Caucasus has long been periphery of US foreign policy – Nikolay Silaev

Speaking with Alpha News, Nikolay Silaev, a senior researcher at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, commented on how the US foreign policy towards post-Soviet countries will change after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.

According to the expert, there will be no fundamental changes in US foreign policy towards the Caucasus.

“I believe in the first months they will deal with their domestic policy. Besides, the Caucasus has long been a periphery of American foreign policy—a deep periphery. I would not expect rapid changes here, except maybe one. The pressure on Georgia from the United States is likely to subside. I would not expect any fundamental changes in other directions because the top officials, I mean the new president and the future head of the State Department, will not be able to determine any new policy course soon. For the time being, the people who determine this course now will continue to do it,” the expert said.

When asked how Armenia’s policy will change after the change of power in the US, Silaev said: “What we call Armenia’s policy now is not so much a policy as a rhetoric that ‘we want to go to Europe, Russia is hindering us.’ This is not a policy. So I believe the rhetoric will remain the same. I do not expect any changes.”