OREANDA-NEWS. Relations between Moscow and Washington resemble those of the Cold War, with the US continuing to perceive Russia as an "evil empire". This was stated by former CIA officer Joe Weisberg in an article for The Washington Post.

According to Weisberg, anti-Russian propaganda continues in the United States, and even now many US military personnel are still influenced by it, heeding statements about Russia's "aggressiveness and moral failings.

Despite the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR, the US still perceives Russia as an enemy. "Instead of trying to understand Putin's point of view, we perceive him as an evil force that attacks our country, using propaganda and lies to turn our citizens against each other,"- Weisberg writes.

According to Weisberg, the complexity of the bilateral relationship stems from both Moscow's and Washington's desire to "have an enemy."

Russia has also claimed that US-Russian relations are in crisis. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the only way to pull U.S.-Russian relations out of crisis was to find a balance of interests.

On 16 December, the Russian Foreign Ministry disclosed demands for security guarantees from the U.S. authorities. In particular, Russia believes that the U.S. should not establish military bases on the territory of states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, and calls on Washington to commit to exclude further NATO expansion eastward. The White House responded by saying that negotiations on security guarantees should take place with the participation of US allies in Europe.