Russian reset

On September 17, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. was dropping the Bush administration's plan to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

At the 2015 Munich Security Conference, then-Vice President Joe Biden specified the substantive progress, and setbacks: [...] once we pressed that reset button in 2009, between then and 2012, we achieved a great deal in cooperation with Russia to advance our mutual interests and I would argue the interests of Europe—the New START Treaty that reduced our strategic nuclear arsenal by one-third; a vital supply route for coalition troops in and out of Afghanistan; at the United Nations Security Council, resolutions that pressured North Korea and Iran and made possible serious nuclear discussions in Tehran, which continue as I speak.

Unfortunately, and I mean it when I say unfortunately, as the Chancellor pointed out this morning, President Putin has chosen a different path.As early as the March 2014 censure of Russia by the United Nations over the Russian annexation of Crimea, the reset was described in the press as "failed".

[8] However, Hillary Clinton defended the reset as a "brilliant stroke", pointing to the Russian agreement to sanctions against Iran and permission to fly over its territory to supply joint NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The sanctions had been imposed because of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which Western powers said was the result of a missile fired from Russian-controlled territory.

[12] In April 2015, CNN reported that "Russian hackers had penetrated sensitive parts of the White House computers in recent months."

"[13] In April 2016, two Russian jets flew over the U.S. destroyer USS Donald Cook almost a dozen times, American officials said.