The post-Cold War relationship between the United States and Russia has always been uneasy, but the past week saw a level of tension unrivaled in recent years. President Boris Yeltsin escalated his rhetoric denouncing the bombing in Yugoslavia, and warned that the cordial state of East-West relations could deteriorate into a European and possibly world war if NATO persists with airstrikes against Yugoslavia. While reports last week that Russia would re-target its nuclear missiles toward NATO nations and forge a union with Serbia were denied soon after they became public, they served to underscore the sudden frostiness between the two Cold War antagonists. Certainly Yeltsin's complaints are reminding U.S. leaders of Russia's ability to act as a destabilizing force in the Balkans region. Moreover, Operation Allied Force has intensified anti-American sentiments in Russia, tarnishing the image of the United States as a helpful partner in reform and a model of democratic humanism.
Russian specialists disagree about what Moscow's latest moves mean.
But most are united in dismay at the Clinton administration's current policies toward the former Soviet Union. Salon asked two Russia experts to talk about the current state of American-Russian relations and the war in Yugoslavia. Stephen F. Cohen is a professor of Russian studies and history at New York University and a contributing editor to the Nation. Dimitri K. Simes is director of the Nixon Center and served as a policy advisor for the Nixon, Reagan and Bush administrations. He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1973.