In a tweet in August, President Donald Trump said that the relationship between Russia and the US is “at an all-time & very dangerous low”. There are several explanations for this, but perhaps the most important is that Russia, being essentially a European country, still cannot accustom itself to exclusion from the west.
The only chance of stopping the current confrontation, which carries echoes of previous cold wars, lies in changing the language of engagement. Talk less about “co-operation” in places like Syria or the Donbass and more about a grand project aimed at Russia’s final integration into the family of western nations. This is not a question of Russia joining the EU, or even Nato, but of something else entirely.
