When leaving, open the door

The United States must continue to look for opportunities for cooperation with Russia, despite the fact that there are fewer such options "because of the behavior of Russian President Vladimir Putin." This was stated by the outgoing head of the Pentagon Aston Carter in an interview with Bloomberg.

“I see areas where we can cooperate, but there are fewer and fewer of them,” Carter said. “The points of contact for collaboration progressively decreased over the past 10 years. And this is the reality in which we are now.”

“This is the trajectory that Russia has chosen,” said the US Minister of Defense. According to Carter, it is difficult to build cooperation when the Russian authorities define their interests "how to deliberately in the opposition to the United States."

Carter noted that interaction with Russia in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria has not succeeded. " The Pentagon believes that the United States attempts to coordinate the actions of the "moderate" opposition were broken due to the Russian military support of the Bashar Assad regime.

Carter nevertheless believes that cooperation with Moscow is in principle possible. He noted that the United States and NATO “found a way of interaction” with Russia during ethnic conflicts in the Balkans after the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Among the regions where the cooperation between the two countries is still “possible”, the head of the Pentagon called the restrictions on the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.

On January 6, Carter said that Russia did nothing to fight the Islamic State in Syria. “They (Russia. - Ed.) Fight against the moderate opposition along with the Syria government,” the head of the Pentagon explained. “Everything that they did was incorrectly and exactly the opposite of what they promised.”

As for Russia's actions in other countries, Carter continued, Putin adopted a strategy that "clearly interferes with the United States." “It seems to me that this is part of his self -perception,” the head of the Pentagon suggested. “One of the factors with which he measures the success of his policy is not what results he achieves on Earth, but what level of discomfort he creates for the rest of the world.”

On January 12, the future US Secretary of Defense James Mattis at a hearing in the Senate said that Russia has the greatest threat to world order since the Second World War. With other threats, he called Islamic terrorism and the actions of China in the South China Sea.

Mattis also said that together with his subordinates plans to develop a project of strategy for the confrontation of Russia in the world arena. "I would like to know closer to my security team, to develop a draft strategy to counteract Russia due to what it has already done," he said.

The United States should interact with Russia, Mattis believes, because countries interacted even during the Cold War. At the same time, the candidate said, the United States must resist Russia in areas where cooperation is impossible, and defend itself from Russia if it acts against American interests.