By Andrey Kortunov, Ph.D. in History, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, RIAC member
For years, Russian-American relations seemed to be in an irreversible coma. Diplomacy was dead, overtaken by hostility, sanctions, and a growing risk of military confrontation. Many insisted that nothing could break this trajectory — Moscow and the Washington were locked into an unchangeable course of conflict.
Yet today, the pace of change is astonishing. The recent high-level meeting between Russian and American officials in Riyadh, followed by Donald Trump’s latest statements, suggests that nothing in geopolitics is predetermined.
This turn of events brings to mind an iconic scene from Terminator 2, in which Sarah Connor carves “No fate” into a wooden table. Her son, John, expands on the thought: “There is no fate except the one we make for ourselves.” The message is clear — our future is shaped by choices, not by destiny.
