President Putin, Russia s Current President - 1465 Words

national security. This is the first time this has happened, and it is worrying why Vladimir Putin, Russia’s current president, may have made this accusation (Reuters). It is obvious because of this distrust from Russia that relations between the U.S. and Russia are beginning to deteriorate from previously â€Å"improved† standards. Although there were points where Russo-American political relations were lacking, there were also many other aspects of the relationship that saw improvement after the Cold War. In 1972, before the Cold War had officially ended, the first Moscow Summit was held, in which President Nixon met with Premier Brezhnev. At this meeting, several positive topics were discussed, such as: the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty,†¦show more content†¦They first sought to recover from the stockpiling and threat of mutual destruction caused by the Cold War. America then looked to make Russia decent again through improvements in their government, their social institutions, and their economy (Talbott 156). Another aspect of Russo-American relations that showed a fluctuation in tone were the economic states of the U.S. and Russia before and after the Cold War. Before the Cold War had begun, Russian economic standards had already been on a decline due to the damaging effects of Communism in a global market economy. The years caught up to Russian industry and agriculture, reducing the quality of products that were meant to keep an economy afloat (Rady 17). The U.S. was so afraid of a Communist takeover of Europe that they were prepared to go to â€Å"war† over the matter. Because of Eastern Europe s Warsaw Pact to combat NATO, the U.S. denied access to loans and financial support for them, leaving Russia with one less nation to sponge off of (Rady 16). Later, Russia made an attempt to alter their Communist policies to form a Hungarian-inspired form of Communism, called Goulash Communism. Russia’s rate of import increas ed due to the adoption of this system, and eventually peaked in the 1970s (Rady 21). Any Western items that were imported and sold in Russia at this time were considered to be valuable, and sold at higher prices.