The Guardian's
Tom Parfitt offers this take on the growing chill in Russian-American relations--
Moscow could be on the verge of clinching an arms deal with Syria or Iran that would send the US and Israel into pop-eyed rage.
A few days ago a Russian arms manufacturer let slip at an arms fair in Kuala Lumpur that his state-run weapons design bureau was close to sealing a foreign sale of Iskander-E missiles. The destination of the hardware was secret, he said, but the most obvious market is clear: the Middle East...Everything about Russia's stance in the international arena suggests a new confidence that radiates "don't bully me". I(t) is still possible the Iskanders will go to a less threatening client than the Middle Eastern bad boys - China, say, or India or Algeria. But the point is, they will go to whomever Moscow wants.
In December of 2001, Dmytri Trenin, analyst for the Carnegie Moscow Center, forecast a potentially rosy future for Washington-Moscow ties:
Trenin remains optimistic that current rhetoric could turn into a lasting relationship given the nature of the post-9/11 security environment. In Trenin's words, "September 11th drew a line between the present day and the end of the cold war, making the cold war not simply history, but ancient history." In effect, September 11th provided President Putin with the maneuverability to implement an entirely new foreign policy strategy for Russia that had been germinating for quite some time but would have been otherwise impossible to carry out.
Today, Trenin re-assesses the relationship:
...Russia - fed up with pandering to the US and Europe - is undergoing a fundamental shift in foreign relations. Now it will focus on ties with countries, such as Brazil, India and China, that it sees as being on a similar path of development to itself.
"Russia has left the western orbit," Mr. Trenin said. "It was circling it distantly for about a decade, Pluto-like. But now it's gone."
What a difference a half-decade makes. Especially under the neo-cons.