Obama's Opportunity? Russia's Crisis I
Andrew Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and Samuel Charap a visiting fellow at the program comment that it would be premature to conclude that economic dire straits have led the Russians to make a definitive turn toward confrontation. In fact, the crisis has created clear incentives for Russia to head in the opposite direction and cooperate with the West.
The question is whether the Kremlin will respond to these incentives and, if it does, whether the Obama administration can take advantage of the opportunity to work with Moscow and implement its ambitious agenda for U.S.-Russian relations. Recent aggressiveness notwithstanding, the economic crisis could well increase the chances to revive bilateral relations from their current post-Cold War nadir.