Washington and Moscow .. Convergence in views over Syria and instability in other files

The US-Russian relationships are in a state of instability. As soon as President Donald Trump imposes economic sanctions on Russia, he confirms his support for its return to the  Group of Eight(G8). While the two countries converge in their views regarding  Syria, except for the dispute over the presence of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in power.

In this regard, senior adviser to Gulf State Analytics Dr.Theodore Karasik has told North-Press  that the Russian-US rapprochement and  the focus on resolving several issues will be a key goal in the next presidential term.

“The rapprochement over the Syrian issue is closer than ever, because of common visions of the two administrations except the dispute over Bashar al-Assad being in power, which isn’t a matter of a great importance to the Trump administration in the Syrian file.”

Moreover, Karasik considers  the visit of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russia as related  to the entire US-Russian scene in Syria, where Erdogan is counting on arms deals with Russia to achieve his interests in front of Turkey’s feeling that Russia has the Syrian territories and has the ability to achieve its goals in it as well. Turkish President Erdogan will prepare a military offer with his Russian counterpart Putin during which new arms deals are expected to be discussed, but they will not lead to a radical change in terms of the US-Russian ambition for an unprecedented rapprochement under Trump.

The administration of US President Donald Trump imposed on Monday  new economic sanctions on Russia over the 2018 case  where the former Russian military officer and double agent for the UK’s intelligence services agent Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia Skripal, were poisoned in Salisbury, England.

“The Russian government has used chemical weapons in violation of international law or lethal chemical weapons against its citizens,” the US administration said in a statement released on Monday. The charges were denied by the Russian government.

The new sanctions, which came into effect today, impose restrictions on the circulation of Russian sovereign bonds, commercial transactions and bank loans to Russian government institutions.

Nevertheless,  it is also striking that the White House has exempted Russia from sanctions related to aviation safety and space exploration technology, which were canceled by the US administration after it was part of the new sanctions.

The US Department of State confirmed that products related to the mentioned sector will not be subject to any sanctions or export bans.

Furthermore, the senior adviser to Gulf State Analytics Dr.Theodore Karasik has told North-Press that what the US administration is doing is the minimum sanctions foreseen against Russia, where the administration punishes Russia because of a strong anti-Russian political speech in Washington on one hand,  but the exemptions indicate that Trump continues to convince himself that there is a need for coordination with Russia on the other hand, and that the two countries are far from adversarial.

“The US sanctions regarding Skripal case are way  less than what Britain expects  or wants,” Karasik said.

Karasik believes that Russia understands this US political tactic that precedes the next presidential elections, and that the two sides are ready to converge regarding the files related to the Middle East, China, Libya and Yemen.