Don't lose Russia: letter to Democrats.

• Author: Hart, Gary
• Position: From former US Senator Gary Hart

THIS LETTER is an appeal to Democrats, now a congressional majority, to propose a more positive, constructive relationship between the United States and Russia--less for Russia than for the United States.

At virtually any point between 1947 and 1991, if any serious thinker had proposed that we could form a strategic relationship with Russia but should refuse to do so, he or she would have been considered misguided at best and slightly deranged at worst. Yet that has happened today. The mystery is this: What forces are at work to demonize Russia, to isolate and alienate it from the West and to treat it as an enemy?

Few would dispute that Russia has become increasingly imperious and autocratic, though almost always in internal affairs and neighboring states. Vladimir Putin has re-centralized power. Only history can determine, however, whether this is a reaction to Western, especially American, actions or whether it reflects the Russian character. But undoubtedly a chicken-egg syndrome exists: The more U.S. actions isolate the Russians, the more Moscow seeks to recapture its independent great-power status.

In recent months two developments on the U.S. side stand out. First is the policy of the Bush Administration, largely promoted by Vice President Richard Cheney, to adopt a confrontational stance toward Russia. Cheney, among others, has advocated using NATO as an anti-Russian military alliance. He and others have also proposed overt support to Putin's domestic political opponents.

Second, more surprisingly, is an unreflective reaction among foreign policy elites, particularly the Council on Foreign Relations ("Russia's Wrong Direction", March 2006), to endorse this policy. The CFR report's executive summary might as well have read: "The poor state of the U.S.-Russia relationship is entirely the fault of the Russians, who refuse to conduct their domestic affairs as we insist they should. We should hold the Russians to a uniquely high standard, though we refuse to say why."

Still, no argument is given to justify this animosity. Whatever the reason--lingering nostalgia for the Cold War's relative clarity, desire for a tangible nation-state opponent in a world of stateless terrorism--it should be set forth. The best the CFR can do is decry the various failures of the Russians to meet liberal democratic standards. Those standards apply uniquely to the Russians.

Numerous Russia experts, including Stephen Cohen at New York University, Anatol Lieven...