Russia-America space alliance

Mainly what I was thinking was giving American dollars a political excuse to
do more reasonable things, the Russians would act simply to increase the
amount of stuff that can be done. They would do this by adding their
resources (certainly not $$$$ resources) to America's as well as acting like
a check in a 'balance of power', they would be the snotty little kid that
always tells on you (not that they deserve such an image, but someone needs
to make sure money is spent reasonably.)

I've heard that the Russian space budget is $170 million/year,
approximately. That's less than one STS launch. It's difficult to see
what 'alliance' means in that context, besides a one-way flow of money from
my country (U.S.) to Russia.