Photo credit: U.S. Department of State
Introduction
Predicting the course of U.S.–Russian relations has never been easy. Ronald Reagan came to power promising to confront the “evil empire” by investing billions in missile defense and a six-hundred ship navy. He left office with the best ever relationship with the USSR. George W. Bush claimed to have found Vladimir Putin “trustworthy” after peering into his soul, but Bush’s final year in office was dominated by Russia’s war with Georgia. Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev pressed the reset button after each assumed the presidency, but in a matter of years the two countries were …read more