Reality CheckMarch/April 2020 43rife with corruption; and it is almost
totally reliant on oil revenues—hardly
markers o innovation and growth. And
yet Moscow has found clever and eective
ways to push back against an international
order that Russian President Vladimir
Putin correctly views as hostile to his
country’s interests. Through wars against
Georgia and Ukraine, Russia has man-
aged to not only halt those countries’
movements toward integration with the
U.S.-backed order but also create divisions
between Washington and its European
allies. And by spreading disinformation
via government-funded media outlets and
bankrolling extremist European parties,
Russia has exploited vulnerabilities in the
open political systems o its adversaries
and has sown polarization and division
within their electorates.
As a result, Washington and Mos-
cow are now locked in a dangerous
cycle o escalation. The United StatesIn Russia and China, the United States
now faces two emboldened rivals willing
to push against what they see as American
overreach. To make matters worse, a erce
populist backlash rejecting core tenets o
the liberal international order has roiled
both the United States and Europe. As a
result, the unied and powerful bloc o
Western democracies that once amplied
U.S. inuence across the globe has
fractured, leaving Washington without a
crucial source o support in its competi-
tion with great-power rivals. And as
Washington’s global inuence wanes, the
costs o the primacy mindset are rising.GETTING REAL WITH RUSSIA
One source o geopolitical change is
Russia. The country is in many ways an
unlikely impediment to U.S. primacy. It is
neither a thriving society nor a rising
power. On the contrary, it is a country
with an aging, shrinking population; it isHere’s to great power: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin in Tajikistan, June 2019SPUTNIK PHOTOAGENCY07_LindPress_pp4_Blues.indd 43 1/20/20 7:14 PM