Are the relations between Russia and the U.S still in good standing?

Most Americans think than since the fall of the former U.S.S.R, the still slow process of democratization in what is now Russia, and most of the republics in these days which formed the soviet empire in times past, that the threat from the old communist nation is over, and that the relation between Russia and the U.S is that of friends nowadays.

But the truth is that the threat is not over, and Russia still sees the U.S as a threat and their nuclear weapons are still pointed at American cities and military targets.

NewsMax
The threat of devastating nuclear attack by Russia against the United States has not diminished, warns former Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara.
Writing in Monday�s Los Angeles Times, McNamara and co-author Helen Caldicott claim that the threat of a nuclear catastrophe remains real, �whether by accident, human fallibility or malfeasance.�

The Soviet Union collapsed on itself and the divide between Eastern communism and Western democracy disintegrated more than 13 years ago.

Because of that, the nightmare scenario is not on the minds of many Americans today.

Missiles Still Pointed at New York, Cities

Nevertheless, the threat remains serious, McNamara and Caldicott argue, because, despite the end of the Cold War in the early 1990's, thousands of Russian nuclear warheads are still pointed at the U.S. targeting many civilian population centers.

Althou many of Russia's weapons are becoming outdated and because of their economic problems, they haven't been able to update, repair, or improve most of their armaments, the threat is still present. The recent events of former Russian states now as republics being part of Nato, and surrounding Russia is not sitting well with them either.

Russia�s simmering anger at the U.S.
The United States is proposing a Yalta-style understanding between it and Russia in an effort to thaw relations that have become increasingly chilly.

On March 25, senior administration officials led by deputy National Security Council adviser Stephen Hadley met with senior Russian officials in Washington at the Hay Adams Hotel to hammer out a new entente between the U.S. and Russia.

The meeting was an effort to calm Russia�s simmering anger at the U.S. for what it perceives as interference in the �republics� that once constituted the Soviet empire.


�Russia and the U.S. may be on a collision course in the former Soviet states, and the two countries have no choice but to agree on new road rules to avoid it,� writes Eugene Rumer, a fellow at the National Defense University and Richard Sokolsky, a U.S. State Department official, in a recent op-ed for the Los Angeles Times.

Despite placid public reassurances of friendly relations between the U.S. and Russia, Putin�s government is furious that the U.S. has been working closely with several former Soviet states, cooperation it views as meddling in its backyard.
NATO's encirclement of Russia nears completion
On Monday the 29th of March a meeting of heads of state of the NATO member countries will take place in Washington, at which the entries of Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia and Romania into that alliance will become official. An analogous ceremony of foreign ministers will take place at NATO headquarters in Brussels. This is an event of no small importance, immeasurably more significant for us than the terrorist acts in Spain and recent events in the Balkans and the Mideast. A military concentration of several million soldiers and officers, equipped with the latest military technology and espousing an aggressive, expansionist doctrine has now arrived at our borders.

Putin, who up to now has always regarded the approach of this armada with Olympian tranquillity and tried to sell us on the idea that NATO is 'neither friend nor foe, simply a fact of life' (but more of a friend after all), has suddenly shown signs of disquiet. Unprecented strategic "exercises" of the army and navy have begun. Even fuel has turned up: pilots are once again flying, ships are headed to sea and tanks to the training grounds. And when three submarine missile launches failed recently Putin's nervousness was visible.

After all this time Russia has once more started "strategic exercises" to show their strength of arms. Are the relations between Russia and the U.S deteriorating once more?

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I'm pretty sure Putin is trying to get his Russia back in contention with US. Or anyone for that matter. I believe Putin would like it very much to be a conquerer. He'll start reclaiming the separatist states of the former USSR and begin to prepare for the big one.

I think if anything, the Russians are more worried about the Chinese than US at this point.

I am...
DC

There are only 3 seperatist states from the Soviet Union, the Baltic States and the Russians really don't give a crap about them anyways. The other States are all apart of the "Commonwealth of Independent States" which was formed in place of the Soviet Union, which has a single Military Chief Executive but no "central government". Obviously though all that really matters is who controls the CE and that's the Russians.

While the other states may not like the fact Russia dominates, they have done nothing to secure their independence from Russia, such as petition NATO like the Baltic States did.

I would like to see the Russians get more into the war on terror and exercise more control in Chechnya. This would be the perfect waY to increase cooperation between the US/Russia (I miss saying USSR tho)
I would like to see relations between the two increase.

Russia will always continue to be a threat, especially if it would ally with China or someone else of that nature. I don't see it as an immediate threat, but the possibillity of the USA getting it severely pissed off is pretty high in my oppinion.

We just don't seem to think of longterm relationships as of recently with the IRaq War