Give the Devil his due. Bush may be one of worst presidents in U.S. history, but the fact that relations with Russia have soured is not all his fault.

From The New York Times:

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia expressed hope Saturday that President-elect Barack Obama’s election would improve relations that have soured under President Bush, but he remained unwavering on the issues that have most starkly divided the countries in recent years.

Mr. Medvedev, in Washington for the first time since his election last spring, reiterated Russia’s opposition to the expansion of NATO and vowed that Russia would not reverse its recognition of two separatist regions in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, after the war there in August.

He also repeated his threat, first made the day after Mr. Obama was elected, to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad if the United States moved ahead with plans to build missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. As he did in France on Friday, however, he said he was prepared to hold talks on the issue.

“There is no trust in the Russia-U.S. relations, the trust we need,” Mr. Medvedev said, speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington after participating in the summit meeting on the financial crisis Saturday that brought together the leaders of 20 countries. “Therefore we have great aspirations for the new administration.”

Mr. Medvedev’s remarks, while conciliatory, could put Mr. Obama in a difficult position politically, presenting him with an explicit quid pro quo in the case of missile defense.

Mr. Obama has expressed more tepid support for missile defenses than Mr. Bush, suggesting he would deploy only a proven system rather than proceeding with the construction of radars and other facilities while testing continues. But reversing the program now, after agreements had been negotiated with Poland and the Czech Republic, both NATO allies, could be seen as backing down in the face of Russian threats.
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See also The Washington Post.