Russia Hits the Reset Button
Russian has reversed its foreign-policy course in recent months, a change marked by important overtures to the West in general, and efforts to improve relations with the US in particular. In the face of new challenges, including China's rise and the global economic crisis, passionate defense of a diminished status makes less sense than practical efforts to arrest decline and enhance Russia’s real power.
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MOSCOW – NATO soldiers marching in Red Square on V-E Day; Moscow agreeing on a compromise resolution of the 40-year-old sea-boundary dispute with Norway; the sight of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin kneeling at the memorial to the Polish officers murdered by Stalin at Katyn: these are a few glimpses of what a European newspaper described as a kinder, gentler Russia. But three questions immediately arise: Is this real? Why the change? And how to respond to Russia’s new foreign policy?