Sanctions should not further separate Russia and the US, effective working groups at the highest level will help to establish interaction, a former employee of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Josh Cohen said in a Reuters publication.
Against the backdrop of new anti-Russian sanctions and the expulsion of US diplomats from Russia, the relations between the two powers are rapidly deteriorating, but history knows examples when the United States and Russia managed to establish cooperation in specific spheres. This was pointed out by Josh Cohen, who previously led economic reform projects in the countries of the former USSR.
Against the backdrop of sanctions, it becomes more and more difficult to fulfill its intention to establish relations with Russia. But it is in the US interest to restart the relationship with a nuclear superpower like Russia. In the 1990s, for the purposes of Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin, the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission was formed. US Vice-President Albert Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed an agreement on the disposal of Russian weapons-grade plutonium and uranium, and agreed to enhance the safety and security of nuclear weapons. And in 2009, Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev created an even more effective commission, which functioned until 2014. Washington stopped its work, thus expressing disagreement with the Crimea’s accession to Russia following the referendum in March 2014. Josh Cohen believes that the US did the right thing, although it contradicted Washington’s interests in the sphere of national security.
Now, the presidents of the two powers, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, may well join forces to work within the framework of a new such commission. But Trump chooses lack of initiative on the background of an investigation into his alleged links with Russia. But Vice President Mike Pence and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev could have taken up such work. For example, if we are talking about nuclear weapons, we can already discuss a new agreement to control it, since the action of the current document ends in February 2021.
The Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could radically change the situation in a positive way. He, together with his American counterpart Jim Mattis, would have been able to resume the frozen military interaction between NATO and Russia. The official channel for military interaction would help to avoid the frequent misunderstandings that have recently become between American and Russian planes in the sky over Europe. In addition, the US and Russia need a joint plan to fight the militants of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” banned in Russia. There is another sphere where security is sometimes bordered on military secrets. It’s about cybersecurity. The US and Russia need to understand the case of alleged interference by “Russian hackers.” In short, American economist Josh Cohen is confident that it is time for the United States and Russia to find a common language and work together.
Western media are serious about the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, for foreigners, including the Middle East mass media and public organizations, he is the main person commenting on Russia’s role in Syria.
The latest news about Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu is related to the conduct of the Army international games, where Russia is currently leading, according to the results of 10 days of competitions. Judging by the comments on the web, the opening ceremony of military competitions impressed not only Russians, but also citizens abroad.
The Finnish edition Savon Sanomat calls the Army games the brainchild of Shoigu and states that the Russian minister understands the importance of publicity. Military expert Pavel Felgenhauer in an interview with the publication said that Shoigu, unlike other ministers in Russia, in fact is a politician.