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Articles by Dmitry Trenin

opinion Dmitry Trenin

What a Week of Talks Between Russia and the West Revealed

If Russia cannot achieve its strategic goals by diplomatic means, it will resort to other methods.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia Takes a Gamble in Kazakhstan

If Russia succeeds in propping up the regime in Kazakhstan and making it more pro-Russian, the Central Asian nation could, become a more reliable ally...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia-India: From Rethink to Adjust to Upgrade

Russia needs to decide what it wants from the Indian connection.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russian Foreign Policy: Shifting Gears

Is Ukraine that “unfinished business” that he will seek to complete before the end of his reign? Or is Putin just bluffing?
opinion Dmitry Trenin

How the Arms Control Approach Could Help Russia Tackle Climate Change

Russia's climate change challenge is likely to become one of the most important processes shaping Russia’s future for years and decades to come.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Merkel’s Legacy, as Seen From Russia

Angela Merkel’s long tenure was a period of relative, if not always palatable, predictability in German-Russian relations.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Interpreting the Biden Doctrine: The View From Moscow

It is the success or failure of remaking America, not Afghanistan, that will determine the Biden administration's legacy.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Afghanistan After the U.S. Pullout: Challenges to Russia and Central Asia

The U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan leaves the country in a state of growing turmoil. Russia will need to do all it can to prevent extremist...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Sailing Into Troubled Waters. Russia Counters Britain in the Black Sea

No one in Moscow expects the West to accept Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea in the foreseeable future. However, dismissing the reality carries a price...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

What Is Putin’s Mindset Ahead of His Meeting With Biden?

There are no illusions in Moscow: adversarial relations with Washington are here to stay.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Dealing With Biden's America

The Kremlin sees the Democratic administration as more predictable and more professional on foreign and security policy than its predecessor.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

An 'Act of War?' Avoiding a Dangerous Crisis in Cyberspace

Unlike in the nuclear sphere, there are no rules governing the increasingly intense rivalry between the U.S. and Russia in the cyber sphere. 
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy and Russia

While Biden recognizes China as America’s top competitor, he calls Russia the biggest threat to the United States.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Game Over for Lukashenko: the Kremlin's Next Move

The Kremlin has had enough of Lukashenko, but it cannot allow Belarus to follow the path of Ukraine.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

How Russians Are Reading Bolton and Trump

John Bolton suggests that Putin can play Trump like a fiddle. The truth is that the bilateral relationship with Russia is now as bad as at any time since...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

U.S. Withdrawal From Open Skies Bolsters Case for New Strategic Regime

The 50-year-old arms control regime that helped keep the Cold War cold is beyond repair. It's time to start discussing ways of moving toward a new global...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia–U.S.: No Reset, Just Guardrails

Russia’s top priority should be to carefully maintain equilibrium— though not equidistance — between the United States and China.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

What Does Russia Want From the United States?

The coronavirus pandemic is another opportunity that Moscow is using to engage Washington to try to break through the logjams in their relationship.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia Sees Its Worldview Vindicated in the Age of Coronavirus

As the Kremlin prepares to manage the health emergency, it’s coming to view the global disarray as affirmation of its ideology.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

How Cozy Is Russia and China’s Military Relationship?

Russia and China’s strategic military cooperation is becoming ever closer.
In depth

Russia Facing Europe: A Provisional Road Map

Russia would do well to review its recent practical steps with a view to refocusing and energizing its policies toward the European Union. 
opinion Dmitry Trenin

20 Years of Vladimir Putin: How Russian Foreign Policy Has Changed

Dmitry Trenin on Russia's successes abroad and why resisting NATO expansion to the east was a fundamental mistake.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia Must Show Caution Now That It Has Publicly Sided With Trump (Op-ed)

Having publicly entered internal U.S. politics, Russia must be prepared for unpleasant surprises.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Why Russia Needs to Update Its South Caucasus Policy (Op-ed)

The country's national security is at stake.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia Has Grand Designs For the International Order (Op-ed)

Creating a new regional order with China, India, Iran, Turkey and others will not be easy
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Here's a Breakdown of Russia's Foreign Policy Goals (Op-ed)

Beyond presidential elections next year, Russia will aim to solidify its status outside the former Soviet Union
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia Must Sit Up and Take Notice of India

If this opportunity is missed, the drift in the Russian-Indian relationship will continue.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

The Only Winner in Ukraine Is China

For a generation, relations between the U.S. and Russia were essentially about history.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Russia's Diplomatic Flourish in the Middle East

Crucially, Moscow and Washington are leading the peace process on an equal basis.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Obama's Chance to Earn His Nobel Prize

Western foreign policy initiatives that are designed to influence internal changes in Russia will likely backfire.
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Tehran Is Neither Friend Nor Foe of Moscow

When Russians look at Iran, they see a country that has been their neighbor and rival forever. As the Russian empire advanced, it wrestled the North...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

The West's Cold War Victory 20 Years On

Those who were so proud of winning the Cold War have done only a mediocre job organizing the peace that followed. U.S. and European leaders should detect...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Putin's Vision to Become a Post-Imperial Leader

Russia's 2012 presidential election is already effectively over since Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has decided to reclaim his old Kremlin office. By all...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Building a Republic 20 Years After the Putsch

Chinese leader Zhou Enlai may have been correct when he told U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1972 that it was too early to determine the impact of the...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Ambassador 'Mike' McFaul Could Help Reset

If Michael McFaul becomes the next U.S. ambassador to Russia, it will be another case of a scholar becoming a top diplomat, which is not uncommon in U...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Bin Laden, Basayev and Terrorism's Scourge

Osama bin Laden's passing, as Shamil Basayev's before him, will not end the fight against terrorism. Yet, the war on terrorism has long ceased to be...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Resetting on the Libyan Front

Russia's vote Thursday in the United Nations Security Council on Libya Resolution 1973 is more evidence of the changing nature of Moscow's foreign...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

Turning a Happy Hour Into a Happy Alliance

President Dmitry Medvedev has called the NATO summit in Lisbon a historic event, and the weekend's statements offer a way to continue transforming Russian-Western...
opinion Dmitry Trenin

How to Make Peace With Georgia

Relations between Georgia and Russia have been chilled since the "little war" of August 2008, and Russian policy so far has been to let ordinary Georgians...