Russians have been speaking in a conciliatory tone recently. Take Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's article published a few weeks ago in the magazine "Russia and Global Affairs."
"We are not seeking confrontation with the United States, or the European Union, or NATO. On the contrary, Russia is open to the widest possible cooperation with its Western partners," he wrote.
He argued Russia was misunderstood and still viewed in the now obsolete pre-WWII view of a totalitarian aggressor.
"The notion of the 'clash of two totalitarianisms,' which is now actively inculcated in European minds, including at schools, is groundless and immoral. The Soviet Union, for all its evils, never aimed to destroy entire nations."
Russians have been speaking in a conciliatory tone recently. Take Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's article published a few weeks ago in the magazine "Russia and Global Affairs."
"We are not seeking confrontation with the United States, or the European Union, or NATO. On the contrary, Russia is open to the widest possible cooperation with its Western partners," he wrote.
He argued Russia was misunderstood and still viewed in the now obsolete pre-WWII view of a totalitarian aggressor.
"The notion of the 'clash of two totalitarianisms,' which is now actively inculcated in European minds, including at schools, is groundless and immoral. The Soviet Union, for all its evils, never aimed to destroy entire nations."
Asymmetrical response
This has not gone down well in Moscow, prompting anything but conciliatory words in response. Russia's envoy to NATO, Aleksandr Grushko, retaliated by vowing a "totally asymmetrical" response if the alliance stands by a plan and deploys new armoured units to Eastern Europe.
"We are not passive observers, we consistently take all the military measures we consider necessary in order to counterbalance this reinforced presence that is not justified by anything," he told the TV channel Russia-24. "Certainly, we'll respond totally asymmetrically."
But is such a response justified? While the country claims it's not an aggressor, its actions speak louder than its words. Crimea and Ukraine aside, its violations of European air and sea space suggest anything but a peace-loving, friendly attitude.
In the nine months between April and November 2014 there were 39 incidents involving armed Russian fighter jets or naval craft between the UK and the Baltics. A further eight incidents were reported between November and May 2015, some involving near misses with civilian aircraft and diversions of passenger planes.
Russia may argue this show of strength is a natural response to what it sees as an aggressive NATO on its border, but somewhere along the line the two sides are going to have to sit down and sort this out. And that won't be easy, US president, Barack Obama wants to talk about reductions in nuclear arsenals before he leaves office, but with a build-up of US troops in Europe it's not likely Russia will be listening.
Propaganda war
Testing times for Putin and his aides
In fact Russia is expecting relations between it and the West to deteriorate even further. The Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has warned Russians to expect an avalanche of negative press about President Vladimir Putin as the West continues its bid to "destabilize" the country, and the deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, has criticized US presidential candidates for "blackening" Russia's name to boost their ratings without considering the effect on bilateral relations.
"Many US presidential candidates … behave like Cold War troopers when they 'ride' the anti-Russian rhetoric. This is regrettable and it does not promise any changes for the better in our relations with the United States after the elections there," Ryabkov told the newspaper Izvestia.
Lavrov hopes that Germany, France, Italy and Spain understand that it's impossible to solve the security issues affecting Europe, the Middle East and Asia without Russia's help and will push for closer cooperation. The UK, however, may not join that bandwagon - not yet anyway.
Foreign secretary Philip Hammond recently told Reuters he wasn't convinced Russia was a reliable partner and if Reuters is right in its report that claims Russia is shipping more military hardware to Syria than its pulling out, Hammond may well be right in thinking that the conciliatory rhetoric is little more than hollow platitudes.
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