| Abstract: | Even before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to explore possible areas of cooperation with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in Iceland on the sidelines of the Arctic Council ministerial meeting on May 20, a lot of damage had already been done to the traditionally fragile bilateral relationship. As recently as in April, Lavrov said in a state television interview that Russia's relations with the U.S. are now even worse than during Cold War times because of a lack of mutual respect. |
