President Obama (R) meets with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Los Cabos, Mexico, June 18, 2012. The leaders are in Los Cabos to attend the G20 summit. REUTERS/Jason Reed
The Failure Of The U.S.-Russia Reset In 9 Photos -- Washington Post
It's been over five years since the United States and Russia vowed to "reset" their relationship. In that time, the two countries have had to grapple with disagreements over Syria, Iran and Libya, as well as Russia's welcome to U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden and the U.S. condemnation of a Russian-supported referendum in Crimea.
On Monday, the United States imposed sanctions on some of the highest ranking officials in the Russian government. Let's just say it: The reset is dead.
One interesting way to think of it is to look back over the years in photographs. Body language is an important way to understand what someone is thinking: So important that apparently the U.S. government has spent $300,000 studying the postures, hand signals, and facial movements of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders. President Obama himself has observed that Putin had a “slouch" and looked like "that bored schoolboy in the back of the classroom” -- far from when President George W. Bush "looked the man in the eye" in 2001 and "was able to get a sense of his soul."
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My Comment: I would say that it was Libya (three years ago) .... when the West assured Putin that the West would not intervene militarily to overthrow Libya's Gaddafi .... that started this breakdown in relations. Throw in Syria, Iran, the Magnitsky Act, etc., .... all of this has brought us to where we are today.
1 comment:
Yes, Libya was a turning point, when the US went far beyond the UN resolution, abetted the murder of a former ally and converted a rather well-off country into an ungovernable wasteland of competing militias. And Power, who was a part of the female cabal which instigated Libya, lectures Russia's Churkin on proper behavior?
Such dangerous amateurs they are.
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