Inflated expectations from US-Russia talks are hardly justified – Andrey Areshev

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian political scientist and expert at the Political Culture Foundation Andrey Areshev commented on the crisis in Baku-Moscow relations, as well as the talks between the US and Russia.

According to the expert, no surprises are excluded in relations between Baku and Moscow.

“Moscow’s position is that it is necessary to wait for the investigation into the unfortunate incident with the crash of the Azerbaijani plane to be completed. Let’s see how the situation develops further. It seems to me that contradictory tendencies will interact here. On the one hand, there is willingness to resolve the misunderstandings that have arisen between Moscow and Baku, for example, in the energy sector. But on the other hand, we understand that there are also enough forces that seek to complicate the situation. And judging by some of the information messages that we have been observing in recent days, in particular those related to the Sputnik Azerbaijan agency, we can assume that this situation will remain on the agenda and no surprises are excluded,” Areshev said.

According to the political scientist, the negative trend in Russia-US relations has quite serious inertia, so expectations from the talks between the US and Russia should not be so high.

“The US-Russia talks are indeed developing, the first round took place in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps we will see some other negotiations soon. But it seems to me that any inflated expectations are hardly justified, because the negative trend in Russia-US relations has gained quite serious momentum. And now we see attempts by the Trump administration and the American president personally to implement the economic interests of the US. But whether this will be possible or not is a big question, because in addition to the United States and Russia, there are other players who will try to influence in one way or another, and it is not a fact that they will influence positively,” Areshev said.

“I believe the stabilization of the situation on the fronts of the former Ukrainian SSR, which we all hope for, is intended to bring some order, including to the process in the South Caucasus, which is currently developing quite chaotically and turbulently,” Areshev concluded.