Russia |
United States |
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In the late 1980s, Eastern European nations took advantage of the relaxation of Soviet control under Mikhail Gorbachev and began to break away from communist rule. On July 31, 1991, the START I treaty cutting back nuclear warheads was signed by Gorbachev and U.S. president George H.W. Bush. In December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Commonwealth of Independent States was formed. With the ending of Communism, relations between Russia and the United States warmed rapidly.
The aggressive privatization/free market reforms implemented by Russian President Boris Yeltsin during the 1990s were strongly encouraged and supported by the U.S. administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and by American economists and corporations. However, the reforms, known as "shock therapy", produced a major economic crisis in Russia, resulting in skyrocketing poverty, and the rise of corrupt "oligarchs" who amassed power and tremendous wealth after acquiring control of the former Soviet state industries. Public order and stability deteriorated greatly.
In regard to international affairs, Russia largely stayed on the sidelines during this period but early signs of eventual tensions between the nations were visible during the late 1990s. Although lending tactical support to its historical ally, Serbia, Russia stood aside and did not attempt to block the 1999 Kosovo War in Serbia, even though both Russia and China had strongly condemned it. Yeltsin denounced the Clinton administration's support of Kosovo. Later that year Clinton and Yeltsin clashed over the war in Chechnya and Yeltsin stirred controversy by stating "Yesterday, Clinton permitted himself to put pressure on Russia. It seems he has for a minute, for a second, for half a minute, forgotten that Russia has a full arsenal of nuclear weapons. He has forgotten about that." Clinton dismissed Yeltsin's comments stating: "I didn't think he'd forgotten that America was a great power when he disagreed with what I did in Kosovo."
During the presidencies of Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, the U.S. and Russia began to have more serious disagreements. Under Putin, Russia became more assertive in international affairs than it had been under his predecessor; under Bush, the U.S. took an increasingly unilateral course in its foreign policy, particularly in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In 2002, Bush withdrew the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to move forward with plans for a missile defense system. Putin called the decision a mistake. Russia strongly opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, though without exercising its veto in the United Nations Security Council. Russia has regarded the expansion of NATO into the old Eastern Bloc, and U.S. efforts to gain access to Central Asian oil and natural gas as a potentially hostile encroachment on Russia's sphere of influence.
Officials in the United States expressed concern over their perception of Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule and reversal of democratic reforms, human rights violations in Chechnya, suppression of free speech, alleged murder of political dissidents, attacks on journalists in Russia, and support for highly authoritarian regimes in other former Soviet republics.
Moscow has also been accused of using its natural gas resources to blackmail neighboring countries like Ukraine and Georgia to gain concessions on matters of concern to the Kremlin.
In March 2007, the U.S. announced plans to build an anti-ballistic missile defense installation in Poland along with a radar station in the Czech Republic. Both nations were former Warsaw Pact members. American officials said that the system was intended to protect the United States and Europe from possible nuclear missile attacks by Iran or North Korea. Russia, however, viewed the new system as a potential threat and, in response, tested a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile, the RS-24, which it claimed could defeat any defense system. Russian president Vladimir Putin warned the U.S. that these new tensions could turn Europe into a "powder keg". On 3 June 2007, Putin warned that if the U.S. builds the missile defense system, Russia would consider targeting missiles at Poland and the Czech Republic.[1]
On 16 October 2007, Vladimir Putin visited Iran to discuss Russia's aid to Iran's nuclear power program and "insisted that the use of force was unacceptable."[2] On 17 October Bush stated "if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," understood as a message to Putin.[3] A week later Putin compared U.S. plans to put up a missile defense system near Russia's border as analogous to when the Soviet Union deployed missiles in Cuba, prompting the Cuban Missile Crisis.[4]
On 14 February 2008, Vladimir Putin again announced that Russia might have to retarget some of its rockets towards the missile defense system, claiming that "If it appears, we will be forced to respond appropriately – we will have to retarget part of our systems against those missiles." He also said that missiles might be redirected towards Ukraine if they went ahead with plans to build NATO bases within their territory, saying that "We will be compelled to aim our missiles at facilities that we consider a threat to our national security, and I am putting this plainly now so that the blame for this is not shifted later,"[5]
On 8 July 2008, Russia announced that if a US anti-missile shield is deployed near the Russian border, they will react militarily. The statement from the Russian foreign ministry said "If a US strategic anti-missile shield starts to be deployed near our borders, we will be forced to react not in a diplomatic fashion but with military-technical means." Later, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin stated that "military-technical means" does not mean military action, but more likely a change in Russia's strategic posture, perhaps by redeploying its own missiles.[6]
On 14 August 2008, the United States and Poland agreed to have 10 two-stage missile interceptors – made by Orbital Sciences Corporation – placed in Poland, as part of a missile shield to defend Europe and the US from a possible missile attack by Iran. In return, the US agreed to move a battery of MIM-104 Patriot missiles to Poland. The missile battery would be staffed – at least temporarily – by US Military personnel. The US also pledged to defend Poland – a NATO member – quicker than NATO would in the event of an attack. Additionally, the Czech Republic recently agreed to allow the placement of a radar-tracking station in their country, despite public opinion polls showing that the majority of Czechs are against the plans and only 18% support it.[7] The radar-tracking station in the Czech Republic would also be part of the missile defense shield. After the agreement was announced, Russian officials said defences on Russia's borders would be increased and that they foresee harm in bilateral relations with the United States[8]
On November 5, 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in his first annual address to the Federal Assembly of Russia promised to deploy Iskander short-range missilies to Kaliningrad, near the border with American-backed Poland.[9]
In August 2008, American-Russian relations were strained, when Georgia invaded South Ossetia, resulting in Russia intervening. Russia claimed that it was a mission to protect Georgian separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from a Georgian military offensive. The United States chose to support Georgia in the conflict, sending humanitarian aid to Georgia and assisted with the withdrawal of Georgian troops from Iraq.
After the conflict American Vice President Biden visited Georgia then said that the Russians "have a shrinking population base, have a withering economy, have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years."[10]
On November 25, 2008, a Russian naval fleet arrived in Venezuela, a country the United States considers to be part of its sphere of influence. Russian war ships- including "Peter the Great", which is equipped with missiles- arrived in the port of La Guaira to conduct joint naval exercises with the Venezuelan navy. The incident is seen by many as an echo of the Cuban Missile Crisis of the Cold War Era, and has heightened tensions between Russia and the United States. While Russia maintains that the exercises are nothing more than a method of strengthening ties with Venezuela, the United States believes that the placing of Russian war ships into the American sphere of influence is blatant provocation and a direct retaliation for both the American missile plan in Eastern Europe and interference with the Russia-Georgia situation of August 2008.
On May 25, 2009, North Korea's new nuclear test has shocked North Korea's bilateral relations with China and Russia. Russia responded to this new nuclear program by condemning North Korea's move[11] and that it could lead to a nuclear war. North Korea later threatened to attack its neighboring rival South Korea after it joined a U.S. led plan to check vessels suspected of carrying equipment for weapons of mass destruction. Due to this, ambassadors from five permanent veto-wielding council members (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States) were ready to have a meeting to make a new resolution to this nuclear strike. On June 15, 2009, China and Russia have both supported the new UN sanctions on North Korea.
Despite U.S.-Russia relations becoming strained during the Bush administration, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama struck a warm tone at the 2009 G20 summit in London and released a joint statement that promised a "fresh start" in U.S.-Russia relations. The statement also called on Iran to abandon its nuclear program and to permit foreign inspectors into the country.[12]
In March, 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov symbolically pressed a "reset" button. The gag fell short as the Russian on the button was wrongly translated by the State Department as "overload" instead of "reset". After making a few jokes, they decided to press the button anyway.[13]
On March 24, 2010 the United States and Russia reached an agreement to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The new nuclear arms reduction treaty (called New START) was signed by President Obama and President Medvedev on April 8, 2010 in Prague. The agreement cut the number of long-range nuclear weapons held by each side to about 1,500, down from the current 1,700 to 2,200 set by the Moscow Treaty of 2002. The New START replaced the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expired in December 2009.[14]
In 2010, it was acknowledged that the "rapprochement" with Russia was one of the biggest foreign policy achievements of Barack Obama's presidency so far. Obama's approach to Russia has been described as "pragmatic", and "he refuses to cast Russia as an enemy".[15]
In August 2010, the United States and Russia conducted a joint anti-hijacking exercise.[16]
According to the 2007 reports referring to American propaganda sources, Russian espionage under Vladimir Putin had reached Cold War levels.[17]
A poll by the University of Maryland, College Park released early July 2009 found 75 percent of Russians believed the United States abused its greater power and only two percent had "a lot of confidence" American President Barack Obama would do the right thing in world affairs.[18] Russian media have criticized the United States over the past years for pursuing an anti-missile system in Europe, for favoring NATO expansion and for supporting Georgia in its armed conflict with Russia in 2008.[19]
The Russian press expresses varying opinions of Russian-America relations, sometimes with surprising freedom. Russian media treatment of America ranges from doctrinaire[20] and nationalistic[21] to fully open-minded toward the United States and the West[22][23] Business journals such as Kommersant and Vedomosti, which carry political coverage, do not shy away from an occasional criticism of the Russian regime.[24][25]
This timeline of peace shows the growing relations between Russia and the United States following the end of the Cold War.
The United States and Russia have conducted joint military maneuvers, training and counter-terrorist exercises in Germany. This was done in hopes to strengthen relations with the United States and Russia.[26] The Russian president has also proposed that the United States and Russia put a joint missile defense system in Azerbaijan, a proposal being considered by the US.[27] More recently, in response to tensions over Georgia, the United States has cancelled its most recent joint NATO- Russia military exercises.
Russia has expressed support for the United States' War on Terror by deploying a military hospital and a small number of military personnel (for the military hospital) to Afghanistan in order to aid the U.S. Military, allied military forces and Afghan civilians. The two nations support each other in combating piracy in the waters of Somalia.
The Bering Strait crossing was authorized by Tsar Nicholas II as early as 1906.[28] The Bering Strait is 37 km wide; 3 km wider than the Channel.[29]
On May 9, 2010, the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army marched across Red Square in Russia's Victory Day Parade.[30] They were also joined by British, French, and Polish troops as well as detachments from the CIS member states.[30][31] Labeled by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev as the "Anti-Hitler Coalition," it marked the first time in history that NATO troops joined the Russian military in the Victory Parade.[31]
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