Need for A Real Reset in US-Russia Relations: President Trump and President Putin Could Do It

           Media hyper-focus on Russian meddling in our recent elections has blinded us to the urgent need and possibility for US-Russia cooperation to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, help end the disastrous war in Syria, and reduce the threat of nuclear war. President Trump’s meeting with President Putin on the edge of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg may have represented a step toward a real reset in US-Russia relations. Henry Kissinger’s meeting with Putin in Moscow on June 29 may have helped clarify necessary elements for a reset.

 While rightly condemning Russian meddling in our elections, thanks to public media station KQED, we were reminded recently how many times over decades the US meddled in other countries elections, including Argentina (1946), Italy (1948), Japan (1951), Philippines (1953), Vietnam (1955), Laos (1958), Dominican Republic (1963-65), Chile (1964-1973), Yugoslavia (2000). Combined with the 1953 US-orchestrated coup against Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, 1961 involvement in the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, and 1973 US-supported coup against Chile’s elected President Salvador Allende, our country’s record leaves little room for national self-righteousness. Whatever may happen next about Russian meddling in our elections, US-Russia cooperation is essential to address current conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and the threat of a new nuclear arms race.

 A year ago, NATO’s largely symbolic military maneuvers to counter Russian moves in Crimea and Ukraine were perceived by Russia as more purposefully provocative than militarily credible. Leaders in Germany, France and Italy worried at the time and still worry that escalating confrontation is leading dangerously in the direction of a new Cold War.

Having successfully shed his anti-Russian blinders more than most American politicians, Henry Kissinger has been publically critical from the start about how persistent Cold War patterns complicated the crisis in Ukraine. Russia imagined a substantially larger than real U.S. role in the popular revolt against the corrupt Ukrainian President Yanukovych, and the U.S. uncritically welcomed the revolt and new President Poroshenko as providing opportunity to draw Ukraine closer to the EEU and NATO. Russian military support for Russia-leaning rebels in Eastern Ukraine and increasing U.S. military support for the Western-oriented government in Kiev compounded the dangers of a U.S.-Russia confrontation.  

The necessary elements for a compromise political solution in Ukraine have been relatively clear for some time. Kissinger argued that what’s needed is tougher coordinated US-Russian diplomacy to support strict adherence by both sides to the ceasefire and full implementation of all provisions of the peace agreement which called for constitutional reform in Ukraine and return of the entire area to Ukrainian sovereignty, but with independent local elections and more autonomy for the Eastern region. In addition, given its geographic location and history, Ukraine should be encouraged to establish economic relations with both the European Economic Union and the Russian-backed Eurasian Union. And, Ukraine should announce formally and publicly that it will not join NATO.

 In Syria, US-Russia relations worsened in the last year. Recently, however, the US and Russia, with Jordan’s help, negotiated a ceasefire in Southwest Syria that seems to be holding and could be the basis for a wider cessation of violence. Closer US-Russia coordination and cooperation are essential to avoid accidental military confrontation and to restart political negotiations. The United States and Russia will need to agree on a united, muscular diplomatic strategy to get commitments from the Government of Syria and the main Syrian opposition forces, as well as from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to participate in negotiations to end the war and form an inclusive, representative government. Not a simple or easy undertaking, but essential to saving lives and to serving longer term, best interests of all the parties involved.

While efforts to resolve the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria are very important and would help build trust between our countries, U.S.-Russia cooperation is also urgently needed to reject a new nuclear arms race.  The United States is in the process of committing $1 trillion dollars over thirty years to build a new generation of more accurate, faster and smaller nuclear weapons, like the already flight-tested B61-12, which many military experts believe may make using nuclear weapons more thinkable.  Russia, China and Britain are in process of making similar dangerous commitments.  The US and Russia need to negotiate new risk-reduction initiatives related to nuclear weapons, including cancelling funding for upgrading our countries’ nuclear arsenals and agreeing to support the Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons worldwide, already endorsed by two-thirds of the 192 member United Nations.

While simplistic anti-Trump, anti-Putin views, and/or stubborn Cold War sentiment may cause some to reject the idea of cooperation out of hand, it is essential that the United States and Russia work together, as they did effectively in negotiating the Iran Nuclear Deal. US-Russian cooperation to end the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and reject a new nuclear arms race would represent good real news and provide reassuring relief for our country and world anxiously on edge over growing global inequalities and extremist threats. President Trump and President Putin could get us moving in that right direction.

July 2017