Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss the renewed debate over the present and future of U.S.-Russian relations. Two competing open letters make the case for or against the status quo, which is increasingly characterized by deep suspicion and rising tension. Is Vladimir Putin to blame? Or do the roots of U.S.-Russian enmity run deeper? Are constructive diplomatic relations impossible so long as Putin is in charge? Or should U.S. policymakers look past Putin’s many offenses in the interest of reducing the risk of conflict? The crew give a special attaboy to Brent Scowcroft, who died earlier this month. Scowcroft was national security advisor to two U.S. presidents and counselor to at least four others. Zack also praises the protesters in Belarus and Melanie gives a special shout out to Polish filmmaker Agniezska Holland for “Mr. Jones,” a film about a young journalist who blew the lid off the Holodomor, the manmade famine in Ukraine which killed millions in the early 1930s.   Links Rose Gottemoeller, Thomas Graham, Fiona Hill, et al, “It’s Time to Rethink Our Russia Policy,” POLITICO, August 5, 2020 David J. Kramer, et al, “No, Now Is Not the Time for Another Russia Reset,” POLITICO, August 11, 2020 Lydia Saad, “Majority of Americans Now Consider Russia a Critical Threat,” Gallup, February 27, 2019 Adam Taylor, “More Russians Are Sure of the U.S. Meddling in Their Politics than the Other Way Around, Poll Finds,” Washington Post, February 7, 2018 Frederick Kempe and Jeffrey Lightfoot, “The Legacy Brent Scowcroft Leaves Behind,” Atlantic Council, August 7, 2020 Jacob Heilbrunn, “A Tribute to Brent Scowcroft,” The National Interest, August 7, 2020 Bartholomew Sparrow and Doyle Hodges, “Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security,” Horns of a Dilemma, August 14, 2020 Josh Rudolph and Thomas Morley, "Covert Foreign Money: Financial Loopholes Exploited by Authoritarians to Fund Political Interference in Democracies," Alliance for Securing Democracy, 2020 Scott Neuman, "Belarus Factory Workers Walk Out, Joining Mass Protests Calling for President to Quit," National Public Radio, August 17, 2020 Robert M. Gates, "The Scowcroft Model," Foreign Affairs, August 13, 2020,  Elizabeth Rosenberg and Jordan Tama, "Strengthening the Economic Arsenal," Center for a New American Security, December 16, 2019 Ryan Goodman and Asha Rangappa, "How Sen. Ron Johnson's Investigation Became an Enabler of Russian Disinformation: Part I," Just Security, August 11, 2020