It is no secret that US-Russia relations have grown sour in recent years, with the Obama Administration paring back ties, and President Trump aiming to avoid more than the bare minimum contact with Russia. Clearly, this is not an environment for things to improve.



But according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it’s not just that things are getting bad, “they are in fact deteriorating, getting worse by the hour.” He cautioned things are just getting worse and worse.



The comments were made on state TV, a contrast to comments about improving Russia-China trade ties. Putin reported that trade in 2019 had already exceeded his trade target by $8 billion.



Russian officials are also expressing displeasure at new US military deployments in Poland, seeing them as another concerning move putting more US troops near the Russian border. This has been a source of tensions for years, and is only growing.



Now, US and Russian positions seem to differ on everything, with the US moving away from the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, moving away from existing nuclear treaties with Russia, and dialing up threats on Iran as Russia warns them against such escalation.





Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz