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Most Russians see U.S. relations as a fundamental source of the relationship's problems, in their view, Washington grew too ambitious in the aftermath of the Cold War. It attempted to remake Russia and remake the world according to American preferences and this from the Russian point of view proved to be disastrous.It helped to produce the collapse of the Russian state during the 1990s. It led to destabilizing wars in the Middle East and Central Asia. It produced a long series of punitive sanctions by the U.S. meant to coerce Moscow into submission.And rather than pursuing Gorbachev's bold vision of a common European home that included Russia in the broad security architecture, the U.S. opted to make NATO the foundation for European security, to bring NATO closer to Russia's borders.