Russia-US Relations at an All-Time Low

US President Donald Trump is denying any alleged ties with Russia, after the US Justice Department named FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian interference in the US election and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.

This adds to Trump’s pressure regarding his ties with Russia, amid allegations that he leaked classified information to Russian officials during a meeting in the US capital last week.

Since Trump took office in January 2017, we have seen a shift in his opinions on Russia. While initially claiming that NATO was obsolete, after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he was quoted saying “We’re not getting along with Russia at all… we may be at an all-time low.”

One of the underlying reasons for this may be the US sanctions on Russia for its military involvement in Ukraine, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying that they would “stay in place” at a press conference between himself and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov.

At the core of Russian-US tensions, however, lies Syria. As the Trump administration sticks to its claims that the chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held town of Khan Shaykhun was the work of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, they see no future in Syria in which Assad plays a role. This prompted a UN security resolution put forth by the US, the UK, and France, calling for chemical weapons inspectors to be allowed to investigate chemical weapons attacks and for the Syrian regime to hand over air force flight logs and other operational details from 4 April, the day of the Khan Shaykhun attack. Russia vetoed this resolution, the eighth veto on resolutions putting pressure on the Assad regime.

Lavrov addressed the situation, saying that Russia was not “making a bet on one person or another, including Assad,” but said the “fate of Syria should be decided by Syrians themselves.”

This comes in contrast to President Trump’s retaliation, a US led air strike on a Syrian air force base 3 days after the chemical attack, which prompted Lavrov to say that the US and its allies had failed to learn from the past and still clung to their ambitions to topple leaders they saw as dictators, a policy that had led to disaster elsewhere.

“We’ve already gone through such experiments based on the need to overthrow some dictator or authoritarian leader,” he said. “I don’t know of any positive examples of removing a dictator.”

It is clear that tensions between Russia and the US are high, but Tillerson seems to have a knack for smoothing things over. After his two-hour audience with Putin in the Kremlin, the most immediate threats of escalation seemed to have died down, with Putin “reaffirming” the maintenance of a hotline between the two countries’ militaries to avoid midair collisions between their aircraft operating in Syrian airspace.

Tillerson’s friendly ties with Russia have a history, dating back to his days as head of the ExxonMobil Oil Company, where Putin presented Tillerson with the Russian Order of Friendship. He handled US disagreements with Russia maturely, especially when addressing the link of Russian interference with US elections. “That is a fairly well-established, serious issue,” he said. “It’s one we know is serious enough to attract additional sanctions. We are mindful of it in the future and Russia I think is mindful of it.”

Trump may have initially seemed like a hopeful partner for Russian global development, but with recent accusations and actions, the partnership is no longer looking as profitable as it once was. The least we can do is hope to work together to find a diplomatic solution in Syria, and avoid military action as a way of bringing the Assad regime to an end. To do so would be detrimental to Russian efforts in Syria thus far, and could very possibly bring a large threat to global peace.