Juan Cole: Putin as America's Frenemy: The Snowden Paradox

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/18742-putin-as-americas-frenemy-the-snowden-paradox

One of the meanings of 'frenemy' is someone who is both your friend and your enemy. In the first decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation suffered so horribly that it lost millions in population, because people stopped having children out of apprehension for the future while others drank themselves to death out of depression. Under Boris Yeltsin, Russia was neither inclined to nor able to challenge the United States. In the past decade, in part on historically high hydrocarbon prices, Russia's economy has recovered, and, indeed, the World Bank now considers it a high income country and by purchasing power parity the fifth largest in the world (it is 8th in nominal terms). Under Yeltsin's protege Vladimir Putin, who began as a KGB case officer, the Russian Federation has pursued a more independent foreign policy

<snip>

There is of course another possibility. The Realists hold that countries don't have friends, only interests. In that case, Russia is just pursuing its national interests, which sometimes coincide with those of the US and sometimes don't. The Realists think it is good for each country to pursue its interests, since that balances the world out.

A Realist would say, if you want a friend, buy a dog! Clearly Putin knows this.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Uncle Sam v. Mother Russia

Neither is wholly right and neither is wholly wrong while the rest of us sit on the sidelines and just watch the match.