What Does Russia Think About It?

As Cold Wars go, NATO's season of half-hearted saber-rattling at Russia over its summer offensive in Georgia was decidedly brief, and tepid. It was with a palpable sense of relief — at least in the capitals of Western Europe — that the Alliance moved this week to bury the hatchet with Moscow, agreeing at NATO summit to resume relations with Russia that had been bedeviled by Moscow's military showdown with Georgia. The move reflects a victory for Western European skepticism over what is viewed as the overly confrontational approach to Russia adopted by Washington, made possible by the waning influence of the Bush Administration and spurred by a global economic crisis demanding maximum international cooperation. But it may also mark the onset of a more assertive European Union taking the leading role previously reserved for the U.S. in defining the continent's post-Cold War relations with Russia.
Russia was unabashedly smug about the outcome of the NATO summit that ended Wednesday in Brussels, where it was agreed to resume high-level relations with Moscow. Even though the NATO agreement specified a "measured and phased approach" to restoring ties — and insisted Moscow fulfill pledges to withdraw its forces in Georgia to pre-conflict positions — it was the Europeans' eclipse of Washington's harder line that Russian officials found most encouraging. (See pictures of Russia's military campaign in Georgia)
"The resumption of NATO relations with Russia is unconditional, which we can only applaud," said Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, blithely ignoring the many qualifiers and caveats the Alliance had outlined before relations with Moscow could be fully normalized. "I personally do not see the difference between formal and informal sittings, except that you don't have coffee in an informal meeting but you still can order one."
I think it is very important to remember at this time that Russians are people just like us. The cold war was a long and expensive exercise, just because another country has another form of government is no longer a reason to be paranoid, to waste time on and money on futile pursuits, which in the end don't matter anyway. The world needs to come together and help one an other. No matter what we call our selves communist or capitalist it really is irrelevant. We all are humans.