A bipartisan approach to Russia

A friend of mine who runs a think tank in DC was in Moscow late last month and filed these three dispatches on his organization's blog. Worth checking out if you're interested in contemplating how the next chapter in the relationship might unfold and what people are thinking about in Washington.

Across the board and the political spectrum, I am hearing the same thing from Russian experts: trust and confidence in the United States has not been lower since the end of the Cold War. In fact, it’s not a distrust of American motives that poisons the relationship (though a handful of Russian nationalists/hawks still cling to the notion that the US has cynical “grand designs” on the former Soviet sphere of influence) but a distrust of our competence to wield power responsibly [...]

All in all, the current Russian perspective on the US is one of fear and insecurity–not because Russians think the US has evil intentions, but because they are certain we have no idea how to pursue our various noble-sounding global objectives without leaving utter chaos and destruction in our wake.

These takeaways from interactions with Russian elites actually sound much more optimistic than I would have expected, and Matt's policy recommendations are also a bit optimistic, but I suppose we must allow ourselves the audacity of optimism.