The ruling elites of the United States are exploiting the theme of the “Russian threat” when Washington and Moscow have many common interests.
As News Front reported, in March, US President Joe Biden in an interview with ABC called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a “killer”, falsely accusing Moscow of trying to influence American elections and threatening with punitive measures.
The resonant attack clearly demonstrates what moods the Washington hawks are trying to impose on the masses. Many experts from the United States describe Russia exclusively as some kind of anti-American force, which at every opportunity encroaches on the democratic Western world.
But this position is fundamentally wrong, writes Newsweek. While Moscow operates in Europe and the Middle East to advance its own interests, such actions do not require the United States to treat Russia as an adversary or threat. On the contrary, it would be more profitable for Washington to stop whipping up Russophobia.
Joshua Shifrinson
Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, Boston University
“Washington has done little to deal with Moscow’s perception of the threat. One could even flip the problem: to minimize the risk of further Russian interference, the solution is not to highlight the Russian threat in ways that increase Moscow’s concerns and exaggerate its capabilities, but rather to play down tensions with Moscow”.
Shifrinson is known in the United States for his books Rising Titans and Falling Giants: How Great Powers Use Power Shifts. As an expert on great power politics, he criticized the US approach to Russia. According to the expert, Washington itself provokes Moscow, in particular, by interfering in the affairs of Georgia and Ukraine.
“Russian intervention is not a deliberate exaggeration, it is best understood as a reaction to events on the ground. After all, Moscow has long asserted that Georgia and Ukraine are the central elements of its security, and intervened militarily only when the EU and NATO were ready to put these states into their orbit”, – explains Shifrinson.
Although the expert also calls Russia’s actions “regrettable,” he emphasizes that the States are not in any way threatened. Moreover, according to him, Russia and the United States have a lot in common. Both countries face domestic challenges that require time and resources. They are interested in preventing further unrest in Russia’s near abroad and on the eastern flank of NATO. Even their national interests “are not in direct conflict”. But instead of a pragmatic foreign policy, the United States prefers to “overestimate the Russian threat, thereby aggravating relations”, the expert stated.