2025 saw the greatest and fastest change in United States-Russia relations since the 1917 Russian Revolution. This transformation has been driven entirely by the pro-Russian and anti-Europe realignment of the Trump administration, which is badly damaging America’s security and global standing while simultaneously posing an acute threat to Europe, most obviously to Ukraine. 

It is part of the wider shift in U.S. foreign policy and worldview under Trump; a shift that involves abandoning alliances, rejecting international law and the principle of state sovereignty, scrapping diplomatic structures and practices and discarding the U.S.’s core values. Washington’s traditional foreign policy commitment to support democracy is no more. 2025 brought an abrupt end to the U.S.-dominated global order and to eight decades of alliance with the democracies of Europe.

This once-in-a-century shift was clearly signalled before Trump took office in January through the selection of individuals such as Elon Musk, J.D. Vance and Tulsi Gabbard as administration members. Then, of course, there are the statements from Trump himself, who has spoken for over a decade of his wish for the U.S. to “get along” with Russia. 

European policymakers and many analysts were reluctant to recognize this, perhaps because it seemed too frightening and too far outside their experience to be true. As a result, they were slow to react and all too willing to be reassured by the most Europe-friendly figures in and around the administration. 

But the White House’s hostility to Europe and desire for good relations with the Kremlin has become impossible to ignore.

The primary focus of Washington’s Russia policy this year has, of course, been the war in Ukraine. But the contrast with Biden’s approach over the previous three years could not be more dramatic. 

Although the previous administration was extremely cautious, fearing escalation — and often appearing........

© The Moscow Times