Europe approves of Russian foreign policy, diplomat cites taxi drivers' opinion / A. Filippov / RIA Novosti

Negotiations on further reduction of nuclear and strategic weapons are hardly possible now, in the situation of acute confrontation between Russia and the West, according to participants of the international Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe, which began in Amsterdam on Tuesday. "The current situation cannot satisfy us in any way. The window to a nuclear-free world that was slightly open (during the meeting of the leaders of the USSR and the USA in 1986) in Reykjavik is slamming shut and being battened down before our eyes," the first and only President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev said in his address to the participants of the forum. In his opinion, international relations are being militarized, and trust between the great powers, which bear the main responsibility for maintaining international peace, is collapsing.

The participants of the meeting sharply disagreed on who exactly was to blame for what was happening. “The US needs to move away from the policy of strangling Russia, which they are implementing all over the world: the calculation is that either Russia will burst, or our president will leave. The US cannot forgive us for encroaching on their holy of holies – the world order that the US established. But Washington has less and less power, and more and more opponents. Russia is now almost the ringleader in this anti-American coalition,” commented on the situation the former Russian ambassador to Great Britain Anatoly Adamishin. In arguing this position, he several times referred to the opinion of Western European taxi drivers, who highly praise Russia’s foreign policy.

The personal factor plays an important role in relations between Moscow and Washington and does not contribute to the establishment of understanding, stressed Michael Krepon, a senior researcher at the American Stimson Center: "Gorbachev was a man of change for us, Vladimir Putin has an established image, and he is not going to change it. In the US, he is perceived ambiguously. And Barack Obama, no matter how hard he wants to, cannot change the situation: elections are coming up, and he does not have a majority in parliament."

The beginning of rapprochement

In 1986, in Reykjavik, the USSR made specific proposals to the US – a 50% reduction in all parts of the triad of strategic offensive weapons: land-based intercontinental missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and strategic aviation. The parties were close to an agreement, but the US did not dare abandon Reagan’s strategic defense initiative – a program to use space for military purposes.

Third countries may benefit from the tense relations between Moscow and Washington, Adamishin believes: "When two major powers collide, the others have more room to maneuver. During the Cold War, for example, Europe did not have to spend money on weapons at all and benefited from this." However, the former ambassador did not give any specific examples.

Moscow-Washington relations in the area of nuclear arms reduction are at their lowest point in three decades (since Reykjavik), the forum said, and there will be no breakthroughs in the near future. "Some improvement is possible, if there is political will, only by the middle of next year: by that time the new US president will have grown stronger and will be able to make some foreign policy decisions. In Russia, Vladimir Putin's six-year presidential term will be coming to an end, and he will have less than a year left before the presidential elections, and some decisions may be necessary," said Vladimir Lukin, former Russian Human Rights Commissioner.

"We are plunging into a new Cold War, and some are doing so with particular enthusiasm. Unlike during the times of Reykjavik (see inset), Russia has no other attributes of a great power other than its nuclear arsenal, and Moscow believes that its status without it is in question," says Alexei Arbatov, head of the Center for International Security at the IMEMO RAS.

"In the West, Russia is viewed as a country with a set of problems - in demography, economy, education, standard of living. We believe that the country must be truly strong economically, so flaunting nuclear weapons and using the same methods to solve both domestic and foreign policy problems, as the Russian leadership does, is not the smartest decision. All Western misunderstanding rests on the opposite interpretation of what is happening, especially after the conflicts in Georgia and Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea," former British Defense Minister Des Browne commented on the situation to Vedomosti.

The worst moment in thirty years