18 April 2015

US and Russia: Axes of expediency

15 Apr 2015 

What is going on between Moscow and Washington beyond malaise in Ukraine and missiles to Iran?

The rapport between Kerry and Lavrov has helped the way for cooperation between the US and Russia
Last week, the US media reported that the United States and Russia are involved in a "dangerous game of military brinkmanship in Europe", one that "raises the spectre that either side could misinterpret a move by the other, triggering a conflict between two powers with major nuclear arsenals despite a sharp reduction from the Cold War era".


But in the real world, the US has conducted a four-week war games stretching from Estonia to Bulgaria, to reassure its East European allies that it takes Russian threats seriously.

So is the operating word here "war" or "games"?

Russia has been a helpful partner - or at least not a spoiler - during the P5+1 negotiations with Iran that culminated in what the Obama administration refers to as a historic nuclear deal.

Since the Ukraine crisis, conservative ideologues and so-called strategists on both sides have dwelled on the dangers of new Cold War, citing the occasional recrimination between the White House and the Kremlin.

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