Die Gefahren von „Russland First“: Beschwichtigung Moskau hat in der Vergangenheit nicht funktioniert, und es wird für Trump nicht funktionieren

[SS from essay by Alexander Vindman, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, is Director of the Institute for Informed American Leadership at the Vet Voice Foundation. From 2018 to 2020, he was Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council. He is the author of [*The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine*](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alexander-vindman/the-folly-of-realism/9781541705043/?lens=publicaffairs).]

President Donald Trump’s approach to Russia and Ukraine—deferring to Moscow, bullying Kyiv—may seem like a radical departure from precedent. In fact, it is only Trump’s extreme style of diplomacy that is novel, as exemplified by the public scolding he meted out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February. No American president has ever so publicly taken Russia’s side against one of Washington’s European partners.

But the administration’s broader approach to the region is nothing new. Every U.S. president over more than a quarter century has accommodated Moscow, with consistently bad outcomes. Call it “Russia first”: over three decades and six presidential administrations, Washington has sought to normalize or improve relations with Moscow, accommodating the Kremlin at the expense of other former Soviet states. Time and again, this policy of engagement effectively rewarded Russian revanchism. A series of “resets” with Moscow failed to produce long-term stability and encouraged Russia’s mounting aggression.