Lede: For almost thirty years, the administration of each new US President has tried unsuccessfully to develop a policy towards Russia. All this time, Russian-American relations have been developing according to the usual “up-and-down” pattern: each new administration is dissatisfied with the existing relations and promises to improve them.

A new stage of tension between Russia and the US was caused by the events in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation in 2014. In connection with the events in Ukraine, the Obama administration in March 2014 started to close gates with Russia by curtailing ties and imposed visa, financial and property sanctions against a number of Russian officials, deputies of the Federal Assembly and entrepreneurs, as well as companies and banks, which have since been repeatedly extended and strengthened. The Russian side took retaliatory measures the same as the US.

“As far as I know, the US recently accused Russia of cyberattacks, to which Russia responded negatively.” – Anastasia Feoktistova

The victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November 2016 raised hopes in Russia for improving Russian-American relations. Donald Trump has repeatedly stated his desire to improve relations with Russia, but in practice the US administration has continued its confrontational line, using economic, military-political, propaganda, and other tools against Russia.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said that Moscow is the greatest threat to Washington on the international stage. In his opinion, the security of the United States and its state’s alliances with other countries are under attack from Russia.

 Students from Russia were interviewed about Biden and his words about Russia.

“About Biden, I can say that he does not inspire confidence in me. As vice president under Obama, he did not achieve anything supernatural and I believe that the United States needs someone who is ready to act. There are also many dirty rumors about his family that undermine my trust. In modern society, there are boundaries in international relations. And the Americans themselves are not subject to the deterioration of relations with Russia. How people have no choice in what kind of government in other countries really looks like. Trying to look especially like a savior country doesn’t work for me.” – Mikhail Lutikov 

“Second, I believe that China is the biggest competitor. And the approach we take will determine whether we will continue to be competitors, or whether this will develop into a more serious competition in terms of the balance of power,” Biden added.

From his point of view, the policy of the current US President Donald Trump, who “gets closer to all dictators and pokes his fingers in the eyes of friends of the state, is also a great danger for the country.

In the Kremlin, such rhetoric from the democratic candidate was perceived with regret. As stated by the press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, Moscow absolutely does not agree with the conclusions of the politician.

“We can only regret that absolute hatred of the Russian Federation is inculcated in this way and that our country is positioned as some kind of enemy. This is not the case, ” the Kremlin spokesman said.