http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart ... 45075.html
At virtually any period between 1947 and the stunning collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, if any serious thinker had proposed that we could form a strategic relationship with Russia but should refuse to do so, he or she would have been considered misguided at best and slightly deranged at worst.
Yet, that is exactly what has happened. The mystery is this: what forces are at work to demonize Russia, to isolate and alienate it from the West, and to continue to treat it as an enemy?
Few would dispute that Russia has, particularly in recent years, behaved imperiously and autocratically, but almost always in internal affairs and in the "near abroad" or neighboring states. Under Vladimir Putin, re-centralization of power has taken place. Only history can determine, however, the degree to which this behavior has been in reaction to Western, especially United States, actions or whether, as some allege, it is a reflection of the Russian character. But few can also dispute that a chicken-egg syndrome exists: the more U.S. actions isolate the Russians, the more they seek to recapture their independent great power status.
In recent months two developments on the U.S. side stand out. First is the policy of the Bush administration, largely promoted by Vice-president Richard Cheney, to adopt a confrontational policy toward Russia. Second, more surprisingly, is an unreflective reaction among foreign policy elites, particularly in the case of an uncharacteristically reactive report by the Council on Foreign Relations ["Russia's Wrong Direction," March 2006], to endorse this policy. Both reflect a degree of antipathy toward the Russians that has never been fully accounted for or rationalized.
The Council on Foreign Relations report might have included an executive summary that read something like this: "The poor state of the U.S.-Russia relationship is entirely the fault of the Russians who refuse to conduct their domestic affairs as we insist they should. We should hold the Russians to a uniquely high standard, though we refuse to reveal the reasons for doing so."
A wide variety of Russian experts, including Stephen Cohen at New York University, Anatol Lieven at the New America Foundation, and Graham Allison at Harvard's Kennedy School, have challenged what they perceive to be a concerted effort to alienate Russia from the West. Vice President Cheney, among others, has advocated the use of an expanding NATO as an anti-Russian military alliance. He and others have also proposed overt support to domestic political opponents of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Still, no argument is given to justify this extraordinary animosity. If it is lingering nostalgia for the relative clarity of the Cold War, then it should be clearly stated. If it is a desire for a tangible nation-state opponent, in a world of stateless nation terrorism, then it should be set forth. The best the Council on Foreign Relations can do is to decry the various failures of the Russians to meet our liberal democratic standards applied, for some unexplained reasons, uniquely to the Russians.
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Есть еще тут умные люди, оказывается...
