Robert Amsterdam

As a follow up to my previous post, I just came across Kim Zigfeld's (La Russophobe) entry on Publius Pundit from a couple of days ago in regards to the midterm elections and U.S.-Russia relations. Kim makes three very important points: 1) while the new Democratic majority may prove to be less than revolutionary, the change in House balance does "free up" some Republicans who may have previously been unable to pursue foreign policy positions on Russia; 2) the U.S.-Russia relation during the Bush administration was characterized by the Kremlin's ability to convince Washington that anti-terror cooperation could be only had in exchange for American tolerance of Russian autocracy; and 3) that many Americans fail to recognize that the siloviki (ex-KGB and security officials) currently in control of the Kremlin are still very much immersed in an institutional paranoia of the United States as enemy, that there are not likely to adopt pro-American policies on their own.