Could A President Obama Heal The Russo-American Rift?



(image via russiablog)

Did Putin fuck up Russia? Clearly, Putin's ill-considered decision to invade Georgia hurt him among investors at precisely the wrong moment. At present the Russian stock Index is down over 60% for the year. And price correctives in the oil and nickel markets is not helping things.

Why did Putin do what he did when he did? It is not inconceivable that Putin, flush with petrodollars, seeing China's coming out party in the Beijing Olympics, wanted to assert Russia's relevance. The Georgia invasion coincided eerily with China's elaborate celebration of their rising power status.

Could a President Barack Obama heal the Russo-American rift? Will Putin "Test" -- Biden's terminology -- the new President? Might Barack Obama, if he wins the US Presidential election, reach out his hand and offer a new partnership? All are open questions, but we cannot fail to note Alexis de Toqueville's famous statement/prediction on the relationship between the two nations:

"There are at the present time two great nations in the world, which started from different points, but seem to tend towards the same end. I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have grown up unnoticed; and while the attention of mankind was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly placed themselves in the front rank among the nations, and the world learned their existence and their greatness at almost the same time.

All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits, and they have only to maintain their power; but these are still in the act of growth. All the others have stopped, or continue to advance with extreme difficulty; these alone are proceeding with ease and celerity along a path to which no limit can be perceived. The American struggles against the obstacles that nature opposes to him; the adversaries of the Russian are men. The former combats the wilderness and savage life; the latter, civilization with all its arms. The conquests of the American are therefore gained by the plowshare; those of the Russian by the sword. The Anglo-American relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends and gives free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of the people; the Russian centers all the authority of society in a single arm. The principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude. Their starting point is different and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe."

Democracy in America, Vol. 1, 434