Michael McFaul: "Improving relations with America depends only on Russia ..."

To understand the reasons for the new aggravation of Russian-American relations, it will be useful to hear the opinion of the former US ambassador to Moscow, and now a professor at one of the most authoritative scientific centers in the world - Stanford University, political scientist, specialist in Russia, Michael McFaul. Despite the fact that McFaul does not work in the Joe Biden administration, today he is considered the most popular and influential commentator on events related to Russia, Eastern Europe, and in general with international politics in the American media, including on television.

It's no secret that McFaul also actively participates in social networks, mainly on Facebook and Twitter, and enters into discussions, argues, explains and answers questions from any of his thousands of readers, regardless of his nationality and political views. McFaul even responds to the notorious "Prigogine trolls", although, of course, he blocks for direct insults.

Over the past year, readers have repeatedly asked McFaul on his blog a highly relevant question: "What should the US do to improve relations with Russia?" Invariably, he answered like this: “They shouldn't do anything. Ask - and not me - what should Russia do if wants to improve the relations?"

And recently, in an interview, he admitted that "the United States does not have the tools to spread democracy to large and authoritarian countries such as China, Russia or even Iran.."

Political scientist Konstantin Sonin commented on these words of the former ambassador:

“It seems to me that it is this approach that dominates now in the Biden administration - they do not want to improve relations with Russia, they really do not care. Until Russia wants to improve relations, no one in the American administration is going to think about it..."