Events vindicate Russia, and Washington negotiates in bad faith

This position holds that events have vindicated Russia's position and that the West must recognise it, while Washington negotiates in bad faith, pressuring Moscow even as it claims to seek a deal. Its advocates say Western containment has failed, that sanctions were always unworkable, that Washington is becoming more realistic, and that the United States drives the arms race.

Russian outlets voice it, 13 publishers in all, in the disputes over the US-Russia strategic relationship, sanctions relief as leverage, the bilateral channel and normalisation, and nuclear arms control.

It is answered by three positions: that the reopened US-Russia channel and energy waivers are pragmatic realism, that the United States is an unreliable ally, and that the Global South may buy energy from whom it chooses. The first two share the position's view of Washington's course but disagree on what it means. Recent events show Congress and President Trump passing a Russia sanctions law with tariff powers, the Kremlin calling it unfriendly and harmful to Ukraine peace efforts, China and India objecting, and Trump also backing an easing of some sanctions if political prisoners are released.