ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a panoramic overview of change and continuity in Russian perceptions of the United States since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It aims to deconstruct and represent the way in which Moscow has perceived Washington during the period under discussion. During the decades since the Soviet collapse one can identify three stages in the evolution of the Russian geostrategic perception of itself and of the United States: euphoria; disillusionment; and competition, which recently transformed into occasional confrontation. Moscow began to see non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNW) as a means of compensating for falling behind the US in strategic weapons, in addition to its traditional view of this capability as an equalizer of its conventional inferiority vis--vis NATO. Moscow did not take at face value US declarations that it's Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) and Prompt Global Strike (PGS) Programs were intended to counter terrorists and rogue states, considering this a smokescreen for the United State's main goal.
