Russia was the central and strongest part of the former USSR. USSR continued as the second superpower of the world till it disintegrated by the liberal policies of its General Secretary, Gorbachev in 1990. Though the disintegration of USSR weakened Russia, it is certainly not out of reckoning in world politics. Recent political developments like the total response of Russia in Georgia in 2008, its aggressive policies in Central Asia, counter measures to stop expansion of NATO alliance further east, new military bases, attempts to move closer to China and similar manoeuvres prove the rising confidence and importance of Russia in the world politics.

Georgia as aCaucasus country ofEurasia, situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe withRussia in the north was a part of the Soviet Union till it declared independence on April 9, 1991, shortly before the collapse of the USSR. Georgia is keen to joinNATO and the European Union.

Two regions of Georgia, namelyAbkhazia and South Ossetia, after simmering disputes and widespread inter-ethnic violence and wars with Georgia, supported byRussia, declared independence from Georgia in 1995.

Ossetian capital,Tskhinvali in the late evening of August, Georgian armed forces began pushing into South Ossetia. Russia sent troops into South Ossetia to help the latter. The conflict between Georgia on the one side and Russia, Ossetian, and Abkhazian separatists on the other quickly escalated into a full-scalewar in which Georgian forces were decimated.

Russian military troops invadedAbkhazia, and seized additional territories of Western Georgia. Russia recognized the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Both Russia and the United States of America are very important countries in today\u2019s world politics. The relationship between the United States of America and Russia is at its lowest ebb since the last twenty-five years.

This is some thing that both of these two countries would like to change. Russia has been hoping that with Obama at the helm, things would change quickly. With George Bush at the helm, things were a disaster and things kept on going from worse to worse. Obama says that he will try his best to improve relationships with Russia; however, there are many people who are very skeptical about this because of the precedence and the state of the world politics at this juncture

Even after the end of the Cold War, Russia and the United States of America have not enjoyed cordial and friendly relations with each other. This is some thing that both of these two countries are anxious to change now. They had a deterioration of their relationship during the time of George Bush as the President of the United States of America. However, it looks as if the United States of America under Barack Obama as President will change this.

As Obama looks to visit Dimity Medvedev and then Putin in 2009, it looks as if Obama attaches importance to Russia as he has visited Russia before he visited China and Japan. This is how it is seen in Russia and also all over the world.

The visit is of course good for Russia-US relationships in future. It looks as if Russia and the US who actually almost came into conflict a few days during the Georgia war of 2008 are intent on improving their relationship. The United States of America and Russia are trying for a new treaty to replace the START treaty that the United States and Russia had signed a few years back in order to decrease their respective nuclear weapons in contrast to the reluctance of George Bush for signing such a new treaty of arms reduction with Russia. Barack Obama is treating Russia more as a friend since he came to the helm in USA. Russia feels this is a very good sign.

Thus signing a nuclear weapons reduction treaty is some thing that Russia and the United States are hoping to do as soon as possible. President Barack Obama visited Russia in 2009 to sign a new treaty with Russia to replace the START-I treaty which had run out a few months back and which had not been renewed by the former President, George Bush. President Obama began the tour with a wrong move. He tried to play off Putin and Medvedev against each other and failed miserably. Obama had been overconfident in trying out a move like that at this crucial time, especially in a place where even the slightest move is scrutinized in detail under a microscope.

Obama\u2019s meeting with Medvedev was not as successful as it was hoped and they still have a large number of differences still and it will require a lot of time and efforts to resolve them.

It looks as if Russia wants USA to treat it more as a friend now that the Cold War is a distant memory. The United States of America till Barack Obama took over as the President of the United States of America had been secretly allying and supportive of the enemies of Russia through its clandestine intelligence outfit, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and busy also building bases near and around Russia in Central Asia and has embarked on a missile defense system in the region apart from being aggressive in expanding NATO network up to the western border of Russia. These measures made Russia