The Russian perspective of the end of Cold War is fundamentally different.
It is that the Cold War was brought to an end through deliberate cooperation and
dialogue of two major super powers, Soviet Union and the United States.
And Soviet Union was not defeated, but it was the voluntary and deliberate
decision of the Soviet leadership to end confrontation with the United States.
There is a fundamental clash of our narratives, I mean Russian and
American narratives, in interpreting the post-Cold War period.
The post-Cold War period for the United States was the absolutely bright, benign,
and positive time when the American values became universal.
There was a chance for globalization to trigger prosperity
in many countries and regions of the world.
I mean it was the golden period of time.
For Russia, the post-Cold War period was the 25 years' crisis,
to paraphrase Edward Carr and his analysis of the middle war,
his characterization of the middle war period.
For Russia, it was the period when international relations were
developed in the wrong way, rather than right way.
And of course the policies of Russia and the United States,
that were based on these clashing narratives, also clash.
Our understanding of the major trends of international relations differ.
What is a norm, and what is the violation of the norm in international relations?
Is for instance this sphere of influence, the notion of spheres of influence,
is our spheres of influence a norm?
Is it normal to respect the demands of great powers in their neighborhood?
Or it is a violation of the norm and if great powers behave in this way,
we need to punish them.
Where does the world go?
Where does the international relations go?
Are we moving towards a homogeneous world based on the Western values institutions?
Or the world goes back to the 19th century multipolarity with
coexistence of different regional orders and several great powers.
We have fundamentally different understandings of this.
And both Russia and
the United States in these understandings are convinced that they are correct.
And we have a situation today in the US-Russia relations when both
the United States and
Russia rationally claim that they are at the right side of history.
Whereas the opponent is at the wrong side of history.
And both countries, both sides are able to prove this by certain
arguments that they draw from the international relations,
that they draw from the images of the international relations that they have.