Russia and US have no positive issues on the agenda, expert says

The recent scandal concerning former CIA contractor Edward Snowden was not the reason for the freeze in US-Russia ties, but only a sign that there are a lot of issues in bilateral relations that have not been solved since the so-called "reset," the head of the US department of the Institute of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Fyodor Voytolovsky, says.

According to the scientist, bilateral relations are indeed in stagnation, but there is no deep crisis in US-Russia ties. He believes that President Barack Obama's decision to cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin should not be considered as something extraordinary.

Voytolovsky says the visit would be useful if the two countries had some positive issues on the agenda. However there are no such issues at the moment, the expert explains. Russia and the United States seem unable to reach a compromise agreement over the US missile defence system in Europe and other unsettled issues.