The U.S. original intention was that they would aid Russia in integrating itself into the Western-based international system. As believed, this integration would reap two positive effects. The international system would offer not only financial, but political and security resources as incentives to Russia for reform and transition towards a market and democratic government. In addition, United States could p

By "internationalizing" Russia on the basis of consistent principles of human rights and non-aggression, the U.S. would avoid a division into spheres of influence and preserve the capacity to challenge Russia on human rights violations (in Chechnya, for example). U.S. should encourage governance and rule of law (Cohen).

http://www.foreignpolcy_infocus.org/briefs/vol1/RUSSIA/html

In truth, Washington had not involved Russia into important international organizations. The government included a package of very specific economic reforms that were not supported by a broad base of social and political actors in Russia itself. The government's aid packages, negotiations, and advice about what kinds of economic reforms needed to be at the forefront of Russian efforts were focused on a narrow elite within the Russian government. This elite group did not enjoy broad societal support and used its access and support from the West and these narrow sets of policies to beat out political opponents whenever they could. This is one of the reasons U. S. policies are so implicated in the corruption that Russians have known about long before the Bank of New York scandal and in the inequities they see in the form of privatization and who has suffered from the implementation of IMF programs (Wallander).

The U.S. current security actions can be changed to improve its relations with Russia. There will not really be a loss economically for the U.S., but instead a gain in relations with Russia. The U.S. has created programs to prevent nuclear theft in Russia and to reduce the amounts of fissile matter owned by the two countries. Since nuclear theft and nuclear smuggling are serious threats to the U.S. national security, this should be a top priority for the new foreign policy. For these programs to be successful, they need both political and financial support.

After the Cold War, many had believed that the nuclear arm race would end. During the Bush administration, Bush tried to improve and increase U.S. security by promoting arm control agreements and nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union. There have been attempts in reducing both sides' nuclear arsenals and enhancing controls over weapons of mass destruction, including measures to avoid their proliferation. U.S. wants Russia to improve accountability standards for nuclear material and to dismantle hundreds of Russian nuclear weapons. Such cooperation takes place under the umbrella of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program and numerous Defense and Energy Department activities (Payne).

In twelve personal meetings since 1993, President Clinton and President Yeltsin laid the foundation for a bilateral relationship based on cooperation. The United States remains committed to maintaining a constructive relationship with Russia in which it would seek to expand areas of cooperation and frankly resolve differences without confrontation. However, these good intentions failed to achieve any success of reviving the Russian economy or integrating it with the Western-based system (Wallander).

Russia's economy is also in a dismal state and is getting worse. Although the statistics agencies reported a growth in industrial output in 1997, real profits in industry were down by five percent. Almost fifty percent of the industrial enterprises reported losses, a dramatic jump from the twenty-seven percent two years ago. As part of its economic policy, Washington had supported free trade policies that eliminated barriers to U.S. imports. As a result, Russia opened greatly to the West, from 1990-1994, imports grew from 14-39% in retail, but with few markets and a decreasing of the domestic market, Russian industries have fell dramatically (Gaddy). Investment was down for at least seven years in a row (In 1997, the overall level of capital investment in the economy's production sectors was only seventeen percent of what it was in 1990. In metalworking and engineering, it was an unbeliev

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