Russia has long had no illusions that with the coming to power of the new owner of the White House, something will fundamentally change in Russian-American relations.
If only it doesn't get worse.
The point is not only in the long-standing tradition of seeing in Russia the focus of all bad things, but also in ourselves.
We have become too independent and demonstrate the style of sovereign politics.
For a long time now we have not been among the students who are regularly put on peas after they have believed in the light of democratic truths emanating from the beacon of world democracy.
And there was also such a time - naive, romantic, when it seemed that ideological contradictions had been overcome and why not love each other, why not embrace and in these arms not walk through life for the sake of universal prosperity ...
It turned out that in reality, after a short respite, breathing and the style of cold confrontation were reanimated again.
So much so that all relationships are practically on the brink of an ice age.
As soon as we show our own voice, will, declare our interests and begin to defend them.
Immediately, speech about a crisis of democracy begins to pour in like lightning.
Its measure is now clear: American interests and the inviolability of their belief in their own exclusiveness.
Now, if we sing along and praise, as well as put their shale gas above our Nord Stream 2, then everything will be fine and again we will be nice for a while.
A little to one side - a threat to democracy, if not to all of humanity.
This is how they live.
They have long confused their “wool” with democratic values.
The important thing is that it is not Russia that builds the wall of alienation, it does not become the initiator of the global confrontation.
Where morals are almost like in a tough sport, when you have to fight and stand to the last, even if everyone is against you: both the judges and the stands, and all conditions are created solely for you to capitulate and leave ashamed under the whistle.
So the Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said that our country is ready for a "pragmatic and mutually beneficial dialogue" with the new American administration.
Actually, this is a principled position: not to follow the path of isolationism, although we are constantly being pushed towards it.
Like, what is easier: slam the door, shut up and not stick out.
But the experience of the Iron Curtains is well known.
It is clear that Biden will not reset our relationship.
The rhetoric in relation to Russia will remain plus or minus the same, otherwise the world picture of the same Americans will float, after all, they have been told for decades about vicious and insidious Russians, if not wild and horrible, then insane and narrow-minded with a permanent earflap on their heads.
But there is hope for the possibility of reaching agreements on key issues related to global security, and under Trump there was a consistent line to dismantle this system.
This is exactly what Maria Zakharova, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said shortly before Joseph Biden took office.
She noted that the change of American presidents does not lead to a radical change in our relations and we have not harbored illusions on this score for a long time, but at the same time we are "interested in bilateral interaction on global issues."
We are talking about arms control agreements.
Statements have already been made that the new Washington administration will support the extension of START and START III for a period of five years, which will give a certain pause necessary to develop a new course on this issue and new agreements.
It should be recalled that President Putin, congratulating Biden on his victory in the elections, noted in his telegram that our countries bear "a special responsibility for global security and stability."
Russia, first of all, expects the same understanding of responsibility on the part of America.
This is where our main points of contact are.
It is hoped that Biden's team will focus more on real solutions to internal problems, rather than engaging in the old searches and denunciations of universal evil.
Recent events, including the last elections, have shown that there are very, very many problems in the States themselves.
The same split in society has long ceased to be something virtual and rhetorical figure.
In this situation, you can, of course, again focus on Russia and pour out the entire arsenal of traditional "dialogue" with it in the form of sanctions, accusations, unfair competition and other things, but whether this will be better for America itself is a big question.
By the way, it was possible to notice that at the last elections in the United States the topic of Russia faded into the background.
It arose only by inertia and habit.
There were no previous emotions associated with "Russian hackers" and Russia's alleged interference in the elections.
They themselves intervened, they decided everything.
There was no apocalyptic hysteria that accompanied Trump's electoral victory at one time, and after all, then the pumping was so massive that a stable feeling was created that a world war was about to break out.
Let's hope for a decrease in aggressive rhetoric against Russia, because it was Trump, according to legend, who poured water into the Russian mill.
He is no longer in the White House - and it seems that one can calm down a little on this score ...
Again, the same fall of the Capitol, preceding Biden's inauguration, which took place in conditions close to the "besieged fortress."
Isn't this a signal that the American vanity of exclusivity is a long outdated ideological atavism and an illusion that has so far been shaken in such a light version, but there may be more harsh scenarios, if these same bells are not paid attention to and an internal worldview reboot.
We were once convinced that all problems and confrontation are due to the communist ideology.
Here it is not, but there are almost more problems.
There are suspicions that the point is now in the ideology of American exceptionalism and passion for domination, which, among other things, aggravates their foreign policy stagnation.
This means that the same stagnation will be observed in our relationships.
“We, frankly, have long lost the habit of a normal dialogue with the United States, but hope, as they say, is the last to die.
Let's hope that under the 46th President of the United States, Russian-American relations still will not break through again, and the undeclared Cold War 2.0 will not turn into an ice age, "said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian parliament after Biden assumed presidency. Leonid Slutsky.
He also expressed hope for a constructive relationship, although he made a reservation that "there are few grounds for even cautious optimism."
The general ideology of attitudes towards Russia is a kind of relay baton that is now being passed from one American president to another.
Only one accompanies its carrying with speeches that America is above all, and the other - about the global protection of democracy from "heretics" and "infidels".
Only now the next breaking of the bottom in Russian-American relations threatens with big problems not only to international stability, but also to the States themselves.
Something suggests that our goodwill and hopes will again stumble upon rocks: sharp teeth, including sanctions, and noisy gulps of Russophobia and levers of mass intimidation by our country.
Well, that's not our fault.
We are ready to talk, not shout and lecture, we are ready to go to overcome the wall of alienation.
Russia has no passion for confrontation.
The states would also have to realize that we are not an enemy, not an enemy who must be crushed, not an image of universal evil.
Otherwise, every time it turns out that instead of the symbolic button "reset" we get an error and the inscription "overload" - almost like "trouble" instead of "victory" ...
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.