From Hope to Hostility: US Relations With Putin’s Russia

Special Episode

A special episode of AT THE BRINK

When the Cold War ended in 1992, there was great hope for the newly formed Russian Federation. They worked closely with the US to help control the thousands of loose nukes scattered around former Soviet states like Ukraine. But following a series of major economic problems, and missteps by the West, Russia turned in a new direction, when a previously obscure ex-KGB agent named Vladimir Putin took over as President in 2000. In this episode, former US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, and former US Secretary of Defense, William Perry talk about their up close and personal interactions with Russia through the 1990s and the 2000s, and try to make sense of how US-Russian relations have deteriorated to today’s dangerous hostility.

Guests:

Michael McFaul
@McFaul
U.S. Ambassador to Russia 2012-2014. Special Assistant to the President 2009-2012. Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor in International Studies in Political Science and Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Author, most recently of From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia.

Bill Perry

19th U.S. Secretary of Defense; Co-author, THE BUTTON: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump