'What we are looking for is a strategic understanding with Moscow about how we provide for global stability, for stability across Europe between Russia and the US, so that the fundamental stability of the world is put on a firmer basis than it has been.'<blockquote>'Sir John Sawers, the former head of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), is also a former UK ambassador to the United Nations and has watched Russian diplomacy unfold over recent years. He prefers to focus on the more recent period.
In a recent BBC interview he said that the West had not paid sufficient attention to building the right strategic relationship with Russia over the last eight years.
"If there was a clear understanding between Washington and Moscow about the rules of the road - that we are not trying to bring down each other's systems - then solving regional problems like Syria or Ukraine or North Korea - which is coming rapidly down the path towards us - would be easier," he said.
..
Sir John told the BBC that, in his view, "there is a big responsibility on the next US president (and I very much hope it will be Hillary Clinton - he notes) to establish a different sort of relationship. We are not looking for a warmer relationship with Russia and we are not looking for a frostier relationship with Russia", he asserts.
"What we are looking for is a strategic understanding with Moscow about how we provide for global stability, for stability across Europe between Russia and the US, so that the fundamental stability of the world is put on a firmer basis than it has been." '
- Jonathan Marcus,
Russia and the West: Where did it all go wrong? October 17, 2016</blockquote>
Context Possible direction: ease or completely lift sanctions on the civilian sector, maximum sanctions on the military sector. Crimea: a neutral satellite.<blockquote>
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