Stent, Angela

Abstract
Since the Soviet collapse, Russia has been an issue in every US presidential election campaign. In 2008, Democrats accused the George W. Bush administration of endangering US security by needlessly antagonising Vladimir Putin’s Russia and raising the level of tension between the two countries, especially during and after the Russo-Georgia war. Four years later, in 2012, the Barack Obama re-election campaign showcased the accomplishments of the reset policy. For its part, Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign faulted the administration for treating the Kremlin with kid gloves when Russia was, according to Romney, the United States’ ‘number one geopolitical foe’ because it ‘fights every cause for the world’s worst actors’.
Read the article here