Murphy is renowned as one of the most vociferous critics of Russia in the Senate. Among his positions on US-Russian relations, Murphy holds that Russia will remain a permanent, persistent threat to the United States and its security interests, regardless of the incumbent regime in the country. At an event at the Atlantic Council in 2019, Murphy professed the need for NATO allies to understand that the country has been always “far behind Russia in understanding our vulnerabilities." At the same event, Murphy echoed the sentiments of Lithuanian and Georgian foreign ministers that Russia's imperialist nature will always put it at odds with the United States, and that little will change until Russia as a "captive state of aggregate territories" changes its nature.