5 Barriers to a Western Partnership
In an opinion editorial for The Moscow Times, Yevgeny Bazhanov, vice chancellor of research and international relations at the Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Academy in Moscow, questions whether Russia and the West ever capable of becoming close allies and partners.
Bazhanov notes that 20 years after the end of the Cold War, relations between Russia and the West remain strained. He suggests several reasons for this. First, the memory of the Cold War plays a big role. Second, geopolitical disagreements have been another obstacle in US-Russian relations. Third, opposing political positions inhibit the partnership: the West opposes what it views as growing authoritarianism in Russia, while Moscow suspects that the West meddles in Russia's internal affairs with the aim of destabilizing the country. Fourth, economic disputes between the West and Russia also complicate the relationship. Finally, Russia's high level of corruption and organized crime scares European and US investors away.
But despite these significant obstacles, Bazhanov comments there is still a lot of potential for strengthening Russia's partnership with the West. The process of globalization and modernization necessarily means that Russia will never return to Soviet-style isolationism. And common security risks and threats will naturally bring Russia and the West together to fight the common enemies on all fronts. Russia need to adapt to a more modest geopolitical role in the global arena, and the West will cease to view Moscow as a geopolitical rival.
Thus, Bazhanov concludes that the outlook for improving ties with the West is very positive. Because of its tradition, the country's enormous size and its geopolitical ambitions, Russia will remain an independent power center that will never be firmly in the East or the West, but at the same time it can play an important balancing role between the two.