialogue and ensuring "joint development of a culture of managing differences based on pragmatism and maintaining a balance of interests."

The Russian - American dialogue not only meets the correctly understood national interests of both countries, but is also one of the foundations for maintaining strategic stability in the world.

American consultants took an active part in developing economic reforms aimed at Russia's transition from a planned to a market economy. Relations between Russia and the United States have improved, but not for long. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the economic and socio-political crisis in Russia, a sharp decline in its international prestige and military-political potential led to the fact that the United States became virtually the only world leader. Russia hoped that with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, NATO would sooner or later also be dissolved, especially since the US leadership gave guarantees that the bloc would not expand to the east. However, in 1999 the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary were admitted to NATO, and in 2004 - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria. This fact, as well as the operations of the United States and its allies against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, caused confusion in Russia about building relations with the United States. On the one hand, after the terrorist act of September 11, 2001 in the United States, Russia joined the US-led anti-terrorist coalition, hoping that the actions of the Chechen separatists would also be subsumed under the term “terrorism”, which means that it would get at least the tacit support of the West; on the other hand, already on June 13, 2002, the United States denounced the 1972 ABM Treaty, citing the need to defend against "rogue states". In 2003, Russia, together with France and Germany, actually led the "camp of dissent" with US actions in relation to Iraq. At the end of 2004, an unprecedented "cold snap" began in Russian-American relations, associated with the events in Ukraine ("Orange Revolution"). The main issues of concern between Russia and the United States include Russia's assistance to Iran in the implementation of its nuclear program, energy security, the situation in Georgia, Ukraine and Palestine, and the missile defense system deployed by the United States in Europe. Under the pretext of developing democracy, the United States finances some Russian non-governmental organizations and political parties.

On May 4, 2006, US Vice President Richard Cheney, while in Vilnius, made a speech that many now call "Vilnius" after Churchill's "Fulton" speech. According to him, the United States is not satisfied with "Russia's use of its mineral resources as a foreign policy weapon of pressure, violation of human rights in Russia and Russia's destructive actions in the international arena." Russia's refusal to terminate cooperation with Iran, Syria, North Korea, Belarus and other states "causing concern" to the United States, leads to constant Russian-American conflicts in the UN Security Council.

In early 2007, a conflict broke out with renewed vigor between the United States and Russia over the United States' intention to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. According to the US leadership, this step is aimed at protecting Europe from North Korean and Iranian missiles. The Russian leadership categorically rejects such an explanation. In turn, at the Munich Security Conference on February 10, 2007, Vladimir Putin attacked US foreign policy with harsh criticism. The commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, General Solovtsov, also said that if the US missile defense elements are nevertheless deployed in Eastern Europe, Russia may denounce the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles

On July 14, 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On the suspension by the Russian Federation of the operation of the Treaty on Conventional Arms in Europe and related international treaties." Observers believe that this decision was the first step of the Russian leadership towards a radical change in the military-political situation on the European continent, which has been shaping up since the early 1990s not in Russia's favor. The document accompanying the document states that this decision was caused by "exceptional circumstances affecting the security of the Russian Federation." These include, in particular: the excess by the Eastern European states parties to the CFE Treaty that have joined NATO, the "group" restrictions of the CFE Treaty as a result of the expansion of the alliance; Failure by NATO countries to fulfill their 1999 political commitment to expedite ratification of the Agreement on Adaptation of the CFE Treaty; Refusal of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which have joined NATO, to participate in the CFE Treaty and, as a result, the emergence on the north-western border of the Russian Federation of a territory “free” from restrictions on the deployment of conventional weapons, including those of other countries; The planned deployment of US military bases in the territories of Bulgaria and Romania.

In August 2008, a new round of confrontation between Russia and the United States was given by the invasion of Georgian troops in South Ossetia. Russian troops cleared the territory of the almost completely captured unrecognized republic from the Georgian army and for several days continued bombing military installations throughout Georgia, after which Russia officially recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. The continued existence of the Russia-NATO Council was called into question.

The United States, despite its political problems, has traditionally been one of Russia's leading trading partners.

On November 19, 2006, within the framework of the Russian-American summit at the APEC summit in Hanoi, a Protocol was signed on the completion of bilateral negotiations with the United States on the terms of Russia's accession to the WTO in a package with intergovernmental agreements on agricultural biotechnologies, on trade in beef, on inspections of enterprises, on pork trade, on the protection of intellectual property rights and on the procedure for import licensing of goods containing encryption tools.

In 2005, deliveries of Russian oil and oil products to the United States reached 466 thousand barrels per day. If this trend continues, Russia may become one of the four main exporters of energy resources to the United States. In 2003, Gazprom began work on a project for the supply of liquefied natural gas to the United States. In 2005, the first “swap” deliveries were made. Assembly shops for American Ford and General Motors cars are located at Russian car factories. The non-manufacturing sector accounts for a quarter of US direct investment, directed primarily to banking, insurance, and information services.

Direct Russian investments in the American economy exceed $ 1 billion. Russian companies LUKoil, Norilsk Nickel (a plant for the production of platinum group metals), Severstal (a steel company), EvrazGroup (a plant for the production of vanadium), Interros (hydrogen energy) and some others.