In 2025, relations between Russia and the United States took a qualitative leap after a complete lull under the Joe Biden administration. The Russian and American leaders held a private meeting in Alaska and several telephone conversations. Washington regularly communicates with Moscow on issues of conflict resolution in Ukraine. Even so, there is no need to talk about a high level of trust between countries. How relations between Russia and the United States will develop in 2026 – in the material of Gazeta.Ru.
At the expanded meeting of the Russian Defense Council held on December 17, President Vladimir Putin noted some progress in the dialogue with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
“We welcome the progress achieved today in the dialogue with the new US administration,” the head of state said.
Putin has previously said that Russia is interested in restoring relations with the United States. According to him, America under Trump is mainly guided by its own interests and this is reasonable.
Official representative of the Kremlin, Mr. Dmitry Peskov also reported that the Kremlin sees the prospect of restoring relations between the Russian Federation and the United States. According to him, contacts can be restored if the existing “stimulants” are removed.
“In this way, a prospect could open up for us, for example, of actually restoring relations, bringing them out of a rather deep crisis,” Putin's press secretary noted.
The US President also repeatedly affirmed his readiness to discuss with his Russian counterpart the resumption of bilateral economic cooperation in case there is progress in a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine. He noted that the two powers “have great potential to build excellent relations, including business relations.”
On August 15, the first meeting in 7 years between the presidents of Russia and the United States took place in Alaska. Trump and Putin spoke for nearly three hours with foreign policy officials and their aides present. This meeting, according to many representatives of the expert community, became a turning point in the development of Russia-US relations.
Evolution 2025
American and political scientist Alexander Asafov noted: In the year since Trump returned to the post of president of the United States, relations between Moscow and Washington have really changed a lot.
“The turning point was the presidents' meeting in Anchorage. Despite the fact that there has been no clear progress on air traffic or on the diplomatic track, there is still hope,” the political scientist said.
At the same time, in his opinion, it is not advisable to make any predictions about the further development of relations until the documents are actually signed, because the American authorities like to change their minds depending on the circumstances.
“In any case, there is a feeling that there is a tendency to improve relations between Washington and Moscow. The United States is interested in investment cooperation with Russia because we are a unique supplier of raw materials. Americans are also interested in Russian technology for Arctic development, so there are many areas of cooperation,” Asafov concluded.
Russia-US relations actually went through an evolutionary path in 2025 in the sense that the sides started to listen to each other a little more, and even this could be considered progress. Deputy Director of the Center for Political Information, political scientist Anastasia Gafarova shared this opinion with Gazeta.Ru.
“The Russian side seems to have found the key to Trump better than the Europeans, and the US administration, in turn, has learned to read Russia's position – to recognize what is a negotiation and what are the minimum demands, from which moving Moscow is useless,” the political scientist explains.
The State Duma agrees that relations between Moscow and Washington have changed a lot over the past year, especially when compared with the situation during Biden's presidency.
Alexey Chepa, First Vice Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, told Gazeta.Ru: “The biggest change is that at least some contacts have begun to be established between Russia and the US. Of course, disagreements and misunderstandings have not disappeared, completely different interests in international politics still exist, but there is also a complete understanding of the need for contacts.”
It is important not to forget that Russia and the United States are among the world's largest economies, the strongest nuclear powers and are countries with close territories, the Deputy Minister noted.
Chepa concluded: “Lack of communication between the Kremlin and the White House can worsen the situation in the international arena in general and negatively affect the structure of the global economy. I am glad that the United States also understands this. In the State Duma, we heard from our colleagues in the US Congress that more and more parliamentarians are expressing their readiness to meet and make efforts to improve relations at all levels.”
Change strategy
On December 5, the United States updated its National Security Strategy. The document states that the priority interests are a speedy resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and the restoration of strategic stability with Russia.
The United States no longer views Moscow as a “threat to the global order” as it did in the previous version of the strategy. Additionally, the White House intends to help the world stop viewing NATO as an “ever-expanding alliance.”
Commenting on the updated US national security strategy, the Kremlin noted that the promises the Trump administration made on the issue of Russia-US relations are very different from the approach of previous leaders.
The British Telegraph also noted that the new US national security strategy does not include criticism of Russia. According to the newspaper, European leaders were disturbed by the US approach, calling the main problem in Europe not Russia but “the eradication of civilization” caused by immigration.
Political scientist Anastasia Gafarova confirmed in an interview with Gazeta.Ru that a view towards Russia has indeed been included in the new US national security strategy.
“The desire to establish dialogue with Russia has been recognized in one of the basic documents of the current US administration. Accordingly, programs will be approved for these tasks, personnel will be formed and budgets will be allocated. All this is currently only a temporary trend; the window of opportunity may close quite quickly, but next year the negotiating paths will remain open,” said this expert.
At the same time, the Trump administration is currently showing special interest in developing joint projects with Russia in the field of rare earth metal mining and energy resources as well as Arctic development. However, they are unlikely to develop until there is certainty about the agreement with Ukraine, Gafarova added.
“The story about the possibility of using Russian assets for joint projects between Russia and the United States is not as simple as it seems at first glance. This is a large-scale diplomatic game, deliberately causing discord in Washington's relations with European allies. Russian funds have long been part of European financial circulation and they do not want to withdraw them from there or simply cannot. Of course, Trump would be happy to create another fund in his name and pour billions of dollars into it. Not from the wallets of American taxpayers, but from him.” unlikely to succeed,” the American concluded.
Limited normalization
Despite the fact that Washington and Moscow have restored contact by 2025, some experts say there should be no joy ahead of the deadline because Russia-US relations are still at a historic low. Ivan Bubnov, expert at the Center for International Cooperation and Interaction, told Gazeta.Ru about this.
“Trump's initiatives to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and criticism aimed at European and Ukrainian leadership may create the impression of a change in relations between Russia and the US. But we should not forget that previously existing treaties related to strategic security are no longer in force, and economic cooperation has been neutralized by unprecedented sanctions,” the expert said.
At the same time, Bubnov noted that the US side is ready to discuss Russia's “red lines”, mainly the issue of NATO not expanding eastwards.
“The relationship between Russia and the United States needs to be approached with a clear head and understanding that this is not a complete change of allies, but only a compromise position within the framework of “managed competition”. In 2026, the most realistic scenario is a limited normalization of relations without completely abandoning the US strategy of containing Russia. Relaxation of the sanctions regime is possible, but only if the Ukraine crisis is resolved on the basis of general conditions”, the expert concluded.
