"There is no room to maneuver in Russian-US relationship"

The maximum result of the yesterday meeting between the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, will be the absence of escalation of tension in the relations between the two countries, Russian political scientists told the correspondents of Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on the results of the first summit of the presidents of the two countries.

"The maximum that can be assumed is the end of the period of escalation of mutual tension, at least until new some serious strategic events happen, which can exacerbate such tension. That is, we should expect after the meeting that the relations have stopped at the present point without further escalation," President of the National Strategy Institute Mikhail Remizov said.

According to the expert, the meeting with Putin will benefit Trump in the domestic political field, but not Russian-US ties. "Trump  gradually strengthens his position. The autumn elections to the Congress will play an important role in his political career. At the same time, there is no room to maneuver in Russian-US relationship. It is clear that Trump is primarily interested in regional deterrence of Iran, including in Syria, and Russia's position is important for him here. In particular, a possible return to Iran's oil embargo will require sanctions against those who buy Iranian oil - and they will expect Russia to compensate the drop-out supplies to the market," Mikhail Remizov said.

"In general, there are a number of positions where the US is interested in Russian assistance. But it is completely incomprehensible what they are ready to offer us in exchange, in addition to the promise not to impose new sanctions," the president of the National Strategy Institute said.

The senior research fellow at the European Research Centre of the International Relations Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Olenchenko, agreed that the most high expectation from this meeting was the very fact of its holding.

"What I think is important: both Trump's opponents and allies in the United States wanted the meeting to be one-off, so that the presidents shook hands and parted - but the presidents came to agreements that dialogue should be conducted, and not only at the level of the heads of state, but also at the level of experts and politicians. Perhaps, it was the main achievement of yesterday's talks," Vladimir Olenchenko estimated.

The expert warned, the West will try to neutralize any positive of this meeting in the coming days. "The main phenomenon that we will observe is the desire of Trump's opponents to devalue the negotiations, to show them as damage to Washington. Today Trump's meeting with Putin is called betrayal of American in US newspapers. Of course, Trump was ready for this, he said before the talks that he will be criticized. Therefore, it is important for Trump to have the courage to confront opponents and make agreements with Russia practical, so that dialogue was developed in all directions," the senior research fellow at the European Research Centre of the International Relations Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences concluded.