Trust, But Verify

We have to thank the Russians for the expression, ‘trust but verify’ (doveryai, no proveryai). Suzanne Massie, a scholar of Russian history, taught it to Ronald Reagan while he was president. He then used it to talk about nuclear disarmament discussions with the Soviet Union. Since then, it has been used extensively in many geopolitical contexts, especially those related to security, where you provide the carrot (we trust you), then the stick (no, we don’t). Long before it became an English prov