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THE UNITED STATES and Russia have descended to a new low point in relations, with waves of sanctions and escalating retaliation. Twenty-five years after the Cold War ended, relations are back in a deep freeze. What happened?

The current tension did not come about because the United States suddenly wanted its old adversary back. What happened is a response to bad choices taken by President Vladimir Putin of Russia. These choices were made deliberately in Moscow, perhaps for Mr. Putin’s own reasons of domestic politics and foreign policy. They are the main reason for the tension that now exists.

Mr. Putin chose to seize Crimea from Ukraine, annex it and then instigate an armed insurrection in southeastern Ukraine in 2014, violating all post-World War II norms of national sovereignty. The war in the Donbas region was a tactic by Mr. Putin to inject further instability into Ukraine after Ukraine’s president, Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych, fled his palace in the face of mass protest. Mr. Putin was aggrieved at Ukraine’s decision to sign a pact with the European Union, but Ukraine is not a vassal of Russia, and Mr. Putin’s claims to a sphere of influence are untenable. The sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe were a response to Mr. Putin’s ill-considered impulse to use violence as a tool of intimidation and coercion.

Another poor and deliberate choice was to interfere with the U.S. election campaign. Mr. Putin cannot escape responsibility for Russian attempts to damage the candidacy of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and, perhaps, tilt the election to Donald Trump. We know that Mr. Putin seethed over Ms. Clinton’s outspoken support for the principle of free speech during the 2011-2013 protests against him, but he is altogether wrong to think the United States engineered the unrest. Mr. Putin and his aides cynically deny they attempted to interfere in the U.S. election, but surely they know exactly what occurred and how.

Mr. Putin’s choices have been costly for Russia, its economy and its people.

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Millions of people, both civilians and military personnel, lost their lives in Korea, Vietnam and in other parts of the world where United States and Soviet Union proxy wars took place. Russia was left with a devastated economy that forced the country to cut military spending and threw it into a recession. Economic and social tensions soared for years after the Cold War ended and because so many nuclear weapons were stockpiled during the war, the chances of an intentional or accidental nuclear strike were dramatically increased.

At the beginning of the Cold War, there were two superpowers, the U.S. and Russia. By the end of the war, only one superpower remained, the U.S. Russia had to dismantle most of its military and close down military production facilities and bases throughout the country. This caused millions of people to become unemployed, furthering Russia's financial crisis.

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What were some of the effects of the Cold War?

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What were some of the effects of the Cold War?

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In retrospect everything about the cold war’s ending can appear deceptively simple. The Soviet economy could not keep up with that of the United States or, indeed, with the fast-developing market economies in Asia. Thus it was left with no alternative but to undertake fundamental reform. Ronald Reagan’s support for greatly increased American military spending, not least on his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), forced the Soviet Union to admit defeat and to pursue a concessionary foreign policy. Victory went to the side with the greater economic and military strength, and President Reagan, having the stronger cards at his disposal, played them well.

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On August 29th, 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. This event ends America's monopoly of atomic weaponry and launches the Cold War. In the 1950's, The Arms Race became the focus of the Cold War. America tested the first Hydrogen (or thermo-nuclear) bomb in 1952, beating the Russians in the creation of the "Super Bomb".The political climate of the Cold war became more defined in January, 1954, when U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced the policy that came to be known as "massive retaliation" -- any major Soviet attack would be met with a massive nuclear response. As a result to the challenge of "massive retaliation" came the most significant by-product of the Cold War, the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).

The ICBM's were supported with the thermo-nuclear bomb (with a much greater destructive power than the original atomic bomb), inertial guidance systems
and powerful booster engines for multistage rockets. As a result, ballistic missiles became sufficiently accurate and powerful to destroy targets 8000 km (5000 mi) away. For more than thirty years, the ICBM has been the symbol of the United States' strategic nuclear arsenal.

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The United States and the Soviet Union also tried to fight the Cold War by demonstrating their power and technology. One example of this was the Arms Race where each side tried to have the best weapons and the most nuclear bombs. The idea was that a large stockpile of weapons would deter the other side from ever attacking. Another example was the Space Race, where each side tried to show that it had the better scientists and technology by accomplishing certain space missions first.

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The Korean War was fought between South Korea and communist North Korea. It was the first major conflict of the Cold War as the Soviet Union supported North Korea and the United States supported South Korea. The war ended with little resolution. The countries are still divided today and North Korea is still ruled by a communist regime.

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The Soviet Afghanistan War was fought between Afghanistan rebels called the Mujahideen and the Soviet supported Afghanistan government. The United States supported the Afghanistan rebels in order to try and overthrow the communist government and to prevent the spread of communism.

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The Vietnam War was fought between communist North Vietnam and the government of Southern Vietnam. The North was supported by communist countries such as the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The South was supported by anti-communist countries, primarily the United States. The United States lost the Vietnam War. It lasted for twenty years, something the US never expected when it joined in the fight. Not only did the US lose the war and the country of Vietnam to the communists, the US lost prestige in the eyes of the world.

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The Cold War was often fought between the superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union in something called a proxy war. These wars were  fought between other countries, but with each side getting support from a different superpower. Examples of proxy wars include the Korean War, the Vietnam War
and the Soviet Afghanistan War.

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The Cold War was a long period of tension between the democracies of the Western World and the communist countries of Eastern Europe. The west was led by the United States and Eastern Europe was led by the Soviet Union. These two countries became known as superpowers. Although the two superpowers never officially declared war on each other, they fought indirectly in proxy wars, the arms race, and the space race.

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What countries was the Cold war between?

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What countries was the Cold war between?

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Most of the countries on the other side were allied in the Warsaw Pact :
U.S.S.R. and Satellite States(Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary Bulgaria)

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The countries on one side were allied in NATO( North Atlantic Treaty Organization ):
Americans, North Atlantic Forces(NAF: Canada, UK, Portugal, Iceland), Western Front Forces(WFF: West Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway), France, Italy, and Eastern Front Forces(EFF:Greece and Turkey)

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The Cold War was called "Cold" because the two superpowers never officially declared war on each other, they fought indirectly in proxy wars.  It didn't turn "hot"

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What were the Main  causes of the Cold War?

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What were the Main  causes of the Cold War?

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2. Aims

Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany, and a ‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the USSR from being invaded again.

Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy, and help Germany to recover.   They were worried that large areas of eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control.

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1.  What they believed ('Ideologies')

The Soviet Union was a Communist country, which was ruled by a dictator and put the needs of the state ahead of personal human rights.

The USA was a capitalist democracy which valued freedom and feared Communism.

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3.  Resentment about History

The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918 Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution.

Britain and the USA could not forget that Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.