By: Natalia Antipova, Vasiliy Voropaev
Ilya Ponomarev, deputy in the Russian State Duma and one of the participants in the meeting with the US president:
“The most important outcome of US President Barack Obama’s visit to Russia, I would say, was him learning more about Russia than the former American administration ever knew. He showed a desire to examine what is actually happening in Russia. I think that America won’t act with its eyes closed, but more intelligibly and with a clear understanding of their actions. US politics will undergo many changes compared to the prior administration, notwithstanding those opinions that the Obama administration might have.
But we shouldn’t talk about any radical changes in US-Russian relations, especially because Obama, when I spoke with him, warned against any illusions and high expectations, saying that any changes will be very gradual but deep and meaningful. There will no longer be the ideological stereotypes that were pushed forward by the neoconservatives in the former administration. The rest depends on us – whether or not we’ll be able to transform the dialogue into concrete actions.”
Alexei Arbatov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and head of the Center for International Security of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO):
“I would not say that this was a big development or that we reached new horizons. But an important step has been taken toward restoring relations, which were practically destroyed by August of last year. I think that now our relations can be built only on the basis of mutual interests. This important yet fairly modest step has benefited both sides.”
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs:
“The main result is a change in the climate of relations. By the fall of last year, our mutual trust had fallen to the level of the early 1980s, to the times of Reagan. This was unnatural for the year 2008. Now, our working relations are more or less restored. That is not a guarantee that the mechanism will continue working by the clock, but at least it did begin working. It’s quite a significant result. Both delegations, both presidents, publically and privately said that the climate of the dialogue was very favorable. That is already not bad.”
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