At present, the game between the United States and Russia is getting worse and worse, which has attracted worldwide attention. The United States and Russia are deadlocked on the Syrian issue. In addition, anti-missile, nuclear disarmament and cyber security in Ukraine and Eastern Europe have also become flashpoints between the two countries. As a result, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov bluntly said that "the US-Russia relationship has undergone fundamental changes, and the United States has not only made anti-Russian remarks, but also taken aggressive actions that pose a threat to Russian security."
As Lavrov said, the relationship between the United States and Russia has indeed changed. Is this the beginning of the "new cold war"? Some analysts believe that US-Russian relations have indeed entered a "new historical trough", and the two sides have comprehensively torn apart in various fields. Some media believe that the game between the United States and Russia is more like a "nerve war" of mutual pressure, each testing the other’s bottom line, but always maintaining a state of "fighting without breaking".
The game between the United States and Russia is getting worse and worse.
Recently, Russia’s relations with the United States and other western countries have turned sharply. Due to the escalation of contradictions between the United States and Russia on the Syrian issue, the United States announced the termination of contacts with Russia on the Syrian issue. The two sides immediately launched infighting at all levels to closely safeguard their own interests.
On October 3, the United States announced that it would suspend negotiations with Russia on the Syrian ceasefire and shelve its military plan to jointly fight terrorists with Russia.
Then, Russia sent more troops to Syria, the Russian State Duma passed a resolution to turn the Tartus port base into a permanent naval base, and the Russian Federal Council also approved the Russian air and space forces to station in Syria indefinitely. The Russian aircraft carrier Kuznetsov even came to the eastern Mediterranean to help defend the Russian troops and Syrian government forces stationed in Syria.
United Nations confrontation
On October 8, when the United Nations Security Council voted on two draft resolutions on Syria, the draft jointly drafted by France and Spain was rejected by Russia, while the draft proposed by Russia was rejected by France, Britain and the United States. The confrontation at the United Nations made the contradiction between Russia and western countries more open, and Putin cancelled his visit to France in a rage.
In the face of the western siege, Putin made a "combination boxing" and tried to break through: reopening Cuba’s listening station, returning to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam (these two places were the front positions of confrontation between the former Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War), and even deploying iskander missiles with nuclear warheads in Kaliningrad, an enclave between Lithuania and Poland.
Fight "cyber warfare"
Of course, the United States has not spared Russia, and it has fought a "war of words" with it in cyberspace.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence named and accused the Russian government of being involved in hacking activities with the intention of interfering in the U.S. election. On the 14th, US Vice President Biden confirmed the plan of "cyber war" against Russia to the American media, and this incident was even more noisy.
In response, Russian officials responded strongly, saying that the US’s "cyber war" against Russia is a state cyber terrorism act and a direct threat to Russia.
The new iron curtain began to return from the cold war?
"Is the Cold War back?" Some British media said that with the escalation of verbal threats and actions of the United States and Russia, a new iron curtain began to come, and the competition between the United States and Russia for geostrategic advantages increased rather than decreased, giving people the feeling of the cold war.
However, analysts pointed out that despite the all-round confrontation between the two sides, the two countries have not entered the "new cold war." With its current economic size, Russia is unable to confront the United States, what’s more, neither Russia nor the United States has the will to mobilize the strength of the whole country to start a new cold war. At the same time, there are many contradictions between western countries, and there is no one voice to the outside world, so it is impossible to form a confrontation between groups of countries during the Cold War.
The general consensus of analysts is that, as nuclear powers with equal strength, even in the most intense stage of confrontation in history, Russia and the United States will avoid direct armed conflicts caused by accidental fire.
The United States and Russia fought a "nerve war" and put pressure on each other to "fight without breaking"
Although it is unlikely to return to the cold war pattern, some media believe that the game between the United States and Russia is more like a "nerve war" of mutual pressure, and it has always maintained a state of "fighting without breaking".
Russia’s "Viewpoint" published a commentary on the 12th, arguing that Russia-US relations have repeatedly experienced high-intensity collisions, such as fierce confrontation after the Ukrainian crisis, but both sides can return to a relatively peaceful state every time after the collision. This continuous contest is actually a "nerve war" that exerts pressure on each other.
According to the recent confrontation between the two countries in various fields, including conflicts between the United States and Russia in other countries involving their own interests, diplomatic notes, war of words, sanctions and anti-sanctions, and freezing relations in a certain field, but at the same time maintaining relations in other equally important fields. In this game, the two sides no longer compete for ideological victory, but closely safeguard their respective sovereign interests. Because of this, the two sides can always maintain relative restraint and dare not talk about war easily. Therefore, some Russian media believe that the two sides should find a way to ease the relationship despite the intensity and high risk. (Editor: Xue Bili’s text is compiled from Xinhuanet and Workers’ Daily)
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