While criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and imposing sanctions on his country because of Ukraine and Crimea, US President Barack Obama is struggling with the consequences of his previous policy of "resetting" relations between Washington and Moscow, writes the Associated Press (AP) in today's analysis.
Since the beginning of his presidency, Obama has worked with Russia to achieve some of his key foreign policy goals, including preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power and, more recently, resolving the civil war in Syria before it spills over into the Middle East.
But now, with the Crimean peninsula seceded from Ukraine and annexed by Russia, Obama can hardly respond strongly enough to Moscow without tearing down what else he is building with it.
White House officials argue that the US cannot return to the previous level of cooperation with Russia as long as it controls Crimea - a strategically important peninsula in the Black Sea, whose population is majority Russian, and which has been part of Ukraine since 1956.
The White House is still considering what will change in relations with Russia. However, as much as they point to the need to weaken ties with Moscow, US officials are looking for a way to prevent Obama's key foreign policy priorities from suffering major damage that could result from cooling relations with Russia.
And the relationships where the risk of harm is a concern are numerous.
Here are some examples:
1. Russia is part of an international negotiating team working with the US to reach an agreement with Iran over its disputed nuclear program
2. The participation of the Kremlin, based on the Moscow-Washington agreement, is essential to pressure Syria to comply with its obligations to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal
3. According to the agreement with Russia, the USA uses its territory as an alternative supply route for its forces in Afghanistan in case the regular route through Pakistan fails. The agreement also refers to the withdrawal of American troops and equipment from Afghanistan when the US engagement there ends.
4. Since the USA has "retired" its fleet of "space shuttles", taking cosmonauts to the International Space Station and returning them to Earth is directly dependent on Russia and its Soyuz spacecraft.
5. A deepening of the gap in relations with Moscow would harm American allies in Europe, which are deeply dependent on Russia for energy.
Russia will not work against its interests
US officials, however, doubt Russia's power to disrupt any of these partnerships since it too has its own strategic interests that could be challenged.
An example is Iran's market, where Russia wants a share, and which is now cut off from most of the world due to US sanctions.
Washington officials also indicate that Moscow entered into an agreement with the US regarding the government's chemical weapons in Damascus, in order to prevent a US military attack on Syria and the eventual overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is Russia's ally in the civil war there.
Two days ago, the leaders of the Group of 8 suspended Russia's membership in that forum indefinitely, which Barack Obama and the US allies had previously announced.
The aspiration of American officials is to cut cooperation with Russia where, as they believe, Moscow will suffer more damage than Washington. As examples, they cite joint military operations and the termination of negotiations on Russia's admission to the World Trade Organization, which Moscow cares a lot about.
Two days ago, the leaders of the Group of 8 suspended Russia's membership in that forum indefinitely, which Barack Obama and the US allies had previously announced. Western allies have also agreed to impose sweeping economic sanctions on Russia if it goes deeper into Ukraine.
However, American efforts to isolate Russia have not changed President Vladimir Putin's calculations, AP points out. After ignoring Western warnings and sending troops into Crimea, Putin signed an agreement to formally annex Crimea to Russia, after the peninsula's residents protested it in a referendum.
Obama was not hoping for this turn of events
Putin has also ordered major military maneuvers along Russia's border with eastern Ukraine, raising US and European fears that he wants more territory. At home, Barack Obama is facing weak ratings in the polls for his handling of the crisis with Ukraine and Crimea.
The "reset" enabled cooperation with Russia in connection with Iran and Afghanistan, but, according to analysts, no one expected everything to go completely smoothly.
The current development of the situation with Russia is hardly what Obama envisioned when he launched the policy of "resetting" relations with Moscow. That policy was aimed at alleviating the tensions that arose when the US president was George W. Bush.
The "reset" enabled cooperation with Russia in connection with Iran and Afghanistan, but, according to analysts, no one expected everything to go completely smoothly.
"Nowhere has there ever been a belief that Russia will become (America's) partner like a NATO member, nor that it will become a democratic country. There has always been, in fact, a belief that Russia will always be problematic in matters concerning its neighborhood," says the former official. State Department Jeremy Shapiro.
Ukraine is more important than Georgia
In 2008, Russia intervened militarily in Georgia when then-president Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops to breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Moscow then recognized the independence of those renegade Georgian territories. The West has condemned it, but has largely continued normal relations with Moscow, although it has kept troops there, in violation of a cease-fire agreement.
However, now, after the much bigger, Ukrainian crisis, American officials say that it will be more difficult to continue "normal business with Russia".
All the more so because in the Georgian crisis, Russia did not annex a tougher territory, but now, in Ukraine, it has, which the White House considers a serious violation of international law.
In addition, Washington also considers Ukraine to be a strategically "significantly more difficult" country than Georgia.
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