Russia doesn’t trust the U.S. and Europe at all, and not without reason. It’s difficult to negotiate with people you don’t trust. From George D. O’Neill Jr. at theamericanconservative.com:
Russia’s historical fears mix badly with Western fecklessness.
Russia is more than a millennium old with a long diplomatic history. Some of Russia’s difficulty may come from the U.S. elites’ ignorance of Russian history and its sensitivities to real or perceived threats of foreign invasion. Many Americans remember the huge drama which arose during the Kennedy presidency when the Soviets put a few missiles in Cuba. Foreign policy wonks still talk about how close we came to World War III.
Americans who do not know or acknowledge Russia’s history are unable to understand Russian thinking, thus compromising their ability to consummate agreements with Russia.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. political elites promised not to move NATO east into former Warsaw Pact countries. Every time another former Warsaw Pact nation was added into NATO, the Russians complained and the West shrugged off the complaints. They believed Russia was too weak due to their struggle to recover from the ruinous Soviet years. Washington’s attitude was, “So what are you going to do about it?”
U.S. leaders also have spent years engaging ad nauseam in threats to weaken or break up Russia, to ruin the Russian economy, to change the Russian regime—and, of course, have levied decades of never-ending sanctions. This behavior has eroded the trust necessary to negotiate in good faith.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians desired to be included as a member of the West. (They foolishly believed our narrative of peace, democracy, and freedom even while we were engaging in nonstop wars.) George H.W. Bush assured Gorbachev the U.S. had no intentions of antagonism toward Russia and that NATO was a defensive organization. Gorbachev was given assurances when the Russians withdrew their troops from what had been the Warsaw Pact nations, that NATO would not take advantage of the withdrawal. The Warsaw Pact was formed in 1955 as a response to the creation of NATO in 1949. From the beginning, they viewed NATO as a threat.
