United States basically abandoned the policy of isolating Russia, which was confirmed by today's meeting of the Presidents, Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin, at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, the director general of the Institute for Caspian Cooperation, political scientist Sergey Mikheyev, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on the results of talks between Obama and Putin.
Recall that earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "the meeting lasted longer than planned. (The two presidents) discussed, above all, Syria and Ukraine."
In turn, Barack Obama said that the negotiations were held in "business tone". "Usually our meetings with Putin are held in an open, honest, business tone, and this was no exception".
According to Sergey Mikheyev, without meaningful details of the meeting, it is important to look at circumstances, under which it was held. "What's interesting here is that, as it turns out, there is no insulation. If the US President himself asks for a meeting with Russian President, it means that the isolation, which is ofter mentioned by Western people and their friends, does not exist. Overall, G20 summit clearly showed that there is no point to talk about political isolation. Before this meeting, Putin met with Shinzo Abe in Vladivostok, with Theresa May in China, and now meets with Barack Obama," the expert explained.
At the same time, it is too earlier to make any conclusions about how it will affect the US-Russian contacts in the future based on vague information. "The press services report that the talks were "good", but we don't understand yet what exactly does it mean. We should not expect anything special at the moment," he believes.
In addition, Mikheyev noted that "we should not forget about the upcoming presidential elections in the United States, which don't allow to confidently predict how will the relations between Moscow and Washington develop in the medium and long term. "It all depends on who will come to power in the United States and what how will he develop relations with Russia," he concluded.
