Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 14
By Kamila Aliyeva – Trend:
The contextual and structural factors surrounding US-Russian relations today are more complex than ever before; moreover they are paramount in surmising whether the Tillerson-Lavrov meeting would deescalate tension between US and Russia, Ruchi Anand, Professor of International Relations at the American Graduate School in Paris, told Trend.
“Historically, US and USSR were in a cold war that defined the landscape of a bipolar international relations. At the time, US foreign policy was unified, despite internal differences and divisions of power,” she said.
Expert noted that today situation is different as “internally, US policy towards Russia is fractured between the Trump administration and the rest of the US policy-making establishment, more specifically the Congress.”
This dangerous confrontation makes Kremlin view the former as a potential partner, with the capacity of ushering in improved US-Russia relations, while the latter as deemed opponents, according to Anand.
She recalled that US President Trump recently, and grudgingly, signed into the law what he considers a ‘flawed’ bill, which imposes sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 Presidential elections.
“This bill cannot be unilaterally lifted by the President who views it as ‘limiting the executive flexibility’ to strike good deals with other countries. The way the players on this chessboard are placed presents more chances of mutual disappointment and a possible escalation of the US (Trump-Congress)-Russia drama,” she said.
The hypothetical scenario of improved US-Russian relations is interesting to speculate on, but is quite far from reality, according to the expert.
“Unless the Trump administration and Congress see ‘eye-to-eye’ on the definition of national interest for the United States, their in-house disagreements on crucial players like Russia, as well as amelioration of the critical situations in the Middle East is at best, an illusion, at worst a quagmire,” she said.
“In case relations are improved between US and Russia, which is still in my opinion in the realm of the unachievable, the two powers could work together to exert their collective power and common agendas to lend greater stability to the manner in which the politics are played out,” Anand noted.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a meeting in Manila on Aug. 6. It was the first meeting between the officials, since US imposed a new set of sanctions against Russia on Aug. 2. Both sides vowed for continuation of dialogue in order to improve ties between the two countries.