The Dawn of the post-Cold War Era: Russo-American Relations in the 1990s

Abstract

Relations between Moscow and Washington underwent significant changes in the final
years of Soviet Union, and these changes shaped to a considerable extent the ties between
post-Soviet Russia and the United States in the wake of the Soviet collapse. Important factors
like Russia’s deep economic crisis and weakened statehood with dangerous implications
further complicated the picture. The article shows that these factors conditioned the kind the
“Russia first” approach, whereby significant political support and financial assistance was
extended to the country to save its embattled allegedly pro-Western leadership, while a blind
eye was virtually turned to the early manifestations of Russia’s neo-imperial foreign policy.