In combat operations and military exercises around the world, Russian and American officers and enlisted men are working side-by-side in a way never conceived possible during the Cold War.
A Russian colonel is on the staff of Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, as the commander of the war in Afghanistan plots his moves from Tampa. Russian officers briefed Franks last fall on what they learned in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and when Franks visited Moscow in March, he thanked Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.
A Russian general has served as a deputy to NATO commander Gen. Joseph W. Ralston in Belgium since 1999, responsible for Russian troops assigned to allied forces in Bosnia and Kosovo.
U.S. Special Forces units and Russia's Spetznaz special forces are working together in the Balkans and Afghanistan. The Russians are serving in peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Bosnia and helping with intelligence-gathering and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. In Moscow, Franks specifically mentioned the Russians' help in "some tunnel-clearing operations north of Kabul."
"They've provided some very valuable information for us over the last six months," Air Force Brig. Gen. John W. Rosa Jr., deputy director for operations of the Joint Staff, told reporters last week.
President Bush has repeatedly referred to Russia as an ally when he defends his plans to reduce deployed U.S. strategic nuclear weapons. But little mention is made of the growing relationship between the two countries' conventional armed forces.
Indeed, when Bush and Russian President Vladmir Putin meet in Moscow this month, attention will focus on nuclear arms issues -- such as whether to codify each country's planed missile reductions or how to address the United States' missile defense plans -- as the test of the strength of relations between Washington and Moscow.
But in the view of Leon Arons, a resident scholar on Russian affairs at the American Enterprise Institute, nuclear issues are no longer the most important indicator of the state of U.S.-Russia relations. "We have left behind the core issue of cold war -- nuclear weapons," Arons said, and replaced it with growing military collaboration.
The closer military contacts began in earnest after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the terrorist attacks on the United States accelerated the process, resulting not just in joint efforts to combat al Qaeda but also in Moscow's acceptance of U.S. forces in Central Asian countries that were once Soviet republics. The United States is also helping Georgia reorganize its defense forces as part of the campaign against terrorism.
In Bosnia recently, U.S. Special Forces "liaison teams" patrolled with Russians and helped map out their daily activities. After the success in Bosnia, U.S. teams were paired with Russian paratroopers stationed in Kamenica, in the northwestern corner of Yugoslavia's Kosovo province. One U.S. team lived in a house blocks from the Russians, and troops from the two countries patrolled side-by-side, conducted rifle and mortar practice together and devised strategies for curbing ethnic violence in the town.
Last year, the Americans and Russians also went on several missions together in the hilly region of Kosovo near its border with Macedonia to apprehend Albanian rebels smuggling weapons and fighters to the ethnic Albanian insurgency in the republic.
"Every day, troops from our two countries conduct combined training and execute common missions side-by-side as we continue to strengthen stability in the region," Ralston told the House Armed Services Committee last month.
Ralston, a committed advocate of the new military relationship with Moscow, added, "The shared threat of international terrorism, particularly that propagated by Islamic extremists, offers the chance for further political, diplomatic and potentially military cooperation."
The United States and its allies also are getting to know the Russian military better through regular joint exercises in Europe, Central Asia and the United States.
For two weeks beginning Jan. 22, U.S. and Russian officers carried out an exercise at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. The scenario was that both countries were invited into a fictitious third country so they could jointly defend it against a short-range ballistic missile attack. Participants included the U.S. Joint Staff and the Russian general staff, plus space defense forces of both countries.
Next month, the United States, Russia and Britain will conduct a five-day war game and conference in which the scenario is that the three countries are working together under a United Nations mandate to halt piracy at sea.
NATO analysts say the collaboration has had the additional benefit of spurring a transformation of the Russian military, which through the 1990s largely resisted the kind of post-communist reforms that reshaped other aspects of Russian society.
"The Russian military has been the most hidebound of the institutions of state," NATO Secretary General George Robertson told the Council on Foreign Relations this month. "In many parts of the [Russian] army, the red banner is still used and soldiers call each other comrades."
But Robertson said this is changing, so much so that he expects Russia to be an active participant in future NATO operations. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld echoed the new era in Moscow on Monday, saying the relationship is "different in breadth and dimension" from the past.
NATO next month is expected to approve creation of a new Russia-NATO council in which the two former adversaries would work together on some issues. It would give Moscow a greater say in NATO deliberations than the existing Permanent Joint Council, though it would still preserve the right of NATO's 19 members to act on their own.
Allied officials say that one sign of Moscow's new attitude is that while the Russians once sent intelligence officers to NATO and other multinational meetings, they now send staff officers. And these officers no longer stay by themselves but mix with colleagues from other nations. The Russians also appear more willing to share information about their own limitations. In the past, they would never admit to failures or not having the most modern equipment.
Arons said change was driven by defense budget cuts imposed by former President Boris Yeltsin and by new security policies outlined by Putin, including creation of a professional army and ending the draft.
Not every expert is prepared to say the Russian military has truly changed.
In congressional testimony last month, CIA Director George J. Tenet questioned support of Putin's pro-U.S. policies "particularly within the military and security services."
Tenet credited Putin with seeking to foster change within the Russian military, noting in particular his appointment of Ivanov, a former KGB colleague, to head the Defense Ministry. But, Tenet added, "Public comments by some [Russian] senior military officers indicate that elements of the military doubt that the international situation has changed sufficiently to overcome deeply rooted suspicions of U.S. intentions."
Stephen R. Sestanovich, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former special adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, said the Russian military's traditional resistance to contacts with other military establishments remains.
"If the Russians have finally made a break in the pattern, it would be great," Sestanovich said. He added that he was concerned that in a crisis, "there is a chance senior Russians will speak their minds and it may be old-think, anti-Americanism."
"Reform in the military cannot happen unless the military leadership itself takes ownership," Sestanovich said. "Merely participating in exercises does not show change."
Staff writer Dana Priest contributed to this report.