Mr Trenin says that what Russia wants is a buffer zone, with no American military bases or NATO presence.
The U.S. and Russia are not the best partners, Trenin adds, but they are, as he puts it, necessary partners on Syria.
"I think what he did was a revolution in terms of Russia's foreign policy, " says Dmitri Trenin of the Moscow Carnegie Center.
But while they have a common goal, there doesn't seem to be much coordination, says Dmitri Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center.
Dmitry Trenin, head of the Moscow Carnegie Centre, argues that Russian foreign policy under Mr Putin has always been more defensive than offensive.
Putin, says Trenin, was leading his own foreign policy and defence advisers in a new direction, toward full partnership with the U.S. and the West.
"It's not that he wants to be friends with the U.S. for friendship's sake, he does it for Russia's sake -- as he sees it, " Trenin says.
After Mr Medvedev's relatively amicable meeting with Barack Obama a month ago, NATO's actions have caused confusion in Moscow, says Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre.
As Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Centre, has argued, Russia has left the West and is trying to build up its influence in the former Soviet space.
While at the moment, the U.S. and Russia seem to be working at cross purposes on this and other issues, Trenin of the Moscow Carnegie Center says there is one thing that unites them.
Dmitri Trenin, a retired colonel turned pundit, says Russia should accept that its superpower days are over, and try to join countries such as Britain, France and Germany to become another big post-imperial member of the European club.
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