What’s different about Russia’s post-Cold War anti-American animus is that the feeling is not at all mutual. It’s not that an American newscaster couldn't lower him- or herself to indulge such a gesture - just that, should a bird be flipped, it's likely the object of disaffection would be any one of a dozen public figures before the target would be Putin. Russia is simply not on our radar screen. Case in point: In the recent Republican presidential foreign policy debate, hosted by CNN, the word Russia was uttered just once during the 90-minute debate. If there’s anything worse than unrequited love, it might just be unrequited animosity.
Rather than reciprocate with a Russian 'Reset,' Moscow seems to have chosen to play the spoiler’s role. The playbook is fairly predictable: Keep the Middle East on the boil, fuel a little anti-Yanqui sentiment in the Western Hemisphere, sow a little discord in the Trans-Atlantic Alliance – the better to keep the U.S. distracted and give Russia a free hand as it reshapes its 'Near Abroad' into some semblance of its empire of old. The only catch: The regimes that Moscow may perceive as pawns on its board are in fact international actors with their own interests and agendas. You can wind them up, but you can’t be sure their mayhem will always be aimed solely at the United States.
In Churchill’s day, Russia was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. In our world, that’s Kim Kardashian. Russia is Rodney Dangerfield - with nuclear weapons.
So now comes Medvedev, the cool, professorial, 'pro-Western' Russian leader, threatening to target European nations with Russian nuclear warheads. And yet in capitals across Europe, Russian warheads are nothing compared to the gun the IMF holds to their heads.
The old saying has it that there are only two times to worry about Russia: When it is weak, and when it is strong. Perhaps it's time to add a third: When Russia is ignored.
(Photo: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, right, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left, seen as arrive at the United Russia party congress in Moscow on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. - AP)
