“Russia doesn’t pose threat to U.S., Russia is America’s rival, but not enemy

MOSCOW. July 25 (Interfax) – Russia and the United States will not be friends, they are rivals in the world, but Russia does not pose a threat to America, Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the Federation council’s international affairs committee, said.
“Nikki Haley has recently stated what is apparently an official position of the United States that Russia will never be a friend of the U.S. The term ‘friends’ is probably generally not very common as regards any model of relations in international politics. I am ready to agree that the U.S. and Russia are indeed not friends,” Kosachyov said while meeting with U.S. experts on disarmament in the Federation Council.
Russia and the U.S. are actively competing with each other on the international scene, he said.
“We will be competing with each other for influence on third countries, on the weapons or natural gas markets. It’s very natural, everyone has their own interests. It’s a normal political game,” the senator said.
However, Kosachyov said one sometimes gets the impression that many U.S. politicians “begin to transfer the perception of Russia as a rival to the next perception category, as a threat, an enemy” at the level of mentality.
“We do not pose a threat to the United States of America. Russia does not agree with the global model that the U.S. is forcing on the world, a unipolar world model, but it’s not a threat to the United States of America,” Kosachyov said.

If Hillary was President, Cold War II would have started by now & Russia would be blaming America for starting it.

I think a lot of people misconstrue this. I've often heard people say that American political leaders don't understand the Russian worldview, but I actually think the problem is the reverse. I think most capable American politicians do indeed understand the Russian view, but consider it wrong (both analytically and ethically), whereas a lot of Russian politicians don't sincerely understand the American worldview.

During the Cold War, we had two clearly ideological powers. Both believed that the competition between the two was not just geopolitical, but also in part ideological. However, as neither was ever going to simply accede to the other's ideological view, which reinforced the bipolar situation.

Now, by contrast, we have one side which maintains a partly ideological view of both the world in general and the Cold War (the USA), and one which has largely dropped the ideology and switched to a purely geopolitical interpretation (Russia).

Can't fault the guys analysis


http://russialist.org/russialink-russia-doesnt-pose-threat-to-u-s-russia-is-americas-rival-but-not-enemy-kosachyov-interfax/