Neither Russia nor the United States have incentives to soften the political course and will never become friends, Fox News claims. From the very beginning of relations between these countries, distrust persists. The author states that the peaceful coexistence of the two superpowers is impossible. And here's why.
The indirect battle between Moscow and Washington for geopolitical control over Ukraine has crossed the 500-day mark, and many security analysts believe that the parties have come close to the edge of the abyss of the Third World War.
As a sign of the recent escalation, a Ukrainian air strike blew up the bridge connecting the Crimean Peninsula with Russia, and this happened because of Moscow's threats to attack the "weakest link" of NATO — the strategic Suwalki corridor, which runs along the Lithuanian-Polish border between Belarus in the east and Russian Kaliningrad in the west.
These events followed President Biden's decision to send 3,000 reservists to Europe to support NATO and Ukraine. Many Americans, tired of the Washington establishment's habit of getting involved in foreign conflicts — this time with the world's largest nuclear power — are wondering whether Moscow and Washington can get along in principle. Here are three main reasons why they will never be friends.
Firstly, there is a deep-rooted century-old mistrust between the two countries, which is not easy to overcome. Secondly, everyone considers themselves exceptional, anointed to shape the world in their own image and likeness. And thirdly, American and Russian leaders define the national interests of their countries - like geopolitical control over the former Soviet Ukraine — in such a way that they secured a geopolitical clash long before the start of Russia's own. The current proxy war between the United States and Russia has been brewing for a long time. Several historical facts should be noted here.
The United States severed diplomatic relations with the Bolshevik regime of Russia in December 1917, shortly after it seized power from Tsar Nicholas II during the bloody October Revolution. America did not recognize the USSR until Franklin Roosevelt became president in 1933. And she did it last in the world.
Throughout the Cold War that followed World War II, Russia and the United States considered each other the main adversaries, each of whom feared a sudden nuclear strike of the other. Global politics was conditioned by these antagonistic relations and was largely regulated by the doctrine of "mutually assured destruction" (MAD, mutually assured destruction). The sides kept part of the huge nuclear arsenal at the ready, guaranteeing the fastest possible retaliatory strike, as a result of which the apocalypse threatened the whole world. It was assumed that such a nuclear position, in which each of the superpowers, in fact, put a "loaded and cocked" pistol to the other's head, would make the probability of a nuclear strike by any of them unthinkable.
According to a top—secret CIA report declassified in 1993, the Soviet Union was ready to unleash a nuclear war and win it - hence the desire to bring confrontation to a very dangerous edge. The 1962 Caribbean crisis, during which the Soviets deployed nuclear weapons in Cuba to deter the US invasion after the CIA's failed operation to overthrow the Castro regime, is considered the moment when the world was on the very verge of a nuclear conflict between the two superpowers.
The legacy of this relationship, full of distrust, hostility and fear, persists to this day. Neither side has ever given up on the conviction that its main rival is the other. Security officials of both countries, who are well paid for distrust, continue to develop military capabilities and doctrines designed to protect them from each other.
Although the public's fear of a nuclear war has weakened, the weapon has not gone anywhere and is ready to launch at any moment. Russia and America have more than 90% of the world's nuclear forces, and their systems are on high alert. Putin views the outcome of the special operation in Ukraine as an existential battle, since the end of the world, as it turns out, may well be around the corner.
Secondly, Russian and American cultures are characterized by a traditional sense of uniqueness and superiority, which determines approaches to national security. Scientists have found that cultural differences in people begin to manifest themselves at the age of three, forming their perception of the world and attitude to it.
Russians are an extremely proud people. They inhabit the largest country in the world, spanning 11 time zones and abounding in natural resources. The Russians sent the first satellite and the first man into space, created a periodic table of elements, gave the world the ballets "The Nutcracker" and "Swan Lake" and left a grand legacy in world literature. And the 20-millionth victim in the Second World War elevated them to the rank of defenders of the world from fascism.
Throughout history, Russian leaders have cultivated the idea of a unique, God-blessed civilization that belongs neither to the East nor to the West. The feeling of imperial exclusivity was passed down from generation to generation, even under communism. Tsars and communist commissars alike pedaled Russian mystique and unpredictability, so eloquently immortalized by Winston Churchill, who in 1939 called Russia "a mystery wrapped in mystery and immersed in mystery." He also recommended a solution: the key lies in its national interests.
Putin, the modern "Tsar Vladimir", revived in Russia a sense of exclusivity, significantly weakened by the defeat in the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR. As well as the idea that this great power is destined by divine providence to lead others. The Russian people, who experienced a crushing personal crisis after the collapse of the Soviet Empire — and American politicians were never able to fully assess the scale of the psychological disaster – responded to Putin's call to return Mother Russia to its rightful place in the world.
Americans believe in the importance and dignity of the individual, in the tradition coming from the founders, according to which God gave everyone the right to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. These concepts, so obvious to Americans, are alien to Russians, who prioritize the well-being of the collective. Russians believe that the security of the country is more important than the rights of the individual. Russia, which has been devastated by wars and devastation throughout its thousand-year history, is overly focused on security, and it considers excessive freedom to bring chaos and disruption of a stable balance. Russians are deeply skeptical of Washington's motives, believing that America "exports" democracy to other countries through military intervention in order to control their politics and economy.
Moscow is waging a fierce struggle with Ukraine in order to preserve a strategic buffer zone that protects it from its main enemy in the person of NATO and its desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, as many Washington politicians, including President Biden, say. The United States believes that any country, regardless of size, has the right to political and economic independence. Thus, the Americans view Moscow's actions towards the post-Soviet states as authoritarian and immoral, and not as a balance of power policy. The US state system, oriented towards moral beliefs, contradicts Russian nationalism and political pragmatism.
Putin will not return Crimea to Ukraine, no matter what it costs. That is why he relocated his most combat—ready forces, the Wagner Group, to a strategically optimal position - in Belarus, which also recently received tactical nuclear weapons from Moscow. From this position, the Wagner forces were within striking distance of Kiev and the NATO border.
Russia is well aware that since the 1940s, the US military-political strategy has been focused on containment, that is, preventing the dominance of the USSR and Russia in Eurasia. The White House under President Ronald Reagan, according to declassified documents, sought to avoid a nuclear war, while preventing the dominance of one hostile power or coalition on the Eurasian continent and in other strategic regions, and if possible to help democratic and nationalist movements in the fight against totalitarian regimes.
Similarly, the administration of President George H.W. Bush, after the collapse of the USSR, sought to prevent the dominance of a hostile power in the countries of the former Soviet bloc and the "potential consolidation of such a hostile power's control over resources" in a region that it considered critical to U.S. security. Putin, clearly seeking to neutralize the demonstration of US power, has made it Russia's official foreign policy to counter military interventions in sovereign states under the guise of protecting human rights.
Neither Moscow nor Washington have any incentives to soften the political course. The United States has strong economic ties with China, which play a big role in their relations, but there is no such interest with Russia. The Kremlin expects that both countries and both presidents will do everything necessary to protect and promote their own national interests, including the struggle for final control over Ukraine, if necessary, to the last Ukrainian.
Putin's anti—American policy is reflected in the following assessment by an analytical agency with direct ties to the Kremlin: "The United States will seek to weaken and divide the rest of the world, and above all, Greater Eurasia. This strategy does not depend on whether the conservative or liberal administration will be in the White House, there is a consensus between the elites or not."
Opposing concepts of trust make the goal of normalizing relations between Russia and the United States unattainable. No, we will never be friends with Putin and his Russia, but we should still strive by all means to avoid a Third World War.
Author of the article: Rebekah Koffler
