The nature of the modern crisis in U.S.-Russia relations: How to break the U.S.-Russia stalemate

Abstract

The current state of U.S.-Russia relations is often compared with that of the Cold War. However, contradictions today between Moscow and Washington do not determine the dynamics of modern international relations. The confrontation between these two countries embraces all spheres (informational, economic, and political), resulting in a highly-dependent situation where conflict impacts all areas of cooperation. Relations between Russia and the United States сlearly manifest a psychological phenomenon known as fundamental attribution error that indicates a tendency towards explaining the behavior and actions of other people by their bad qualities and one’s own behavior by external circumstances. At the same time, the U.S-Russia confrontation is taking place against the background of a de facto political “civil war” within the American establishment, which has greatly disrupted foreign policy decision-making in Washington. “Russian meddling” has transformed from a threat to national security into a politicized driver of the internal political agenda. In reality, “Rus-sian meddling” is a myth as the Russian lobby is practically nonexistent in the U.S. In the short term, the dynamics of relations between Russia and the United States will remain negative. A possible strategy to minimize the consequences of the contradictions might be a search for constructive interaction in sensitive security issues.