Despite sanctions and a blow to Syria, Putin wants to improve relations with Trump

After US sanctions had a negative impact on the Russian economy, and air strikes in Syria created the threat of the first direct clash between nuclear superpowers since the cold war, Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking for ways to reduce the tension between him and his American counterpart Donald Trump.

Photo: Kremlin press service

This edition writes Bloomberg with reference to its sources.

According to four people familiar with the situation, the Russian leader wants to give Trump another chance to improve relations between Moscow and Washington and avoid escalation. One of them said that the Kremlin ordered officials to curb their anti-American rhetoric.

Sources added that it was exactly on the decision of Putin that 16 of April in the Duma unexpectedly refused to consider a bill that would impose extensive counter-sanctions on American companies.

“Putin is ready to make numerous, deep concessions, but it must look as if he is not losing. He understands that Russia cannot economically compete with the West, and he does not plan to go to war with the West,” said Igor Bunin, president of the Center for Political Technologies Foundation.

A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that on April 10, the Trump administration notified the Russian embassy in Washington that no new sanctions were planned to be imposed on Russia in the near future.

Deripaska, “RUSAL”

The Kremlin still faces the economic fallout from US sanctions imposed four years ago over the conflict in Ukraine. The latest wave of sanctions hit one of the country's most influential businessmen, billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Shares of its aluminum giant Rusal fell by about 70%, which resulted in a loss of about 6 billion in company value and put 100 000 jobs at risk, and Russia is in the process of its longest recession in two decades. And Putin, who will soon take the oath of the president once again, is trying to avoid another company taking similar fate.

But it may be too late to reverse the downward spiral of relations between countries that have deteriorated over the past decade. While Trump is open to improving relations, Congress and most of his administration intend to continue to pressure the country, which many consider to be the enemy of America No. 1, after it became known that Russia intervened in the US presidential election in 2016.

Response delayed

Nevertheless, the Kremlin decided to abandon further escalation. 16 of April was rejected a bill that would restrict access to Russia for a wide range of goods from the United States: from agricultural products to medicines, as well as aviation and space products. One of the most outspoken critics of the Pentagon, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, said that the proposed ban on the sale of rocket engines "will harm Russia more than the United States" because of Moscow’s dependence on US contracts.

Even before the US attack in Syria, the Kremlin asked officials to soften their statements about retaliation to Washington. But the Russian ambassador to Lebanon did not seem to have heard this request. In an interview with a local television station, he said that Russia would not hesitate to bring down all the missiles and attack any platforms from which they were launched, if its troops were threatened. According to one official, the Kremlin was furious after this interview.

According to American sources, Trump can do little to overcome the entrenched anti-Russian sentiment among the Washington establishment, which is determined to maintain global domination at any cost.

Waves of expulsions of Russian diplomats from several countries around the world, including the United States, accelerated the deterioration of relations between the two countries.

Nevertheless, officials express the hope that Trump will be able to stop the tendency of deterioration in relations between Russia and the United States, especially after he promised to organize a personal meeting with Putin, congratulating him on his re-election. But given the current political climate in the United States, it is unlikely that any concession that Putin can offer will be sufficient to cause a real thaw.

Many areas of tension remain, including about Russian interference in US elections and other forms of online aggression.

This week, US and UK officials issued a joint warning about what they called the intensification of Russian exposure to corporate and government computers in Western countries.

“Russia is our most capable adversary in cyberspace,” Ciaran Martin, chief executive of the British Cyber ​​Security Center, said in the message.

The warning included advice to companies on how to protect themselves from several types of cyber attacks that Russia uses.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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A strike on Syria: what is the difference between the versions of Russia and the USA

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