Cold War Tough Guy Versus World Power

"This is a situation largely of Putin's own making. There is a tendency on the part of his crew and himself to place a kind of tough rivalry with the United States as a critical part of the general orientation of foreign policy, and it's no longer a matter of two superpowers balancing each other. A hard-minded, tough, unflinching" Russian leader might achieve certain political benefits but "it has been pushed a bit too far."
"He has chosen to be a sort of hard guy, a tough guy. The Cold War was about a rivalry, about dominating the world in a sense, and this is not what's at stake in U.S.-Russia relationships anymore and hasn't been since the end of the Soviet Union. Which side, U.S. or Russia, has had the bigger problem adjusting to this? Well, it's been Russia and Putin."
Professor Walter Connor, Boston University, international relations

Russia may no longer be considered a world power, but it longs for a return to that era when its hegemonic structure of virtual sovereignty over its neighbours through the administrative institution of the United Soviet Socialist Republic lent it grave authority, respect, and fear. It is nostalgia for that time, and an inherent refusal to believe that time has passed, that informs Vladimir Putin's drive to mount a contrived effort to restore the Great Man reputation of Joseph Stalin.

The Kremlin, and Vladimir Putin in particular, hugely resents Russia's former satellite countries moving into the sphere of influence of Western Europe and the United States, through joining the European Union and NATO. Russia's raging impotence over its former allies' betrayal of their 'shared' values and policies leads to its imposition of insults and assaults against former USSR satellites, and resistance to giving any support to U.S.-initiated overtures within the United Nations.

If the United States as the world's sole remaining super-power takes it upon itself to attempt to persuade by any means, whether gentle or by extortion-sanctioning, other nations to restrain their ambitions within the stated world goals of peace and understanding between countries, they can be assured that Russia will find some apparent reason, alongside China, to balk at presenting a unified front within the Security Council.

Russia, with its now-comfortable exchequer thanks to nature's generous natural resources, feels itself prepared to flout the norms in national behaviour that the West recognizes. And if the United States leads a coalition that sees fit for sound enough reasons to denounce the unsettling and dangerous direction that outlier states like North Korea, Iran and Syria take through their oppressive regimes, Russia will pull out all its stops to foil such attempts to sanction.

There are two final straws that broke the American back of resilience and accommodation with Russia; one and the most affecting for the United States at present, is the decision to give safe haven from prosecution to American Edward Snowden, the former intelligence insider who chose to abscond with U.S. intelligence secrets for reasons he insists were strictly honourable, and for which the U.S. holds him as a traitor.

The second, which has greater international resonance at a time when the alternate-gender community has finally made huge inroads in acceptance in European and North American society, is Russia's decision, led by ultra-heroic-masculine-figure Vladimir Putin, to criminalize all non-furtive and thus undisclosed activity by homosexuals, lesbians, transgendered who happen to be within the Russian sphere of influence.

This new legislation's impact on the forthcoming Sochi Olympics where gay athletes from international communities competing in the games or visiting in support of their teams, will fall under Russian surveillance to ensure their activities and their presence does not corrupt Russian youth, represents an assault and an insult to a vulnerable community that has long suffered the intolerance of those who view them as a social aberration.

"Our challenge is to change the world through sport and in sport, and that is what we are doing. We very much respect and welcome gay athletes to the games. We will ensure to the best of our ability that people can come and compete and spectate free of discrimination", promised IOC spokesman, Mark Adams. However, the Olympic body "cannot enter into political debate".

And nor can American President Barack Obama waste his time in honouring a pre-set one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the upcoming G20 summit scheduled for St. Petersburg next month. "There have been times where they slip back into Cold War thinking and a Cold War mentality", said Mr. Obama. And so be it.