The U.S and Russia's short term relationship is very tense. The Syrian civil war is going on right now and Russia (Putin) is selling al-Assad billions of dollars worth of weapons to fight the rebels. But, Obama wants to take military action against Syria because of a recent chemical weapons attack by al-Assad on innocent men,children, and women in a Damascus suburb, killing 1,400 people. Obama hasn't and did not make an air strike on Syria and al-Assad, but instead offered that Syria gives up the rest of its chemical weapons. Putin has agreed to this and al-Assad also has agreed to this deal. Obama is very mad at Putin for continuing to sell these weapons because Obama, obviously wants Syria to become a democracy.

Also, In August Russia offered Edward Snowden  political asylum, meaning Russia well protect Snowden from being sent to the U.S. Edward Snowden is a former N.S.A (National Security Agency) contractor who "blew the whistle" and leaked confidential information about American survelliance programs, America spying on U.S citizens phone calls and texts and emails and using cameras all around the country to spy on everyday citizens.












Source: Upfront Magazine, Oct. 28 issue.

A New Cold War? by Patrica Smith.

With reporting by Peter Baker, Thomas Friedman, and Steven Lee Myers