Russia–United States Relations in the Late 20th – First Quarter of the 21st Centuries: Trends and Prospects

Abstract

The article studies the relations between Russia and the USA in the late 20th – first decades of the 21st centuries as a central problem of modern international relations. The analysis is performed in the historicalpolitical retrospect, from the 1990s to the present day. When it comes to the 1990s, viewed as a time of friendship and partnership, the reasons for the rapprochement between the two countries are described, as well as the events of the late 1990s – eastward NATO expansion and the NATO bombing of Belgrade – which were the turning point for the decline in Russia–US relations. Talking about the 2000s – 2010s, the author indicates the contradictions in the development of the bilateral relations, namely, a trend towards both improvement (establishment of the NATO–Russia Council following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the “reset” policy in the late 2000s) and deterioration (as a result of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Russo-Georgian conflict in August 2008, Syrian civil war, Ukrainian political crisis and the accession of Crimea to Russia in 2014). According to the author, Russian-American relations over the past decade (2014–2024) could be described as hostile, which eliminates the possibility for their normalization through direct contacts between the two parties. The downward trend in Russia– US relations, which emerged in the late 1990s and continued to grow during the 2000s – 2020s, can be explained by the two countries’ irreconcilable positions on the system of international relations. The United States seek to create a unipolar – Americentric – world, while Russia insists on multipolarity. According to the author, the only way to improve relations between Russia and the USA is to stabilize the system of international relations. This problem is discussed in the final part of the article.