MODERN RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND WESTERN COUNTRIES: HISTORICAL PARALLELS

Abstract

The article covers the crisis state of relations between Russia and Western countries at the beginning of the 21st century, attempting to answer the question of whether this situation is the manifestation of a new cold war. Using a comparison method, the author analyses the processes inherent to modern Russian-Western relations, as well as the events of the second half of the 1940s associated with the Soviet-American confrontation. The author finds similarities and differences in the causes of aggravated relations between the sides in different time periods; identifies program documents promoting confrontation; as well as demonstrates some ways, means and methods used in the years of the cold war and in the new era of confrontation. The author presents his vision of the current state of relations between Russia and Western countries, noting some historical lessons arising from the confrontation between the USSR and the USA.