World press on US-Russia relations (August 14, 2013)

The Independent published an article by Director of the European Leadership Network, Ian Kearns, headlined "A US-Russia freeze isn't in the interests of Putin - or the West."

"President Obama’s decision to cancel next month’s summit with Vladimir Putin may be understandable but it must not be allowed to become a total break in relations. There is too much at stake on both sides," the article begins.

According to the author, the US administration has to cooperate with Russia in various fields, including energy, the Iranian nuclear crisis, and others. That is why "to pursue core US and wider western interests the U.S. has no choice but to find effective ways of working with Russia, however distasteful it finds the current occupant of the Kremlin."

"Whether he likes it or not, President Putin is the leader of a country who’s population and economic centre is still concentrated in the West. His official military doctrine is dominated by concerns about the United States and NATO. Russia’s economy is stagnating, needs western technology and investment to carry out a badly needed programme of modernisation and consists mainly  of hydro-carbon exports, again primarily to the west. Meanwhile, Russian social welfare costs and demands are growing. For both economic and domestic political reasons, therefore, Russia cannot afford a full break-down in relations with the West and a new arms race any more than the West can afford one itself. Putin needs the US and its allies just as much as we all need him," Kearns writes.

"What the leaders of both countries have to realise is that the key challenge in today’s international environment is not the management of a zero-sum struggle for dominance between the major powers but a struggle for order in a world where challenges cross borders and power is diffuse," he believes.

The United States and Russia must be partners with each other in this endeavour whether they like it or not, the author of the article concludes.