Trouble with Russia

The next American president will face the most serious challenge from Russia since the end of the Cold War or, for that matter, since the early 1980s, when the US and Yuri Andropov's Soviet Union actively confronted one another around the globe. Russia today is increasingly an angry, nationalist, elective monarchy, and while it is still open for business with America and its allies, its leaders often assume the worst about Western intentions and view the US as the main enemy -- indeed, a new poll finds that 72% of Russians consider the United States the country most hostile to Russia. It is important not to oversimplify this situation. It is not a reenactment of the Cold War; history rarely repeats itself so precisely. Vladimir Putin's Russia is not a superpower and its top officials are realistic about their country's military, geopolitical and economic limitations. Russia does not have a universal ideology predicated on the West as an enemy.