Bear truths
Russia should still be engaged by U.S. policy
As the investigations, congressional hearings and media continue to reveal the state of play between the Russians and President Donald Trump, his associates and relatives during and after the 2016 campaign, it is important to understand just what is on the other side of the table in President Vladimir Putin and Russia.
The 100th anniversary this year of the Russian revolution is a good place to start in assessing what Mr. Putin sits on top of as ruler of that country. The 1917 event was perhaps the most determinative of the 20th century, including World War II. Stalinist Russia’s dogged, bloody defense of the Russian homeland was arguably what bled the Germans dry in their efforts to conquer Europe.
Mr. Putin, like every Russian czar, wants most of all to stay on top of the Russian heap. To do this, he employs a combination of economic tools, repression and occasional flag-waving opportunities. These latter sometimes involve sticking his and Russia’s fingers in the eyes of the United States. He took Crimea back. He is still smarting over the incorporation by the West of former Soviet satrapies into NATO and the European Union. Americans’ and others’ forays into Ukraine were a bridge too far.
But Russia is no military threat to the United States. It is too shaky internally to take that on. Mr. Putin is faced with a level of economic inequality behind him, particularly between Moscow and St. Petersburg and the rest of his country, that is stunning. Oil and gas prices have nudged higher, but the glory days of Russian prosperity fueled by that phenomenon are well over and the Russian economy still cries out for honesty and diversification.
The United States has no policy toward Russia. Our leaders are paralyzed by fear of what special counsel Robert Mueller and the other interrogators may disinter.
There is political business that could be done with Russia now. The Russian people are tired of the fighting and cost of Moscow’s involvement in the combat in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Putin has nothing to worry about politically. His domestic opponents are brave, but unimpressive, and constitute no threat to his continued rule. If Mr. Trump were up to it, now is a decent time to launch a dialogue on areas of potential cooperation — rebuilding Syria, calming the burgeoning Middle East conflict between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, how to approach an expanding China, what to do about North Korea, relimiting nuclear weapons — that could become fruitful.
Russia is no threat to America, although it does need to be told to bridle its interference in our elections. But it is there, and we need a policy, apart from domestic political maneuvering, toward it. That policy is still missing.