US media about misty "reset" with Russia

It seems to me that "Washington Post" has changed its tone regarding the actual relations of the USA with Russia. In American mainstream media is visible the shift to more sober view on what is going on in Russia. The inability of Russian leadership to modernize country in a right direction become obvious. We can see contrasts of Moscow’s vision of international order with the ‘post-Westphalian Euro-Atlantic security system. Kremlin's deeply contradictory domestic and foreign policy undermining progress in Russia and post-Soviet countries. Western democracies has headaches with regime of gangsters. Former Soviet republics under the constant stress.

"WP" in article "Evaluating Russian 'Reset" written by Jennifer Rubin pointed out: " "Almost as in the Soviet system, Russia is largely a black box,"and Putin's policy just means "more "detrimental repercussions" for Russian-U.S. relations."Leon Aron, a Russian scholar at AEI in this article asserts:" past experience suggests we don't achieve much by soft-pedaling criticism" of Russia's internal behavior. He remarks, "We might as well tell the truth. The soft-shoe and the sparing their feelings routine. . . these things simply don't work." "WP recommends the Obama administration "to give up the fantasy that we share common values and interests with Russia and instead recognize the Russian leadership for what it is -- a thuggish regime that seeks to re-establish the Soviet-era notion of a "sphere of influence." Ream more...Evaluating Russian 'reset'

Ilan Berman - vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in "Washington Times" article argued that in the relations with Russia "the Obama administration,.. has elevated process over substance. It has focused on the need for new bilateral reductions of strategic weaponry, working hard to secure the 11th-hour passage of New START by the outgoing lame-duck Congress. At the same time, it has taken a laissez-faire approach to issues of human rights and democracy in Russia, preferring to gloss over them in favor of areas of greater commonality. Yet, by granting Moscow a pass on its internal conduct, Washington runs the risk of strengthening the Kremlin's rising authoritarian impulses and accelerating its drift away from democracy. That, in turn, will make a real reset in relations even harder to envision than it is at the moment." Read more...BERMAN: Tycoon resentencing undermines reset with Russia ...

With the republicans in Congress probably relations with Putin's regime will become more realistic. Realism in this case require not the tough pressure or convenient blindness, as it was much in American-Russian relations, but understanding the real nature of Kremlin regime today and its capacity.