"The recent sharp dispute over the Ukrainian presidential elections vividly illustrated the fragile and shallow nature of the U.S.-Russian relationship. Highly touted in both Washington and Moscow as a "strategic partnership" in 2001, the relationship has drifted and the gap between glowing rhetoric and thin substance has grown. When major policy differences emerge, as over war in Iraq in 2002-2003 and recently over Ukraine, all too easily the U.S.-Russian relationship spirals into "crisis," and the threat of a "new Cold War" looms."

Click on the link above for full text of this Carnegie report in English and Russian.

About the Authors
Andrew C. Kuchins is Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. He conducts research and writes widely on Russian foreign and security policy. He is a member of the governing council of the Program on Basic Research and Higher Education in Russia, the advisory committee of Washington Profile, and the editorial board of the journal, Demokratizatsiya.

Vyacheslav Nikonov is the President of the Polity Foundation in Moscow. He is the author of  "Contemporary Russian Politics" (2003), "The Age of Change: Russia of the 1990s through Conservative's Eyes" (1999), "Conservative Manifesto" (1994), "The Republicans: From Nixon to Reagan" (1988), "Iran-Contra Affair" (1987), "The Republicans : From Eisenhower to Nixon" (1984).

Dmitri Trenin is Deputy Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, where he also co-chairs the Program on Foreign and Security Policy. He is the author of numerous articles and books on Russian security issues, including, most recently, Russia’s Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia (Carnegie, 2004)