For as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin runs Moscow, relations between Russia and the West are likely to remain hostile, writes the Russia analyst Alexander Gabuev in a new essay from the forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. But there will come a day when Russia is no longer ruled by Putin—and the United States and Europe must prepare “to seize the window of opportunity that will open with Putin’s exit from the stage.”
Western leaders must let Russians know that it is possible to forge “a new kind of relationship,” one defined by “specific terms for a peaceful coexistence,” Gabuev writes. The next generation of Moscow elites might “unwind the most toxic aspects” of Putin’s policies—“but only if they know that the door could open on the Western side.” If American and European leaders fail to provide such assurance, he warns, “they risk abetting Putin’s efforts to make confrontation with the West a permanent legacy.”
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