[DYR]

The Cold War fears are still strong in Russia, and they do feel uneasy with US bases all around their borders. Russian media not once mentioned this as the attempt of US strategic encirclement of Russia, which, in Russian public opinion, is being done to perform a sneak attack and eliminate Russia entirely, when the moment is right. Most Russians would treat US base in Georgia with similar feeling that Americans felt when they discovered USSR missiles at Cuba.
The more bases US establishes around Russia, the stronger the opinion that US quietly prepares a war to finally wipe Russia off the map. This topic is now being widely discussed in Russian discussion boards and media, and worse, it is being actively heated up by certain nationalistic and pro-communist circles. They use the fact of continuing US bases establishments to say that aggression by US and NATO forces is a matter of time, to support their political agendas. Problem is, more and more people buy into it.
Perhaps, it would not be very wise for US now to expand its military presence too close to Russian borders (unless, well, it really is US goal to wipe the Russia off the map some time in the future). The situation is delicate.

[Brilliant]

Bush has not done a good job of developing a trust with the Russians. There were lots of things he could have done that would have been very easy, such as a dramatic increase in economic ties, sharing of military technology, etc.

The Russians have some military technology that we would dearly love to get our hands on, and unlike us, they shoot people who leak it.