TAKING A MORE REALISTIC APPROACH TO RUSSIAN RELATIONS

The West needs to deal with the Russia that is, not the Russia it might wish for. The best thing that the West can do to promote liberty, the rule of law and good neighbourliness in Russia is to stick to its own standards. Today Russia's elite includes top officers of security services and the armed forces, the industrial military complex, state company leaders and a part of the business class.  They are a mix of statists, imperialists and nationalists. They support a future that is rooted in the imperial past and Christian orthodoxy. For many of them, the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. Many of them want to make Russia a linchpin of a global confrontation with the Euro-Atlantic world.

While clampdown on political expression, pressure on the media, corruption, trampling on the rule of law, repression of political convictions, detentions of Russian dissidents, human rights violations continues unabated, the West should pursue is national interests in relations with Moscow instead of chasing a mirage.

The lack of mutual trust plagues Russia-West cooperation. Problems stem from a lack of  strategic dialogue  but strategic dialogue necessitates a certain level of trust between parties. For Moscow, a matter of strategic discussion with the West is Western interference in Russia’s internal affairs. Another is Western interference in countries in the post-Soviet sphere.

There are  inevitable ups and downs in Russia-West relations as the two sides partner on some issues on which it is beneficial for both of them to be allied, and compete and experience tensions on other issues, where their vital interests diverge. This means there isn’t much chance of consistently smooth relations between Russia and the West.

The West must know Russia, and not play the  Russian game, but on the contrary make Russia to play the Western game. If the West does not understand the Russian game, it will lose. If the West understands the Russian game but plays it anyway, it will lose. If the West understands the Russian game and does not play it, it will win.