After withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States is shifting its military activity to the European direction, in the center of which are Russian-Ukrainian contradictions. In response, Russia for the first time in history put forward a number of stringent demands regarding the non-expansion of NATO to the East. In implementing its anti-Russian policy, the United States runs the risk of underestimating a number of other important international problems, including those in the Middle East, as well as overestimating its own strength. For Russia, a favorable way out of a crisis situation lies not only in the art of diplomacy, but also in the right choice of tools for its policy.