Jack Matlock on Exploring Russia and Putin's Motives
Reagan's ambassador to the Soviet Union says Russia must be engaged as a world power
Jack Matlock, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union and a current Rubenstein Fellow at Duke University, discusses Russia’s motivations for hacking Democratic National Committee emails in the months prior to the 2016 US presidential election. His comments came during a conversation with Duke Today about Russia.
Read more about Matlock’s experiences working with President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War, and about his current teaching work at Duke, here in the cover story of the current edition of Duke Magazine. In the story, Matlock says Russia's interests may not always coincide with those of the United States, but the two countries need to retain closer diplomatic relations.
He adds America and the West made a mistake in treating the end of the Cold War as a victory in which they defeated the Soviet Union. In fact, it was a victory for all parties involved.
“The breakup of the Soviet Union along with the demise of communism was seen as a victory for the West. Liberal democracy was seen as the future of the world, the proper path forward for every country. I’ve never heard a more absurd non sequitur.”
Read more here.