Moscow welcomes the participation of the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in improving the Russia-US relations, but this is the matter of Washington, the Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on German media reports that the ex-head of US diplomacy might act as a mediator between Moscow and Washington under US President Donald Trump.
"Kissinger is still one of the wisest politicians, experts who possesses, among other things, the most profound expert knowledge both in the sphere of Russian affairs and in the sphere of Russia-US relations," TASS cited Peskov as saying.
"Of course, if his expert knowledge and the richest experience accumulated over decades somehow come to be needed, we would only welcome this. But, of course, the need for and the use of this experience are not our business as this is the matter of US colleagues and we can’t interfere in this," Peskov said.
The German newspaper Bild earlier cited sources in the team of US President-elect Donald Trump and the data of European special services to report that Kissinger might become a mediator between Moscow and Washington and take part in developing a plan to normalize the situation in Ukraine.
Bild said that Kissinger was among few Americans who had regularly met with the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A member of the European Research Centre of the International Relations Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Olenchenko, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, supported the idea of Kissinger's appointment as chief to restore Washington's contacts with Moscow. "Kissinger has always stood on the sober positions, and it will be a good move. Henry Kissinger, among other things, has a lot of diplomatic experience in searching for common ground between the conflicting parties. In addition, he never spoke aggressively towards Russia, he defended American interests, but recognized the interests of Russia as well," the expert explained.
According to him, the abolition of the anti-Russian US sanctions will become more likely in the case of Kissinger's participation. "In any case, we can hope for some positive movement in this direction. The fact is that Kissinger often visits Moscow, but it is not always covered by the media, because many do not pay attention to him, considering former US statesmen," Vladimir Olenchenko pointed out.
The head of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the Academy of Sciences of Russia, Sergei Oznobishchev, stressed the importance of the skills of interaction between government leaders, which will be facilitated by Henry Kissinger as an intermediary between Trump and Putin. "Kissinger is one of the few major political figures, which have remained influential for both our leadership and Washington. He is a politician, who settled many serious conflicts. Of course, Kissinger is very old, but he is still a real diplomat, who offers real theses to build a compromise between our countries," the analyst noted.
Also, according to him, for Trump, a novice in politics, the cooperation with Kissinger would be extremely beneficial. "Of course, it will not be easy for Trump to do this without support. The elected president will have to fit into the political establishment without serious mistakes. So, yes, it would be nice if Kissinger could join the settlement of our relations in the near future. I think that if there is such a report, his appointment plan is already there," Sergey Oznobischev concluded.
