The authors write: “For nearly thirty years, successive U.S. administrations have struggled to come up with a sustainable policy toward Russia … Russia, with its disruptive and often rogue actions, bears a major share of the responsibility for the deterioration in the relationship. But U.S. policy toward Russia has largely ignored such crucial factors as Russia’s history, culture, geography, and security requirements—as they are seen from Moscow …Changing the trajectory of U.S.-Russian relations will be difficult. Russia’s image is toxic in the current U.S. political climate, and as a result there will be few opportunities for cooperation even where Washington and Moscow have common interests … To break out of this impasse, the United States will have to—for its part—make several key adjustments to its Russia policy, including: prioritize U.S. interests vis-à-vis Russia and focus on the essentials—the nuclear relationship and strategic stability; leave Russia’s internal affairs for Russians to untangle; halt NATO’s eastward expansion and refocus on the alliance’s core mission of collective defense … but sustain robust programs of security cooperation … and rethink the sanctions policy toward Russia and use them with restraint … [these] proposed changes would restore a measure of realism, prudence, and discipline to U.S. policy [and] more closely align the ends and means of U.S. policy toward Russia.”

Read the full article at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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