I totally agree! Our country hasn't always been very progressive. One of our ideals of freedom of speech wasn't applicable to everyone for decades, but now it is. So, why can't Russia have the option to progress like we did? Ignoring Russia or treating them any lesser will not solve the issues that we have with them being authoritarian or with their ideals. We can see in our own history of slavery that treating others like they are lesser will not have good outcomes. If we partner with Russia now then we can take a step towards the right direction of being cooperative and having a more peaceful world.

If we work closely with Russia and help them become more stable and peaceful then we could cooperate with them against terrorism like we've done before. When 9/11 happened, Russia came into help by offering intelligence information on infrastructure, location, and training of international terrorists when we were prepared to attack Al Qaeda later on.

Russia is not the only authoritarian state in the world. The U.S. works with other states that are authoritarian such as China, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. These nations aren't democratic and don't give their people human rights, but we still are allies with them. We are strong allies with Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The U.S. have great trading with Saudi Arabia, and in 2018 it totaled to $48.1 billion which is way more than the $5.8 billion in Russia in 2016. If we became better partners with Russia like we did with Saudi Arabia, China, and Jordan we could increase trading. Why would we have an issue with Russia not being democratic and not respecting human rights if we already have plenty of allies that do it already.

If the U.S. wants Russia to be more democratic or more economically stable or have better trading with them, we need to first open our arms and make Russia a partner. Even though the U.S. and Russia don't have similar governments and Russia isn't very democratic, the U.S. has worked with other countries that aren't democratic at all. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have a strong economic relationship and Saudi Arabia is even one of the U.S.'s largest trading partners in the Middle East. However, Saudi Arabia is the 7th most authoritarian regime out of the ones rated. So, the U.S. can work well with governments that don't value democracy.