The more the Bush administration settles into at the White House, the more urgent and important foreign policy issues become. One of these inevitable problems is Russia, its leadership and prospects for the relationship between Moscow and Washington for the next four years.
The previous American administration, headed by Bill Clinton, believed that it was possible to successfully work with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that ‘cooperative engagement’ was the best chance to console Moscow on its lost superpower status. In contrast, George Bush’s team is still undecided on how to deal with Putin and his unstable and unpredictable country.
