US-Russian Relations: A Ticking Time Bomb
Throughout history, the political relationship between America and Russia hasn’t always been the best—and that’s a nice way of putting it. During the Cold War, tensions between the two countries reached their peak as they reached a time of political and military contention involving the Space Race and the development of nuclear weapons. Even though war was not physically fought, that was an unprecedented time in history. Stress was alleviated from the US-Russia relationship when the end of the Cold War came and the Soviet Union fell in 1991, but current relations have rapidly deteriorated again during Vladimir Putin’s presidency.
According to Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to America, the quality of relations between America and Russia is at its lowest point since the Cold War. Igor Zevelev, former director of the MacArthur Foundation’s Russia office said that it was even worse, calling it a “much more dangerous and unpredictable situation.” At this point, Russia should hold partial blame for their actions. Vladimir Putin and the Russian government must stop their egregious violations of the unspoken and basic rules regarding international relations.
On July 22nd, WikiLeaks published approximately 19,000 leaked emails and 8,000 attachments from the Democratic National Committee on its website. A hacker by the alias of Guccifer 2.0 took responsibility for the leaks, but cybersecurity firms like SecureWorks and CrowdStrike agreed that Russian intelligence groups committed the leaks. There is evidence to prove that someone with a senior position in the Russian government had a role in orchestrating the cyber attack. The Washington Post also noted that Trump and Putin deflected questions about the hack in the same way: by first questioning the ability of hackers to be accurately traced, then focusing on the content of the emails which contained messages disparaging the Bernie Sanders campaign. If it is true that members of the Russian government orchestrated or encouraged the DNC hack, it sets a dangerous precedent, one that allows a country to interfere in the politics of another for its own benefit. Yes, the Russian government wanted Trump to become the next president because Clinton is known as one of the most outspoken officials when it comes to addressing Putin expanding his power and sphere of influence. Nevertheless, for them to try and rig the election through swaying public opinion is inappropriate and morally detestable. It is also ironic that Putin has stated his need to “safeguard ourselves from this interference in our internal affairs,” when there is proof that his government has meddled in the affairs of so many countries, like the annexation xof Crimea in 2014.
Another event that has caused conflict between America and Russia is the bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo, which has been described by the BBC as “a key battleground in Syria’s bloody five-year civil war.” After a short-lived ceasefire, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power called the bombing of the city “barbarism.” Meanwhile, Russia claimed that its forces and Assad’s forces were targeting terrorists in Aleppo while harming as few citizens as possible. On October third, the US government suspended talks with Russia on negotiating a ceasefire agreement on Syria, thereby effectively ending a chance to halt the violence in the country.
In the wake of bad relations, Russia could be preparing for war. According to The Daily Star, senior Russian officials with children or other relatives in foreign countries have been told to bring them back to the “Fatherland.” Surely the American government and military are also prepared in case of an emergency, but if these strained relations aren’t mended quickly, World War III could be ignited. A war fought on a scale never seen before, with new weapon technology emerging that can annihilate entire cities in a matter of seconds. To escape the prospect of a global war involving nuclear weapons, we need to fix US-Russia relations—now.