Second Cold War

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2013 G8 summit

Cold War II, also known as the Second Cold War or the New Cold War, is the renewed ongoing tensions, hostilities, and rivalry between the United States and European Union against the Russian Federation led by Vladimir Putin.

The conflict follows 23 years after the first Cold War ended, which was fought between the United States and the Soviet Union and took place over much of the 20th century, finally ending in December 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. These tensions have gradually escalated over the course of the 2010s, and by August 2014, relations between the United States, European Union, and Russia were claimed to have deteriorated to a point "beyond repair," with Russia attempting to counterbalance the West through the creation of a new trading bloc of former Soviet states. Similar to the first Cold War, the crisis has revived the notion of the proxy war, most notably in Syria and in Donbass.

Although not strictly the beginning of the crisis, use of the term "Cold War II" and speculation over its appropriateness grew as tensions between Russia and the West escalated through the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, the Russian involvement in the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an action for which pro-Russian separatists were held responsible. By August 2014, both sides had implemented economic, financial, and diplomatic sanctions upon each other. Russia is temporarily suspended from the G8 following their annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March. As such, the G8 summit originally planned to take place in Sochi, Russia earlier in June was cancelled; instead, an alternative G7 summit was held in Brussels, Belgium, courtesy of the European Union.

See also

• Russia–United States relations
• Russia–European Union relations