The International Herald Tribune (USA): "Forging new relations with Russia"
Few U.S. presidents have come to office facing quite the variety of crises that Barack Obama faces, so he may be tempted to put Russia on a back burner - especially as Vladimir Putin is not someone with whom many Americans want to build cooperative relations these days.
But Russian-American relations have disintegrated to a dangerous low, with the Kremlin increasingly acting to antagonize the United States, whether by sending warships to Venezuela or by withholding cooperation on Iran. If these issues can be addressed, Russia's potential for helping resolve other crises is too great to dismiss.
There is another unwelcome fact: America's European allies are in no mood to take their cue on Russia from Washington. A majority have resisted American efforts to quickly bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. The alliance, which cut formal ties with Russia after the Georgian-Russia war last August, has begun a "conditional and graduated re-engagement" with Moscow.
Given NATO's declaration that there would not be "business as usual" until Russia withdrew all its troops from Georgia and canceled its annexation of two Georgian provinces, the re-engagement looks a lot like pandering to Russia's energy supplies. But it also reflects the erosion of European trust in American leadership after eight years of George Bush.
America's leverage over Russia's behavior is further limited by the widespread conviction among Russians that so long as they were weak, the United States took advantage of them, and that if they want to influence world affairs, they have to assert themselves. The war with Georgia was one result; the recent announcement of $140 billion in military procurement is another.
Obama does have a few advantages in dealing with Russia: He is new, and the Russians are no less intrigued by him than the rest of the world. Neither he nor his foreign-policy team can have any illusions about Putin's Kremlin. And Russia is deep in economic crisis.
Putin's popularity and power have been based largely on Russia's windfall profits from soaring energy prices. Now that the Russian stock market is in freefall and factories are closing, his ratings are dropping and the liberal opposition has been energized.
Obama should signal to the Russians that he wants better relations. That would mean cutting back on belligerent talk and inviting the Russians to high-level consultations on areas in which the United States and Russia can quickly achieve cooperation - say, on combating piracy. Obama could also show readiness to consider renewing the Start 1 treaty on reducing strategic nuclear forces, which expires in December 2009. He could tone down demands for NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, especially since neither is ready for it, and he could call for a review of plans to station defensive missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic.
For every gesture, the United States would make clear it expects a tangible response, starting with help in ending Iran's nuclear program and continuing with cooperation against international terrorism and a withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia. Obama will have time to get tougher if Russia fails to reciprocate.
