If we were an imperialist military power, Canada would be doing the same with us instead of trying to pretend they're really part of Europe.
What gets me about the way the media portrays the United States is the obvious dichotomy between how they portray us and what they actually think we are. There is no intellectually honest argument for portraying America as an militant, imperialist power because of such allegations were actually true, they'd be too afraid to point it out.
If you want to improve relations with Russia, get American military bases and forces out of Central Asia. So long as American troops are on what used to be Soviet, not to mention Imperial Russian soil, this will be bone of massive contention.