From poisonings to annexations: a timeline of Russia’s fallout with the West

I’ve observed Russia for decades, from within and outside. I traveled a lot for education and eventually immigrated to the US, but feel I have a good grasp of how Russia and its relation with the West have evolved. Below is my account of the key events — a casual one, not an attempt to analyze history or make judgments.

Yeltsin and the 1990s

It was a very turbulent decade as Russia tried to march away from the Soviet epoch towards a bright future. Russia’s relations with the US were probably at their historic high. The country was broke and on its knees but trying to rebuild. The US was quite literally helping Russia with its effort to transition to a new system. If you’re in the I-hate-Yeltsin-he-sold-and-destroyed-everything camp — and many Russians today are like that— you look back at this “help” with loathing. Indeed, the reforms and privatizations, prescribed by Western economists, created a lot of pain and turbulence; a select few got extremely rich and powerful, and the vast majority of the population was impoverished throughout the Nineties. Still though, if you look at the picture below and think that Clinton and Yeltsin were buddies, it’s because they were. Cold War no longer.

Arrival of Putin (1999)