Good item on US-Russia relations

Stuff you won't read in James Kirchick's "reporting."

The U.S. has treated Russia like a loser since the end of the Cold War.

Matlock was Ambassador to Moscow under Reagan and Bush

I think this point is telling:

President Bill Clinton supported NATO’s bombing of Serbia without U.N. Security Council approval and the expansion of NATO to include former Warsaw Pact countries. Those moves seemed to violate the understanding that the United States would not take advantage of the Soviet retreat from Eastern Europe. The effect on Russians’ trust in the United States was devastating. In 1991, polls indicated that about 80 percent of Russian citizens had a favorable view of the United States; in 1999, nearly the same percentage had an unfavorable view.

Putin is popular in Russia because the US managed to make itself unpopular in a very short time.

I am still puzzled at the eagerness of conservatives to rescue Bill Clinton's failures and support Victoria Nuland's misguided adventures.

Previously:

Some inconvenient facts about US-Russian relations