The relationship between American and Russia is the most important one in the world. The relationship is contentious, and improvement is not likely in the short term.
One area of conflict is with Russia's desire to maintain influence over former areas of the Soviet Union. Russia defeated Georgia in 2008, and it has threatened Ukraine since 2014. Russia regards these areas as its sphere of influence and it does not want them to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO).
Russia wants a weak NATO. It has welcomed President Trump's ambivalent posture toward the alliance.
Another problem is Syria. Russia has supported Bashar al-Assad, the country's dictator during its bloody civil war. It sent military forces to help him, and Russia's military prowess was a key factor in the military conflict.
Russia interfered in the election in the United States in 2016. It employed various means to influence the election and help Donald Trump win the presidency. Robert Mueller is leading an investigation into the Trump's campaign's relationship with Russia during the election campaign.
Another issue has been the Edward Snowden affair(2013-present). Snowden, a former CIA employee, revealed information about wide-ranging activities of the National Security Agency. The U.S. charged Snowden, a U.S. citizen, with espionage. He has been living in Russia for years.
Russia has been hit with punitive economic sanctions over Ukraine and its role in the U.S. election. Trump has tried to lift some of these sanctions, but the U.S. Congress wants to maintain them.
There is some cooperation between the two countries in a few spheres. One area is in joint space exploration. The two countries also have some limited cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
In summary, relations are not good, and there is not much hope for significant improvement in the near future.
There have been several contentious issues in the relationship between the United States and Russia in the past decade. Perhaps the most dramatic have been attempts by Russian entities to sway the 2016 United States presidential election, including using fake social media accounts to influence voters in favor of Donald Trump. Russia has also been responsible for cyber attacks against the Unites States and attempts to destabilize the U.S. public sphere.
In geopolitical terms, there are competing spheres of influence, with Russia supporting Assad's government in Syria and the United States being opposed to it and its abysmal human rights record. As the United States under President Trump and Russia under Putin move further away from a rules-based international system to trade wars and, in the case of Putin, hostile actions "short of war" which create great dilemmas for more law-abiding countries, it is likely that tensions will continue to increase.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/dysfunction-us-russia-relations
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