What Senator Kerry is Missing on Obama’s Russian Reset
Ariel Cohen /
As President Medvedev of Russia is coming to visit Barack Obama, the Administration’s spokesmen are desperately trying to convince us that the “reset” policy with the Russia has paid off. They argue that Russia and the United States have developed a real partnership, as demonstrated by the signature of the New START treaty, Russian support for the U.N.’s sanctions on Iran, and transit agreements to move troops and supplies into Afghanistan through Russian territory and air space.
Senator John Kerry (D-MA), the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, thinks that a new era of U.S.-Russian cooperation has dawned. A closer look at the bilateral relationship, however, reveals that the cost for this cooperation and its often symbolic success has been very high.
Kerry’s article states that the reset initiative has produced Russian cooperation in three critical areas:
- The negotiation of the New START treaty
- Agreement to support a new round of U.N. sanctions against Iran
- Permission for the United States to move American supplies and troops through Russian territory to Afghanistan