It’s interesting to watch the interplay between the US and Russia in the former Communist Bloc states. Not suprisingly, many have sided with the United States, but Russia still holds a great deal of influence in them. This is the sort of article in which one can read the tensions of the past feeding the tensions of the present, and it makes you wonder: are the US and Russia likely to start butting heads again?
My prediction would be that it’s very likely that tensions will get worse before they get better, but a democratic Russia (assuming it stays that way) competing against a democratic United States would not necessarily be a bad thing, as long as it doesn’t involve direct and confrontational military competition.