Meeting between Presidents of Russia and the United States should not be expected in the coming weeks. As Russian President's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with BBC the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump may happen in "the coming months", but there is no specific information on where and when it will be held. It seems Moscow doesn't understand what to expect from the new US President yet.
According to political analyst Dmitry Trenin, who cited his American colleagues, Trump administration may turn out to be some kind of symbiosis between military junta and moneybags from Wall Street: "It's a group of people who can be described as men of action, who specialize in military or financial affairs. But they are not professor, they are not experts, they are not people who came from analytical institutions. They are people who, just like US President, achieve everything through deals, which they usually sign from strong negotiating positions, when it comes to financial and economic sphere, or they are getting what they want from superior position on the battlefield. They are people, who want to achieve their goals and who are not willing to compromise. Their positions are based on simple concepts and interests."
Meanwhile, head of Center for International Security of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations Alexei Arbatov called Trump's statement about sanctions and nuclear disarmament a fantasy of person, who never worked in this sphere: "He has no knowledge about disarmament, and since he was criticized for a series of irresponsible statements on the subject of nuclear weapons in recent weeks, he decided to show that he is soldierlike president. Why did he also tie sanctions to this? It was just a flight of imagination, which knows no boundaries."
According to Arbatov, possible disarmament depends on Russia: "In this regard, Russia can have the initiative - make several realistic proposals on all issues, which caused discord between our countries, and influence the agenda of our future dialogue, rather than simply react to the US proposals. Trump will likely modernize nuclear forces. At the same time, he is ready for quantitative cut, as we can see from his improvisation, but he will support expansion of missile defense program. It's Republican Party's tradition and it impresses people, who don't understand much about this topic. Is it bad to protect your own country from nuclear missiles? If Russia will be flexible in this situation, we can take the next step. If Russia will stand its ground, the negotiations will quickly reach a deadlock and Americans will implement offensive and defensive strategic weapons development program. Then we will have to catch up to them, which will be a huge stress for our budget."
In this context, Arbatov believes difference between republicans and democrats to be fundamental: "Democrats want to make the entire world happy, and they are ready for sacrifices and even concessions. This was Obama's program in all areas - relations with Russia, China, Arabs, Iran. Republicans, on the other hand, want to make the United States happy at the expense of other countries. They don't care about the rest of the world, maybe with a few exceptions, such as Israel. It will be easier to cooperate in those areas, where can separate our interests. They won't make any concessions in disputed issues, they will defend their positions, use favorable resources and supremacy in all areas."
He admitted that Russian leadership likes Trump: "Russia hopes that Trump won't have the ideology of previous president, that he won't impose democracy on us, that he will have business-like approach to all problems. Putin and Obama didn't understand each other. There's a hope that Trump will speak with Moscow in the same language, even if they will have different positions."
